Prayer to the Holy Martyr Joseph, First Metropolitan of Astrakhan and Tersk

O sacred head, most glorious wonderworker, to the first pastor of the holy Astrakhan Church, Saint Father Joseph! We fall down and pray to you, humble and sinful ones, and as we ask the father who loves children: plant in our hearts the love that you were filled with for God and your neighbors during your earthly life, as you also laid down your soul when you suffered as a martyr. Teach us, Father, to imitate you faithfully, to love God and our neighbors sincerely, and to fulfill the Lord’s commandments infallibly, so that we too may be children of God, not in name only, but also in our deeds and in our whole life. Look kindly upon every Christian soul that seeks mercy and help from you. Wake up to all of us in pain as a healer, in sorrow as a comforter, in sorrow as a deliverer, in trouble as a helper, in the hour of death as a patron, so that through the prayers of your saints we sinners may also receive eternal salvation and inherit the Kingdom of heaven. To her, the prelate of Christ, do not put to shame our hope, which, according to the Lord and the Most Holy Theotokos, we place firmly in thee, but show us much-powerful intercession, so that we may praise, glorify, and magnify the love of the wondrous God in Our saints, the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit, to the ages of ages. Amen.