Rescue From the Storms of Life

February 19, 2018

Dear Friend of Saint Jude,

I’d like to share with you a story I recently read about Teresa Hernandez, who has a special devotion to Saint Jude. Her uncle and nephew were trapped under the rubble of an apartment building in northern Mexico City after the magnitude 7.1 earthquake. Although all seemed lost, Teresa prayed to Saint Jude and her family managed to get out! “I always come to give thanks”, she said. “Thanks to God they’re still with us.”

Devotion to Saint Jude Thaddeus has mushroomed in Mexico City during the past two decades, spreading through word of mouth. As my brother friar Pier Giorgio Dengler, O.P., puts it in his article, “like Saint Jude … we must bear the image of Jesus to others.” Devotion to Saint Jude is strong among the most downtrodden in the Mexican capital. Some people even set aside the 28th of every month (not just October) to celebrate the life of the saint of difficult and impossible causes.

Saint Jude has been answering prayers by people hit by natural disasters in our own country as well. One Saint Jude patron who lives in Florida wrote to me, “Saint Jude had a clear hand in protecting us from Hurricane Irma.”

At times Saint Jude rescues us during the storms of life. But Saint Jude is also trying to teach us a greater lesson he learned directly from Jesus in a small boat during a big storm.

“A gale swept down on the lake, and the boat was filling with water, and they (Saint Jude and the other apostles) were in danger. They went to Jesus and woke him up, shouting, ‘Master, Master, we are perishing!’ And he woke up and rebuked the wind and the raging waves; they ceased, and there was a calm. He said to them, ‘Where is your faith?” Luke 8:22-25

Jesus was teaching Saint Jude to have faith that He is always with us, especially during the darkest moments. Saint Jude experienced first hand the earthquake on Good Friday and all must have seemed lost when Jesus was buried in the belly of the earth for three days, like Jonah. But Saint Jude grew closer to Jesus during this time of trial and was one of the eyewitnesses to the most amazing event that ever took place in human history, the Resurrection of Jesus. Saint Jude knows that God can rescue us from anything and nothing can separate us from His love. Jesus will not allow us to perish, he will bring us safely home to the port of our Heavenly Father.

Through the prayers of Saint Jude, may Jesus Christ keep you safe during the storms and earthquakes of your life.

Yours in Christ,