Daily prayer
to St. Jude

O kindSaint-Jude, our faithful intercessor to Jesus, receive the following special intentions : to present them to the Almighty Lord, Root of all good. Above all, grant us an increase of our faith in His love. May each day find us closer in our relationship with our Heavenly Father. KindSaint-Jude, you who has revived hope in our hearts, you whose model merits and life bring us the divine blessings and graces, be our advocate, and lead us to Jesus and Mary. With you, blessed apostle, we give thanks and praise God with all our heart for His innumerable kindnesses. Amen.

The Monthly Note

November 2014

by Henri de Longchamp, OP

Dear friends of Saint Jude, we have received your prayer requests. We have prayed for all your intentions at each of the Novena Masses and we continue to do so during the Thursday Masses dedicated to St. Jude.

Our Lord Jesus Christ taught us to request for his help with insistence (Luke 11,5-13).  He also taught us to express our desires, our needs, and our supplications to God with a simplicity of heart and without ceasing. Following the parable of the insistent friend, our Lord encourages us to express our requests in prayers in this manner: ‘‘ask, ...seek, ...knock’’.  Then, he goes on to affirm that we will be fulfilled: ‘‘...you will obtain, ...you will find, ...the door will be opened.’’

Our Lord repeats this teaching several times, and adds that God always responds to our prayers. However, he also insists on a main condition for its effectiveness, faith:  ‘‘All that you ask for in prayer in faith, you will receive,’’ (Matthew 21.22). Our Lord also mentions a second basic condition: ‘‘Very truly, I tell you, my Father will give you whatever you ask in my name. Until now you have not asked for anything in my name. Ask and you will receive and your joy will be complete.’ (John 16,22-23). The condition, ‘‘in my name,’’ implies that being united in Christ is essential if our prayers are to be heard.

I invite you to fix your eyes on St. Jude, whose statue is present in our Dominican Church. He is the Apostle with the unique disposition to present to us our Saviour, Jesus Christ, who is willed and sent by God the Father. He is the Patron Saint of desperate causes who intercedes on our behalf before God, who tells us to place ourselves in the presence of our Lord Jesus Christ, to live the message that Christ taught us, and to have total confidence in the Good News of the Gospel.  

Every Thursday of St. Jude,  we are in solidarity with all who write to the Dominicans and to the Apostolic Works of Saint Jude; all who confide their sufferings, their pains, their personal and familial distress, and social crisis. You write to us because you are assured of our prayers for your intentions, especially through the Masses celebrated. We pray for each other as the Word of God invites us to do.

Saint Jude, you are the Saint of Hope, direct us always to Christ, to his message that is full of life, hope and fraternity. Saint Jude, pray to God for us!

Fr. Henri de Longchamp, Friar Preacher (O.P.)
Director ofSaint-Jude’s Apostolic Works