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DEVOTION TO ST JUDE by Glynn MacNiven-Johnston
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Contents
Who was St Jude? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .5 Writings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .19 Intercession to St Jude . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .22 Prayer to St Jude . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .22 Prayer for St Jude’s intercession . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .22 Prayers for various needs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .23 For help in time of need . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .23 In marital difficulties . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .24 For a drug addict . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .24 Of an alcoholic . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .24 In mental illness . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .24 In physical illness . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .25 For the critically ill . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .25 For spiritual help . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .26 In grievous affliction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .26 In financial worry . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .27 Of praise and thanksgiving . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .27 On the death of a loved one . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .27 Megalynarion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .28
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Litany . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .29 Litany in honour of St Jude . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .29 Novenas . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .33 What is a Novena? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .33 Novena to St Jude . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .33 Novena to St Jude - to grow in Faith . . . . . . . . . . . .37 Prayer in confidence . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .41 From the Feast of St Jude . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .41 Acts of the Holy Apostle Thaddaeus . . . . . . . . . . . . . .42 Directions to the Shrine of St Jude . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .46
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WHO WAS ST JUDE? What we know about St Jude We can be certain about very little concerning St Jude’s life on earth. Even his name is wrong: he, like Judas Iscariot, was called Judah. We do know that he was one of Christ’s disciples. Two of the twelve were called Judah (in Greek, Judas) and so they had to have other names to distinguish them from each other. One was called Iscariot because of where he came from (Kerioth), and the other was called Thaddeus or Lebbaeus, which could mean that he had a burly chest or that he was big-hearted. It was only later, when the name Judas had the connotations of betrayal, that Judas Thaddeus became Jude. From the Gospels we know very little about St Jude. He is named as one of the Twelve, as Jude in Luke and John and as Thaddeus in Matthew and Mark. Luke and the Acts of the Apostles refer to him as ‘James’s Jude’, perhaps referring to James the Less, who may have been his brother - but that too is unsure since James (Jacob) was a common name. Normally we would assume that the James referred to was Jude’s father, and some translations use that form, but it was not
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uncommon for people to be named in reference to another relative who was well-known. In the lists of the Apostles he comes immediately after ‘James son of Alphaeus’, which some have seen as linking him to that James. Jude may have been one of the ‘brothers’ of the Lord (James, Joseph, Simon and Jude) mentioned in Matthew 13:55 and Mark 6:3, where people who have grown up with Jesus wonder how he can be speaking with so much authority. If he is that Jude, it would make him a close relative of Jesus’s (the Aramaic word aha is used to describe brothers, cousins and other relatives); but that may have been a different Jude altogether. Jude is only recorded as speaking once, in John 14:22. At the Last Supper, Jesus is trying to prepare his disciples for what will happen next. Jesus says, ‘in a little while the world will see me no more but you will see me…’ The Jews believed that when the Messiah came, the whole world would see him, which is why Jude asks, ‘Lord, how is it that you will manifest yourself to us and not to the world?’ People have inferred lots of things about Jude’s character from this, but most importantly it shows us is that he knew Jesus to be the Messiah and he believed Jesus could answer his question. The only other appearance of Jude is at Pentecost. According to the Acts,
