Day 9: Thanksgiving and witness

On the ninth and last day of the Saint Jude Novena, we close the nine days as the traditional novena instructs: with thanksgiving for the Apostle's intercession, with the explicit promise to encourage devotion to him in gratitude for the favor received, and with the doxology of the Letter of Jude itself. The novena does not end with the relief of our particular petition (which may not yet be visible). It ends with the more enduring fruit: a strengthened bond with the Apostle, and a deeper participation in the praise of God that is the saints' eternal occupation.

Today's meditation

The novena prayer makes an explicit promise: 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. This promise is not an idle formula. It is part of how Catholic devotion to the saints actually grows in the Church. Each generation receives the saints from those who prayed to them in their own time of trial; each generation, in gratitude, hands the saints on to the next.

The promise to encourage devotion takes many forms in actual Catholic practice. Some Catholics, in thanksgiving for an answered Saint Jude Novena, place a notice in the local Catholic newspaper acknowledging the favor (a practice still common in many dioceses). Others teach the novena to a friend in distress. Others pray the novena annually on Saint Jude's feast (October 28) for the rest of their lives. Others contribute to the Saint Jude Children's Research Hospital in Memphis, founded by the entertainer Danny Thomas in 1962 in fulfillment of a vow he had made to Saint Jude in his own time of distress.

Today's intention and act of thanksgiving

Bring your intention to Saint Jude one final time. Whatever the visible state of the matter at the close of these nine days, give thanks to him for his intercession over the past nine days. 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.

Then pray the Apostle's own doxology from the Letter of Jude:

Now to him who is able to keep you from falling and to present you without blemish before the presence of his glory with rejoicing, to the only God, our Savior through Jesus Christ our Lord, be glory, majesty, dominion, and authority, before all time and now and for ever. Amen.

Reflection

The novena has been completed. The prayers of these nine days have not been collected and weighed against some quota. They have been gathered into the heart of Saint Jude and presented to the Throne, and the Lord's response to them is now in His hands and on His timeline.

Three things commonly happen after the close of a Saint Jude Novena. First, in some cases the answer comes quickly, sometimes even on Day 9 itself, and the faithful are filled with thanksgiving. Second, in some cases the answer comes more slowly, in the weeks or months after the novena, and the soul looks back and recognizes that the prayer was being answered all along, in ways it did not see at the time. Third, in some cases the outward circumstance is not changed, but the soul is changed: the marriage is not saved, but the spouse is given the grace to live in fidelity through the separation; the illness is not healed, but the patient is given the grace of a holy death; the prodigal child does not return, but the parent is given the grace of unceasing intercession.

In all three cases, the novena has been efficacious. The Catholic doctrine of prayer is not a transaction in which the petition is exchanged for the desired outcome. It is a participation in the Lord's own work of bringing every soul to the eternal good He intends. Saint Jude has prayed with us; the Lord has answered, and is answering, and will answer.

Closing prayers and the path forward

Pray three times each: the Our Father, the Hail Mary, and the Glory Be, in thanksgiving for the Apostle's intercession.

If the matter has not yet resolved, you may pray a second Saint Jude Novena (in the traditional Catholic discipline, three consecutive novenas form a triduum of novenas, twenty-seven days). You may also keep the cause alive in daily prayer through the simple invocation:

Saint Jude, glorious Apostle, pray for us.

For the Apostle's life and theological significance, see Saint Jude Thaddeus. For other novenas in the Catholic tradition, see the novenas hub.

The Apostle has been faithful. Be faithful in turn. Honor him as your patron, and tell others about his intercession, that the impossible causes of the world may keep finding their friend in Saint Jude.