Day 1: Kinsman of the Lord

The first day of the Saint Jude Novena begins where the Apostle's life began: in the household of the Lord Jesus. Saint Jude Thaddeus is named in the Gospels as a kinsman of Christ, one of the relatives of the Holy Family. We come to him today as we would to a member of our own family who happens to be close to the Throne, asking him to bring our impossible cause directly into the heart of the Master.

Today's meditation

Saint Jude was, by the testimony of the apostolic tradition, a kinsman of the Lord, mentioned in the Gospel of Mark in the same breath as James, Joses, and Simon (Mark 6:3) among those known in Nazareth as relatives of Jesus. He grew up in proximity to the Holy Family. He saw the boy Jesus before any miracles had been performed, before any sermons had been preached, before any apostles had been called. When the time came, he left his ordinary life and followed his kinsman as one of the Twelve.

When we pray to Saint Jude on the first day of the novena, we approach him as someone who has known the Lord Jesus from the beginning, in the small details of family life as well as in the glory of the Resurrection. The intimacy of that long acquaintance makes him especially close to the Master, and his intercession especially direct.

Today's intention

Pause now and name your intention to Saint Jude. Be specific. Saint Jude, my kinsman in the household of God, I bring you this matter: (name the cause). Then pray:

Most holy Apostle, Saint Jude, faithful servant and friend of Jesus, the Church honors and invokes you universally, as the patron of difficult cases, of things almost despaired of. 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 consolations and succor of heaven in all my necessities, tribulations, and sufferings, particularly (name your request), and that I may praise God with you and all the elect forever. I promise you, O blessed Saint Jude, to be ever mindful of this great favor, to always honor you as my special and powerful patron, and to gratefully encourage devotion to you. Amen.

Reflection

The Catholic doctrine of the Communion of Saints presses against the modern instinct to think of saints as distant figures separated by centuries from us. Saint Jude is not separated. The Resurrection of Christ has joined every age of the Church into one body, and the Apostle who walked with the Lord in Galilee is, by the gift of God's eternal life, as available to us today as he was to those who watched him die a martyr's death in Persia. "Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight, and sin which clings so closely, and let us run with perseverance the race that is set before us" (Hebrews 12:1).

The intention you have just named to Saint Jude is now in the hands of one of the friends of the Lord Jesus. Tomorrow we deepen the relationship by considering Saint Jude precisely as Apostle, witness of the Resurrection, and missionary to the ends of the earth.

Closing prayers

Pray three times each: the Our Father, the Hail Mary, and the Glory Be, for the intentions of the Holy Father and in honor of Saint Jude.

Saint Jude, pray for us. Saint Jude, glorious Apostle, intercede for the cause we have placed in your hands.