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all the disciples were present at Pentecost, and statues of St Jude usually show him with a flame above his head to indicate this. Jude’s letter The New Testament also contains the Letter of St Jude which, from early times, tradition has ascribed to the Apostle Jude. Again, there are those who believe from the style and vocabulary that it is a later work, but other scholars say that if it were later it would contain reference to the destruction of Jerusalem ( AD 70). The early theologians Origen and Tertullian believed it was Jude the Apostle’s own letter, as did Clement of Alexandria, who wrote a commentary on it. The author of the letter introduces himself as a ‘servant of Jesus Christ and brother of James’. From Acts and the Letter of St Paul to the Galatians we know that James, the brother (i.e., close relative) of the Lord, was one of the leaders of the church in Jerusalem and therefore well-known and respected by the Christian communities. We do not know who this letter was sent to (it could apply to all Christians), but it may have been sent to the same people that the Letter of James was sent to. It is also probable that they were Jewish Christians since Jude alludes to Jewish traditional stories from the Book of Enoch (verses 14-15) and the Assumption of
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Moses (verse 9). The purpose of the letter is to call the community back to faith in its fullness, to live a moral life and not to follow the false teachers who had infiltrated their community. Traditional stories about St Jude Tradition has quite a lot to say about St Jude. The Golden Legend, a medieval collection of lives of the saints by Jacobus de Voragine, says that Simon, James the Less and Jude were all brothers, the sons of Alphaeus and Mary of Cleophas (see Luke 19:25). The Eastern Orthodox tradition even gives Jude’s wife’s name, Maryam (another form of Mary). Eusebius, an early historian, speaks of Jude’s grandsons, James and Zoker. He quotes St Hegesippus, a 2nd century writer, who says that the Emperor Domitian had ordered the execution of all the descendents of King David because he was afraid they would claim his throne. ‘And there still survived of the Lord’s family the grandsons of Jude… These were informed against by some heretics as being of David’s line and brought…before Domitian Caesar, who was as afraid of the advent of Christ as Herod had been. (Matthew 3-4) Domitian asked them if they were descended from David and they admitted it. Then he asked them what property they owned and what funds they had at their disposal. They replied that they had only 9,000 denarii
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WRITINGS The Letter of Saint Jude Jude, a servant of Jesus Christ and brother of James, to those who are called, beloved in God the Father and kept for Jesus Christ: may mercy, peace and love be multiplied to you. Beloved, being very eager to write to you of our common salvation, I found it necessary to write appealing to you to contend for the faith which was once for all delivered to the saints. For admission has been secretly gained by some who long ago were designated for this condemnation, ungodly persons who pervert the grace of our God into licentiousness and deny our only Master and Lord, Jesus Christ. Now, I desire to remind you, though you were once for all fully informed, that he who saved a people out of the land of Egypt, afterward destroyed those who did not believe. And the angels that did not keep their own position but left their proper dwelling have been kept by him in eternal chains in the nether gloom until the judgment of the great day; just as Sodom and Gomorrah and the surrounding cities, which likewise acted immorally and indulged in unnatural
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l u s t , s e r ve d a s a n ex a m p l e b y u n d e rg o i n g a punishment of eternal fire. Yet in like manner these men in their dreamings defile the flesh, reject authority, and revile the glorious ones. But when the archangel Michael, contending with the devil, disputed about the body of Moses, he did not presume to pronounce a reviling judgment on him, but said, ‘The Lord rebuke you.’ But these men revile whatever they do not understand, and by those things that they know by instinct as irrational animals do, they are destroyed. Woe to them! For they walk in the way of Cain, and abandon themselves for the sake of gain to Balaam’s error, and perish in Korah’s rebellion. These are blemishes on your love feasts, as they boldly carouse together, looking after themselves; waterless clouds, carried along by winds; fruitless trees in late autumn, twice dead, uprooted; wild waves of the sea, casting up the foam of their own shame; wandering stars for whom the nether gloom of darkness has been reserved for ever. It was of these also that Enoch in the seventh generation from Adam prophesied, saying, ‘Behold, the Lord came with his holy myriads, to execute judgment on all, and to convict all the ungodly of all their deeds of ungodliness which they have committed in such an ungodly way, and of all the harsh things
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INTERCESSION TO ST JUDE Prayer to St Jude Glorious Apostle, Saint Jude Thaddeus, I praise God for all the graces he has bestowed upon you, granting you the privilege of bringing help to those in despair. Intercede for me in my great need. Through your merits and prayers may I receive the consolation of divine help in my necessity so that I may praise the mercy of God on earth and bless him eternally with you and all the elect in heaven. Ever mindful of your favour I will honour you as my heavenly patron, and encourage devotion to you in what way I can. Therefore with confidence I invoke your aid: helper when hope is fading, help me in my distress. Amen. Prayer for St Jude’s intercession Lord, I praise and bless you and give you thanks for all graces and privileges you have bestowed upon your apostle, Saint Jude. (Make your request here) Lord, God, who revealed to St Jude your desire to be with us and share your life with us, open our hearts so that the Spirit may show us the truth and that keeping