Home / News & Publications / Michigan Catholic News / 2007 / St. Jude Parish hosts novena to patron of desperate cases
St. Jude Parish hosts novena to patron of desperate cases
Kristin Lukowski of The Michigan Catholic
Published October 19, 2007
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Kristin Lukowski | The Michigan Catholic
Fr. Robert Liberty, pastor of St. Jude Parish, Detroit, stands next to a stained glass window depicting the patron saint of hopeless cases. |
Detroit — People have turned to St. Jude during rough times for hundreds of years. Now, since times are tough for many, St. Jude Parish is hosting a novena to the patron saint of desperate and hopeless cases.
The parish, on 7 Mile between Gratiot and Kelly in northeast Detroit, is hosting the novena to its patron saint beginning this weekend and ending on the saint's feast day, Oct. 28. "Through the ages, people turn to St. Jude when times seem to be roughest and when nothing else seems to be working," said St. Jude pastor Fr. Robert Liberty. "People with all sorts of needs come to St. Jude for his heavenly aid."
Before St. Dominic Parish, also in Detroit, closed in 2005, it had a shrine to St. Jude that had received a lot of visitors. Since then, and likely also because of Michigan's down-turning economy, job losses and home foreclosures, more and more people have been asking for St. Jude Parish staff to unlock the church so they can go in and pray, Fr. Liberty said. A relic, a piece of bone, is also built into the marble block on the altar.
St. Jude novena
The novena will be prayed after the following Masses:
• Saturday, Oct. 20: 4 p.m. Mass
• Sunday, Oct. 21: 9 a.m. and 11 a.m. Masses
• Monday, Oct. 22: 8:30 a.m. Mass • Tuesday, Oct. 23: noon Mass
• Wednesday, Oct. 24: 7 p.m. Mass
• Thursday, Oct. 25: 10 a.m. school Mass
• Friday, Oct. 26: 7 p.m. Mass, celebrated by Auxiliary Bishop John Quinn
• Saturday, Oct. 27: 4 p.m. Mass
• Sunday, Oct. 28: 9 a.m. and 11 a.m. Masses | Fr. Liberty said he's found St. Jude to have a huge following, no matter the age, race or social status of his devotees. In fact, Detroit native entertainer and TV star Danny Thomas was looking for work, and looking for some kind of sign that he should stay in show business, when, the story goes, he stopped into SS. Peter and Paul Jesuit Parish in downtown Detroit to pray before its St. Jude statue. Within a year, he had a regular paycheck, and went on to found St. Jude Children's Research Hospital.
Fr. Liberty has his own St. Jude story, too. His parents had given him his grandfather's wedding ring as a gift for his ordination to the transitional diaconate, and after a day of gardening, it was gone. He searched, but it was nowhere to be found.
He prayed to St. Anthony, patron saint of people who have lost items, for several years before starting to pray to St. Jude. After that, he was assigned to St. Jude Parish, and shortly afterward, he got a call from his sister telling him she'd found the ring in the garden, on top of a pile of dirt.
"It got me thinking that St. Jude does answer prayers," he said.
In fact, so many people have shared their stories about St. Jude that the parish had a hard time finding an available Web address. They ended up with www.stjudedetroit.com.
Fr. Liberty said he's holding the novena at different times during the day is so that people who might work one shift or the other can at least attend a few prayers. Brochures with prayers in them are also available to take home.
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