Nine Days of Prayer
Novena to St. Jude
In the tradition of thanksgiving offered before the miracle, this novena entrusts your most desperate intention to the apostle of hopeless causes, one day of prayer at a time.
Day 1: Hope
Hope is not optimism. It is the decision to trust the goodness of God before the outcome is visible.
St. Jude, apostle of hope, receive the intention I carry into these nine days. Plant in me a hope that does not depend on what my eyes can see, and hold my cause before the Lord.
Conclude with the closing prayer below, then mark this day as prayed.
Day 2: Faith in the Trial
You followed Jesus without knowing where the road led, and you did not turn back when it led to the cross.
St. Jude, faithful friend of Jesus, strengthen my faith on the days it feels thin. Let this trial become the place where my trust grows deepest.
Conclude with the closing prayer below, then mark this day as prayed.
Day 3: Perseverance
A novena is a small school of perseverance: showing up nine days in a row teaches the heart what faithfulness feels like.
St. Jude, teach me to keep praying when nothing seems to move. Obtain for me the grace to persevere in prayer and in patience until the answer comes.
Conclude with the closing prayer below, then mark this day as prayed.
Day 4: Surrender
To surrender is not to give up. It is to place the outcome in hands stronger and kinder than our own.
St. Jude, help me loosen my grip on the outcome I have written for myself. I surrender my intention to God, asking for this favor or for the greater one He prefers.
Conclude with the closing prayer below, then mark this day as prayed.
Day 5: Gratitude in Advance
The heart of this devotion is thanksgiving offered before the answer, because we know the One we are asking.
St. Jude, I thank God today for the help that is already on its way. Let my gratitude go ahead of the miracle and prepare a place for it.
Conclude with the closing prayer below, then mark this day as prayed.
Day 6: Trust
Worry rehearses the future without God in it. Trust rehearses the future with Him at the center.
St. Jude, when anxiety circles my intention, still my heart. Obtain for me the quiet confidence of one who has already been heard.
Conclude with the closing prayer below, then mark this day as prayed.
Day 7: Compassion for the Despairing
Praying for others in desperate need widens our own prayer and joins us to everyone who waits.
St. Jude, I lift up all who feel their cause is hopeless: the sick, the unemployed, the estranged, the exhausted. Bring visible and speedy help to them and to me.
Conclude with the closing prayer below, then mark this day as prayed.
Day 8: Courage
Some answers to prayer require something of us: a conversation, a change, a first step. Courage is grace in motion.
St. Jude, if my prayer is answered partly through my own hands, give me the courage to act. Show me the step that belongs to today.
Conclude with the closing prayer below, then mark this day as prayed.
Day 9: Thanksgiving and Promise
The novena ends the way the devotion began: with a promise to make the favor known, so that others in despair will know where to turn.
St. Jude, I complete these nine days in thanksgiving. I promise to honor you as my patron and to encourage devotion to you, telling of your help when it arrives.
Conclude with the closing prayer below, then mark this day as prayed.
Your progress is remembered on this device. If you miss a day, simply continue: heaven counts the heart, not the calendar.
Nine days completed
You have finished this novena. Whether the answer has arrived or is still on its way, your devotion has gone before the miracle. When the favor comes, keep the tradition: tell of it, so that others in need will know where to turn.
Prayer to St. Jude
Most holy Apostle, St. Jude, faithful servant and friend of Jesus, the Church honors and invokes you universally as the patron of hopeless cases, of things almost despaired of.
Pray for me, I am so helpless and alone. Make use, I implore you, of that particular privilege given to you, to bring visible and speedy help where help is almost despaired of. Come to my assistance in this great need, that I may receive the consolation and help of heaven in all my necessities, tribulations, and sufferings, and that I may praise God with you and all the saints forever.
I promise, O blessed St. Jude, to be ever mindful of this great favor granted me by God, and to always honor you as my special and powerful patron, and to gratefully encourage devotion to you.