I have a Saint Jude statue that I’d purchased a couple of years ago on the EWTN site in their Religious Catalogue section. I was going to take a picture of it and include it in this post but since it’s been raining all day and really quite dark, I wasn’t confident that the picture would come out okay and so I figured I’d just use another image instead.
There is a small drawer at the foot of the statue which holds a tiny piece of paper with the prayer to Saint Jude written on it. I keep the statue on my dresser and the other day I noticed that the drawer was open a crack. It prompted me to keep my promise to Saint Jude from months and months ago that I would dedicate a blog post to him at some point. Better late than never! You see, I’d been praying the Saint Jude Novena at that time and had promised publication once the novena had ended. (But I intentionally kept my time frame for the promise flexible.)
There are several variations of this prayer, which can also be said as a novena. The prayer that accompanies my statue is as follows:
St. Jude
O glorious Apostle St. Jude, true relative of Jesus and Mary, I salute you through the Most Sacred Heart of Jesus. Through this Heart, I praise and thank God for all the graces He has bestowed upon you. Humbly prostrate before you, I implore you through this Heart to look down upon me with compassion. Despise not my poor prayer and let not my trust be in vain. To you has been assigned the privilege of aiding mankind in the most desperate cases. Oh, come to my aid that I may praise the mercies of God. All my life I will be grateful to you and will be your faithful client until I can thank you in Heaven. Amen.
Saint Jude Thaddeus – Patron Saint of Desperate Cases
Saint Jude Thaddeus is a relative of Jesus and one of the 12 Apostles. (Not to be mistaken for Judas Iscariot, the Apostle who betrayed Jesus.) Saint Jude’s Feast Day is October 28th and he is known as the Patron Saint of Desperate Cases. Photos and images of Saint Jude Thaddeus will often show him dressed in green and white and holding a golden metal pendant of the face of Jesus which is a reminder that each of us is to bring Jesus to others. In some images of Saint Jude (such as my statue), there is a small flame on the top of his head, signifying the Holy Spirit coming upon him in tongues of fire at Pentecost. (Acts 2:3)
Saint Jude is invoked in desperate situations because his New Testament letter emphasizes the fact that the faithful should persevere in the face of difficult circumstances, in the way that their forefathers had done before them. It is also said that he is perhaps most popularly known as the patron of “desperate cases” because due to Christian tradition, many early Christians were confused between Jude and Judas Iscariot. Because they didn’t understand the difference between the names, they never prayed for Jude’s help, which caused devotion to him to become something of a lost cause.
Saint Jude is called upon when all hope is lost, especially in serious health situations and life-and-death matters. It is customary to make a vow that if he helps when called upon, the person who sought his help will publish a notice of thanks in the newspaper, (or elsewhere.) This magnifies his name and provides hope to those who read the notice as they realize that they, too, can invoke the aid of Saint Jude in order to receive the help that they desperately need.
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Hello, my name is Margo. When I was 23 years old and working as a part-time nanny in New York City I had the pleasure of caring for a little 5-year-old boy named Alexander. One day I had been overcome with sadness and in a weak moment, I found myself confiding to this little boy about a friend I couldn't find because he was lost. Alexander, quickly responded without missing a beat, “Follow a trail!” [
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I think we should all be talking to St. Jude about our country………….
Please pray for my son in law. Presently he left my daughter for Kesia with 2 children and she has a boyfriend. I believe she did evil to get him. Every time we try to get him out she pulls him back please pray some very powerful warfare prayers. When we get him out he would tell my daughter how much he loves her and wants to be with her. Pray for my daughter and her spouse to reunite as one body in christ
David is deeply depressedHe. It is crippling him. He can not seem to get out of it. Healing and happiness For David
ee
David is feeling hopeless about work. He is isolated and in conflict with everyone. He is having sucicidal thoughts althoug he says he will not act on them, He has lost all faith.
He needs a miracle
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Please pray for my specials intentions St.Jude. I am in desperate need of help. Thank you in advance for favors granted and your loving intercession.
