St. Jude, pray for us!

Today (October 28th) is the Feast of Saints Simon and Jude.  St. Jude is today most closely associated with being the “patron saint of lost causes”, which is a relatively recent devotional development.  I’m sure many of you remember seeing the St. Jude Novena published in the classified section of the newspaper.  Remember newspapers?  Ah… nostalgia.

Anyway, there is certainly nothing wrong with this, as I have mentioned before and am still trying to get my head around myself, all of the Angels and Saints know us personally and love us personally, and are desirous of our achieving the Beatific Vision with them.  This is one of those things that if I sit and think about with any depth I still find shocking, even still at my advanced age.

They ALL know who I am.

They are ALL rooting for me.

They are ALL fully available to pray for me.

Whoa.

Here is the traditional text of the prayer to St. Jude:

Oh glorious Apostle St. Jude, faithful servant and friend of Jesus, the name of the traitor who delivered thy beloved Master into the hands of His enemies has caused thee to be forgotten by many, but the Church honors and invokes thee universally as the patron of hopeless cases–of things despaired of. Pray for me who am so miserable; make use, I implore thee, of that particular privilege accorded thee of bringing visible and speedy help where help is almost despaired of. Come to my assistance in this great need, that I may receive the consolations and succor of heaven in all my necessities, tribulations and sufferings, particularly (mention your request), and that I may bless God with thee and all the elect throughout eternity. I promise thee, O blessed St. Jude, to be ever mindful of this great favor, and I will never cease to honor thee as my special and powerful patron, and to do all in my power to encourage devotion to thee. Amen.

The other big thing that St. Jude is famous for is writing the Epistle of St. Jude, which is the next-to-last book of the New Testament, and is tiny at only 25 verses.  

The book of Jude is an exhortation and warning against heresy and heretics.

So, yeah.  It is slightly timely.  Just a little bit.  Li’lbit.

It covers everything: heretics bringing about chaos, or as they say in Spanish, “lio” (“turning the grace of our Lord God into riotousness” – verse 4), the fact that God’s wrath has, does and will come upon heretics, and the admonition to the faithful to reprove the heretic and sinner, because this is what is demanded by charity.

Do click over to DRBO.org and read the entire brief Letter of St. Jude because it is so relevant, and also read the excellent Challoner footnotes which are most helpful.

Then, revisit the prayer to St. Jude above, because while it is tempting to think in these dark days that the “cause is lost” – it isn’t!  St. Jude, given the topic of his Epistle, should be widely enjoined to pray for us, and for the Church, and against the Antichurch.

St. Judas Thaddeus, pray for us!

Lord Jesus Christ, have mercy on us!