Bill blew his opportunity to be a responsible husband and father to his wife and children. He was unfaithful to his wife and was never the father his children wished. In his personal life, Bill was abusing drugs and alcohol; and to his wife and children, he was a physical, emotional and mental abuser. His indiscretion was tearing his family to pieces. His wife was becoming increasingly drained by the poor judgments the man she loved and married to was making. She eventually got a divorce to protect her young children from the behavior of their father.
Bill sought help and is getting his life back on track, and his family now knows peace, stability and harmony without him. At this point, he struggles tremendously with self-guilt. The guilt of his misstep is so heavy on him that he doubted if God will ever forgive him for destroying the unity of his family. The family has forgiven him and shows him enormous support in his recovery, yet Bill doubts his children’s sincerity because he hasn’t forgiven himself.
It is important that the guilt of our misstep doesn’t eat up our lives. The strength of our life as people is greater than the sum total of its weakness. We have to move pass the poor decisions we made by breaking fresh grounds in our relationship with one another and with God. We know that the sum total of our life cannot be reduced to the poor judgments we make now and again. King David knows this (2 Sam 12:13); Paul the apostle that contributed so much to our faith knows this all too well (Gal.1:13-16); and the woman in our Gospel reading this past Sunday knows that her misstep cannot keep her down for too long. She has to make the all-important decision to write a positive page against the wrongs of her life.
Her boldness of character to storm into Simon’s house and perform that exceptional ritual of repentance before Jesus delivered a knock-out punch to her guilt (Luke 7:35-38, 48-50). David went through similar transformation. He was a home-wrecker (2 Sam 11:27). Killed Uriah (2 Sam 11:15) and took his wife –poor judgment in the use of the authority given to him. He got away with conspiracy to commit murder. Likewise Paul was a murderer (Acts 8:1). He orphaned a lot of children, destroyed many families and committed religion-cleansing against Christians (Acts 8:3). Yet in the readings for Sunday Mass, Paul speaks about living in Christ and Christ living in him (Gal. 2:20) through the grace God has given him (Gal.1:15).
The woman at Simon’s house, King David, and Paul overcame the guilt of their poor decisions and choices. They forgave themselves and received forgiveness from God and humanity. They know that a humbled contrite heart the Lord will not spurn (Psalm 51:17). With the grace of God’s love, mercy and compassion, we can overcome our past indiscretions and reconcile strained relationships. Beginning this weekend is our third annual Solemn Novena in honor of St. Jude here at the National Shrine of St. Jude. Together with many devotees of St. Jude, we will pray for peace of mind, a happy marriage, the return of a loved one and reconciliation. We hope that our prayer to God will grant us a true repentant heart, a forgiving spirit and harmony in our relationships.
Father Ferdinand Okorie, C.M.F.
National Shrine of St. Jude
Chicago, Illinois
Dear St. Jude, please hear my prayers for my son and daughter in law. Open their hearts and lead them back to one another. I beg you to please help bring them together. Fill their hearts with love and compassion. In Jesus’s name I pray with contrition and resolve. Please bring speedy help.
Thank you st jude for answering my prayer so far since 2011 dad has wind down on the drinking, i have longed for this for so long, but I will continue to pray for your intercession because I believe in your intercession. Keep him in your arms and hold him gently Lord so that we will continue to enjoy these moments. And continue to give thanksgiving for your miracle, but I pray continually because he still needs that help in getting through each day.
Thank You, St. Jude for helping Chris get over this very difficult time. Please help him to continue to stay away from the drugs that caused him such harm. Thank you for giving me peace in my heart and I continue to pray for Chris’ recovery.
Please please please, St. Jude help me with my marriage. Help me, help me. I also ask for the conversion of my husband.
ST JUDE THANKS ABUNDANTLY
ST JUDE HEAR MY PLEA BRING MY LOVE BACK – SUNNY
ST JUDE GRANT JUSTICE FOR PALOMA
ST JUDE HELP ME LOOK BEAUTIFUL
ST JUDE BLESS MY FAMILY & FRIENDS
Dear Saint Jude
Please take away all my worries and anxieties.
Thank You.
Dear Saint Jude I vervently pray that my daughter may be healed. Thank You
Please pray for my nephew, Jose with his addiction, help him be strong and feel the love of his family and especially have him feel God’s unconditional love for him. I am a believer and I know one day soon he will be able to heal from this addition.
