I appeal to readers to trash superstitious pages and pamphlets  when they find them in the pews, and to give proper instruction to those who are confused about why you would throw away something that otherwise looks like a good prayer. What follows is my rationale.

Not all novenas or conditioned prayers to the saints are superstitious; but some are. This subset should not be used or promoted because  they can  (a) lead people into mistaken notions about how one ought to pray,  as well as (b) establish false expectations as to how God answers prayer.

In particular, a number of novenas to St. Jude have defective instructions that qualify as “superstitious” which  can thereby potentially taint the prayers to which those instructions apply. Usually, the problem occurs in the instructional paragraph, located either above or below the actual text of the prayer. Here are three real world formulations I have found floating around:

“Novena Prayers must be said six times each day for 9 consecutive days and leaving 9 copies in church each day. Prayer will be answered on or before the ninth day and never known to fail. You will receive your intention no matter how impossible it seems.”

 

“The following novena to St. Jude has never failed. It must be said six times each day for nine consecutive days, leave nine copies in church for nine consecutive days (81 copies total), prayers will be answered on or before the ninth day.”

 

“Make 81 copies and leave nine copies in church for each consecutive nine days. You will receive your intention before the nine days are over, no matter how impossible it may seem.”

Note: I have omitted the actual prayers which followed the instructions  so as not to have this blog posting inadvertently become a  source for furthering (copying) this superstitious practice.

If you cannot identify any “mistaken notions” or “false expectations,” if these examples don’t seem superstitious to you, please entertain a rational experiment: Rewrite one in a way that, to your mind definitely would be  mistaken,  false, or superstitious. I doubt you will  have any greater success, for such phrasings already demonstrate a number of errors.

Errors by Way of Commission:

•  encouraging obsessive-compulsive behavior (e.g. “six times a day”—truly a novelty even in the history of people abusing novenas)
•  imitating a chain-letter (“leave nine copies in church every day”)—you know priests hate this kind of nonsense, cluttering up pews, statues, and tables
•  promising sure receipt of their request (e.g.: “will be answered”, and  “you will receive your intention”)
•  imposing a timeframe for heaven–God, through the saint–to answer within (e.g.: “on or before the ninth day”)
•  deceiving people by saying “It has never been known to fail” (or the like) when in fact many people pray this and other novenas all the time and don’t receive from God’s providence what they requested.

Errors by Way of Omission:

•  None of the wording helps the petitioner obtain the correct intention, that of imploring to know and do the will of God, “Thy will be done.”
•  None of the wording would lead the petitioner to have peace when, as often happens, God does not grant a request but says either, “No,” or “Not yet,” or “I have something better in mind.”
•  None of the wording (or other instructions elsewhere on the page) promotes faithful use of the Sacraments.  Going to confession, attending Mass, and receiving the Eucharist are all much more valuable solutions for personal needs and intentions than any novena subsequent to Pentecost ever was.

Think about it: If true,  this novena would be the most powerful prayer in the world, having attached to it a promise greater than any ever made in Scripture, by the Church, through private revelations of Jesus or Mary (e.g.: Sacred Heart, Divine Mercy, Lourdes, Fatima, etc.), greater than was ever attached to the Rosary or a Scapular or even religious vows, etc. Doesn’t that just sound like something is wrong with it? This should be ringing alarm bells for you!

And printing the Our Father and the Hail Mary on the same page for recitation as part of the novena is just further deception–as if that could be enough to make a prayer or practice orthodox and healthy. Back to my invitation for you to deliberately try to make this novena mistaken, false, or superstitious … do you suppose one can similarly  tack an Our Father and a Hail Mary onto that exercise and suddenly make all the perversions you yourself just then invented become acceptable?  Never! 

Am I making too much of this? Perhaps you self-correct these prayers in your own head, or maybe gloss over their shortcomings–similar to how we all listen to songs on the radio and commonly supply our own meaning / significance to the words, sometimes at variance from the artist’s intent. Well, what about the people who either don’t self-correct in this matter or who cannot self-correct the words as they read them on the page because they don’t know enough about prayer to do so? Then I think it is a matter of not scandalizing someone. Do such people exist? Yes, for sure: our Protestant brethren en masse come to mind!

For better or for worse, Protestants are reactionary; it’s in their history, it is in their nature. Which means they are always looking to the theological content of our Catholic prayers as their starting point. If the foolish wording of common prayers is keeping them from drawing closer to the Church, then we should each feel bound in conscience to straighten out the words we use to pray with. We should mean what we say and say what we mean. Well, these prayers can’t fit within such a paradigm. Even if you can make it work for yourself, you cannot make it work for Protestants, or I would argue for Catholics were the prayer to be said publicly, say, in a group, where the instructions are announced. So again, I encourage you to join me in pitching the bad examples of prayer as you encounter them. Next, we can talk about replacing the bad with the good.

Better St. Jude Prayers:

Rather than the problematic novenas referenced above, how about we try to imitate this other group (some Dominican ministry) and their novena prayer, copied below from a video they produced.

“Most holy Apostle, SAINT JUDE THADDEUS, faithful servant and friend of Jesus, you bear the name of the traitor, who delivered the beloved Master into the hands of His enemies. Yet the Church honors and invokes you universally as the patron of hopeless cases and things despaired. Pray for me! Make use, I implore you, of that particular privilege accorded to you to bring visible and speedy help where help is almost despaired. Come to my assistance in this great need that I may receive the consolation and support of heaven in all my necessities, evils, and sufferings: particularly… (State Your Request) … and that I may bless God with you and all the elect throughout eternity. I promise you, O blessed SAINT JUDE, to be ever mindful of this great favor and I will never cease to honor you as my special and powerful patron and to do all in my power to encourage devotion to you. V. SAINT JUDE, Apostle of Hope: R. Pray for us!”

https://www.facebook.com/rosarysaintjude

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AFGip3_Rq48&list=PL1h78Oik338NDeZJp_gk_j35kChVvAqNx

You can also go to trusted websites for their novena prayers to St. Jude:

https://www.ewtn.com/catholicism/devotions/novena-to-st-jude–desperate-situations-and-hopeless-cases-305

https://shrineofstjude.org/the-shrine/celebrate-a-st-jude-novena/

Suppose You Were Already Duped:

Now, what if you are persuaded by my argumentation and will in the future not fall for such things but HAD FALLEN for them in the past? For one, repentance is good–apologize sincerely to God and to St. Jude for at one time allowing the relationship to be distorted. And reparation is also good–for example, joining in my effort to trash these erroneous materials and to instruct the ignorant (a Work of Mercy) in their regard. But also please know that no sincere prayer is ever totally wasted. God puts all such to at least minimal use. For example, the proper object of prayer is to come before the Lord, into His presence, to speak to Him in the second person, “you.”  If that ever happened your prayers were worthwhile and valuable to Him. Anything else is just “gravy” after that.  

But now that you know a better way to pray, thank God for this grace that has informed your intellect to clear up mistakes, to generate realistic expectations inline with the truth, and to replace superstition with genuine devotion. Ask God to now use such enlightenment to more effectively move your will to desire what He most desires for you in your prayer life.