I hope I’m not being rude or rash, but sometimes I wonder why prayers go unanswered. I know all the jokes – watch out what you wish for, etc., and all the consolations, like, “God knows what’s best for you, so even if it doesn’t seem like….” you know the rest. But here’s another thing to consider. Everybody wants God to hear him, but do we hear God? Will God hear our prayers if we are living in a state of sin, or obstinacy, or selfishness? Suppose a woman found out that her spouse was being unfaithful. He sends her flowers and she throws them out the door. Can you blame her? So it may be similar with God. (if I’ve interpreted this passage correctly) Isaiah indicates this when he writes: (chapter 64)
You come to the help of those who gladly do right,
who remember your ways.
But when we continued to sin against them,
you were angry.
How then can we be saved?
6 All of us have become like one who is unclean,
and all our righteous acts are like filthy rags;
we all shrivel up like a leaf,
and like the wind our sins sweep us away.
So, like the flowers, our righteous acts become like filthy rags, because we have been unfaithful to God.
Again, I’m not preaching to anyone, but it looks like it’s a two way street. So while we continue to pray, I think we all should also to find out what continues to separate us from God, if anything. I’m not trying to pile guilt on anyone, but we have to be fair.
Hi Bryan;
Sorry I’m back reading and thought it prudent to respond to your question. Prayer response is certainly a very common question among Christians. It comes up a lot in small group. It is by far too large of a question to address in a reply here. So I will simply put forth a few suggestions that seem to help people wrap their heads around prayer.
1) Get a prayer journal. Every time you pray for something specific right it down, what you prayed for, the date and time, and leave a column for the response time. I think your comment about us being shrouded by sin is partially correct in that sometime we don’t see the answers and often take credit for the result. Keeping a journal helps me and others I know give credit where credit is due.
2) Always start prayer with gratitude(thank God) and praise for what you have, your love for His Son.
3) Isaiah, Old Testament.. We are Saved by no work, or deed we do, Salvation is through faith in Christ Jesus [Romans:10]. We are saved by the Grace (which is a gift not earned).
Mercy = Not getting what we deserve.
Grace = Is getting what we don’t deserve.
Old Testament is old law, and while very important in understanding our walk with Jesus, can often lead to “what do I have to do to be saved” and the answer is commit your life to Jesus, that’s it no works will earn Grace. Works are important, as that’s why we are here, but they can not earn you salvation.
4) which relates to 1 and 2. My good friend of 20 years, godfather to my children and generally my “Paul” often notice people in hard time pray for things.. then months or years later it’s “I did this, and I did that, to turn my life around” with absolutely no praise to God. I often look back over my life and can not find any other answer than God working his miracles in my life and those around me.
I did my evaluation for the past year(which has been both extremely hard and absolutely amazing all at once) God graced me with some understanding to his plan for the past year and connected a few dots for me. It is, for my family and I one of the biggest blessings to see. Not only was God caring for my family and me, but he was protecting our church(which I’m heavily involved in) and others around us all at the same time.
Many times I find my self talking with Jesus and saying. “I don’t understand” and the answer is always.. “I know, but there is no way for you to understand so trust Me”,
If you have committed yourself to Christ hold fast that he will never abandon you.
On a side note I’m in the process of writing the last year out in an article, when it’s done I’ll send it to Margo, and she may post it here if she so wishes. I think it’s an amazing vision of how God works in our lives.
A great example though of how prayers work; Look into George Washington Carver’s aut0biography.
With much Love, and Blessings
Ryan
@Ryan – I’m familiar with your tactic of declaring some sort of agreement with me and using it as a wedge to promote your heresies. Let’s get one thing straight. Faith without good works is dead, as the body is dead without the soul. No Catholic writer ever said, (and if you can find me one passage, I’ll send you $100) that good works alone are sufficient for salvation. The Catholic Church has always taught that faith and good works are necessary for salvation. It was Luther who split faith from good works and said faith alone was sufficient. It is an utter slander to say that Catholics believe in salvation by works alone. Perhaps when most Protestants realized that faith alone was a ridiculous and unbiblical doctrine, rather than go back to the Church, they invented the story of Catholics teaching “works alone”. I have no idea where that came from. So do your research, admit your error, and before making any additional comments, apologize to the group for your calumnies. And I believe I asked you this before – if you are an ex-Catholic, then leave the Church completely. Get off the front steps. I know that “being saved” results in a boring life, but that was your choice to abandon St. Paul’s advice to “work out your salvation with fear and trembling”.
I will also remind you again, that this is primarily a rosary web site for Catholics. We are not remotely interested in Protestant doctrine.
