Day 8: Heavenly intercession

On the eighth day of the Saint Jude Novena, we contemplate the doctrine that gives the novena its very ground: the Communion of Saints. Saint Jude is not a memory; he is alive in Christ. His intercession is not symbolic; it is real. The doctrine of the Catholic Church on the Communion of Saints is itself the answer to every quiet doubt about whether anyone is hearing our prayer through these nine days.

Today's meditation

The Catechism of the Catholic Church teaches the Communion of Saints with great precision. "Being more closely united to Christ, those who dwell in heaven fix the whole Church more firmly in holiness... they do not cease to intercede with the Father for us, as they proffer the merits which they acquired on earth through the one mediator between God and men, Christ Jesus" (CCC 956). Saint Jude in heaven, in the joy of the Beatific Vision, presents to the Father the merits he acquired in his apostolic life and martyrdom, and he offers these merits in conjunction with the petitions we are bringing to him.

The Apocalypse of Saint John gives the iconography of this heavenly intercession. "The smoke of the incense rose with the prayers of the saints from the hand of the angel before God" (Revelation 8:4). The prayers of the saints in heaven and the prayers of the faithful on earth rise together, as a single fragrant offering, to the throne of the Father. When we pray the Saint Jude Novena, our prayers do not travel alone; they ascend with the prayers of Saint Jude himself, and with the prayers of every saint who has ever prayed for the same kind of impossible cause.

Today's intention

Bring your intention to Saint Jude today with a renewed sense of the company you are in. The Apostle is praying with you, and so are all the saints who have prayed this novena before. 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 novelty of the Catholic doctrine of the saints in the modern Western context is striking. Many Christians outside the Catholic and Eastern traditions have lost the conviction that the saints in heaven actively intercede for the souls on earth. They pray to God directly, which is good, but they have given up the friendship with the heavenly Church that the Catholic faithful continue to enjoy. The Saint Jude Novena is, among other things, a recovery and a renewal of this friendship.

Saint Therese of Lisieux, who promised to "spend my heaven doing good on earth," expressed in her own way the same theological conviction the Catholic Church has always held: that the saints in heaven are not retired but active, and that their work of intercession is one of the principal means by which the Lord pours grace into the world. Saint Jude has been doing this work for nearly two thousand years. The cause we have placed in his hands has been added, on Day 1, to the long list of impossible causes he has been carrying to the Father since his martyrdom.

If anything in this eight-day journey has weakened your conviction that he is hearing you, today is the day to recover that conviction. The Communion of Saints is not a metaphor. The Apostle is praying with us. The answer, when it comes, will not come from us alone but from the joined prayer of the heavenly Church and the earthly Church together, in the one Christ.

Closing prayers

Pray three times each: the Our Father, the Hail Mary, and the Glory Be.

Saint Jude, alive in the joy of the Lord, intercede with all the saints for the cause we have entrusted to you.