(“Get a prayer journal” – what a laugh. And if you trusted Jesus as you say you do, you would have taken Him for his word when he said, “Amen, amen I say unto you: Except you eat the flesh of the Son of man, and drink his blood, you shall not have life in you.)
@Bryan;
Let me first start by saying, if I have offended you or anyone else here that was certainly not my intent. I have the up most respect for Catholics, Catholic Teachings and their position. If I have not represented myself or my comments in that way please accept my sincerest apologies.
Secondly I think you may be remembering a conversation with someone else. When I first posted on this site I stated very clearly that I was not Catholic, to Clarify I never have been. I’m non-dom. for reasons I will not go into here.
Most importantly, I could really use $100 right now, but sadly I could not meet that challenge, since I do not believe nor have seen any evidence to suggest that Catholic Teach salvation through works alone. That is simply not true.
I try to learn about other faiths through the source rather than what others say in fact I’m here for that very reason, trying to get an understanding.
So that being said, and so that it’s clear. “The Catholic Church does not teach salvation by works alone if my wording suggests otherwise please except my apology. “
I would never steer anyone away from their church, in fact if you contacted me and said. ”wow what you said hit home; I think I’m going to leave the church.” I would suggest that you go talk to your priest out of concern for your spiritual well being.
As to the rest of the comments I’ll simply chalk that up to a misunderstanding. As you said this is hardly a debate site. If Margo wishes I will stop commenting on her blog that’s entirely up to her.
With much Love, and Blessings
Ryan
@Ryan – Apologies accepted. Please consult the Catholic Catechism which will outline our entire body of beliefs. We are the only religion that produces such an elaborate and public statement about our doctrines and practices. You may say, “I believe the Bible”, but you must first believe in God to believe in a Bible, so your religion is much broader than you may know. If the Bible did not exist the Catholic Church would be no different; we pre-existed the Bible by 350 years, and most Christians on earth didn’t have access to one until modern times. In a way, you could say that the Church was built “without even looking”. To quote Fr. Arnold Damien: “Christ did not say, “Sit down and write Bibles and scatter them over the earth, and let every man read his Bible and judge for himself.” If Christ had said that, there would never have been a Christianity on the earth at all, but a Babylon and confusion instead, and never one Church, the union of one body. Hence, Christ never said to His Apostles, “Go and write Bibles and distribute them, and let everyone judge for himself.” That injunction was reserved for the Sixteenth Century, and we have seen the result of it. Ever since the Sixteenth Century there have been springing up religion upon religion, and churches upon churches, all fighting and quarreling with one another. And all because of private interpretation of the Bible.”
If you think I was harsh, it is because there is a vast difference between Catholics and Protestants. Protestantism, and all its offshoots, is in a dying state, and I wish I could never hear of it again. My duty is to submit to the Church founded by Jesus Christ, not to toy with its doctrines, and readjust them every couple of months. So again, if I sounded harsh, that’s why.
Hello Bryan;
Thank first of for recognizing that my apology was genuine and accepting it with grace and understanding. I feel you truly took the time to read my words and take them as I meant them. If more of us could conduct ourselves in such a manner the barriers put in place by our own design could begin to die.
As to being harsh, I took no offense. I was taken back a bit but truly did understand your position as best as I could without knowing you better.
I look forward to corresponding with you more in the future.
With love and blessings.
Ryan
St. Jude, glorious apostle, faithful servant and friend of Jesus, the name of the traitor has caused you to be forgotten by many. But the Church honors and invokes you universally as the patron of difficult and desperate cases. Pray for me who am so miserable. Make use, I implore you, of that particular privilege accorded to you to bring visible and speedy help where help was almost despaired of. Come to my assistance in this great need that I may receive the consolation and help of heaven in all my necessities, tribulations and sufferings, particularly — (here make your request) — and that I may praise God with you and all the elect throughout all eternity.
I promise you, 0 blessed JUDE, to be ever mindful of this great favor. I will honor you as my special and powerful patron and encourage devotion to you.
St. Jude, pray for us and for all who honor and invoke your aid.
Hevenly Father,thank you for answering my prayers. St.Jude, thank you for interceeding on my behalf and for favors granted. I always encourage devotion to you.
thank you St. Jude for answering my prayers. You have never let me down.