Dear St. Jude,
I pray that I will be completely healed and delivered from my depression and panic/anxiety disorder. Bring peace, good health and comfort into my life. thank you
Dearest St. Jude,
Please pray for my son, Hayden to be delivered and healed completely from his smoking addiction and pot smoking and any other destructive behaviors. Bring new godly friend into his life. May he receive new healthy lungs. thank you
St Jude. Please pray for my Daughter, Nicole to totally recover from Bi-Polar disorder. Thank you for asking God to help her to have a burning desire to change her life around, to forgive herself and others, and start loving herself, and others.Please pray that God heal all of her addictions. Please help her to have Faith, Hope and Joy in perfect health. Please help her Mother and Father also. Thank you.
Please pray for my spouse, myself, and sons who are addicted to cigarettes. My spouse, and son are also addicted to prescribed drugs. Also a relative of mine who has an alchol problem. These problems are ruining our lives and families. Also pray that are wud be free from all financial difficulties
Dear St. Jude, I am weighed down with my husband’s addiction with Rubic’s cube, his poor temper, addiction with basketball, and non-interest in his son’s education. thank you for his recent improvement. Please help me with homeschooling our son, his good health, our physical healing and inner healing. Ilove you St. Jude!
O’ Glorious Saint Jude, Please help me. Give me courage and help me remain strong with all the problems i face. protect me at work with all the politics and harassment i endure. Bless my mothers health and give her your blessings. Please St Jude, protect my family and bring hope, peace and love into our lives.
st jude, i am at a crossroads, please give me guidance, strength and wisdom to make the best decison for my family.
Dear Blessed St Jude, please pray for me, I am so helpless and alone. Please help me find decent work according to God’s will so I can support myself and not have to be concerned about becoming homeless. I suffer from depression at times and try so hard to not fall into a rut but it is not easy being alone, worrying a lot and being intimidated by the person I work for. Please soften his heart so that he can see I am a good and loyal worker in which he can respect and appreciate instead of finding fault with everyone and being very mentally abusive at times.
My holy Saint Jude was just about to quit asking you, but I refuse to give up.
I am asking you in your kind love to reconcile my relationship with my ex, I need this Saint Jude please find it in your heart to grant me this one wish.
Amen
St. Jude, I pray to get out of this rut that I am in. I am in financial and marital turmoil. I feel hopeless and sad. Please pray for me to have stability and love in my life, especially for the sake of my child, so that she too has stability. Please break me from my depression so that I may finish my school studies. Amen
Saint Jude, Please help me –my marriage is dying due to my husband’s addiction to alcohol and his going back to old ways of committing adultery—it is tearing me apart–I want to just throw up my hands and leave–please me in Jesus name.
St. Jude please intercede for me as I suffer with chronic pain and depression. Thank you,
My children live far away and it’s expensive to fly to see them. They don’t have money to fly here either. One has a baby who I see infrequently and the other is due to have a baby and talks about the wonderful older “grandparent” like people who want to babysit. I am closer to the older children who lived near me before they had to move away.I need to accept God’s reasoning for all of this. I am divorced and alone and waited so long for this wonderful time in my life only to be so far from them.
Dear Sain Jude I am so alone. Please help me find positive energy to be a great patient. mother. I am struggling raising teenagers alone and need the strength to be strong and discipline them the right effective way. Please guide me to be the best mother I cn be and have happy balanced kids. Amen
st,jude,i ask that you work on my wife kelli’s heart so that she will forgive me and return to me,that she will regain the love that she once had for me.i pray that she will not divorce me and she will want our marriage to continue.please open her eyes so she see’s that i truly love her and want her in my life forever.let her want to work on our marriage together and repair the damage that has been done,i ask this in Jesus name,Amen.
I bring to you my husbands alcohol addiction for you intercession amen
Dear St.Jude, Please help me to forgive myself so I can continue to move forward with my life. I don’t want to spend my life alone, never experiencing the joy of really loving someone again. Please interceed on my behalf to help me find an honest, compassionate man, with integrity. If I am meant to find love again it would mean so much to me. If not, I will accept that as God’s will. I just hate the lonliness so much. Thank you for all you have done for me & everyone who seeks your help in times of need….AMEN
Dear St Jude, Our heater just went out and I am worried we may have to replace it, help us find the money to pay all of our bills and I ask for healing in my husband as well, and peace in my heart, no more anxiety, only faith in you and Jesus to see us through…
St. Jude, I am so honored to pray this novena in your honor. Help me St. Jude for those special intentions in my heart. Amen
St. Jude, I put up my prayers for those with
addiction of different type, especially my
children who are addicted to cigeratte. please help them know the danger of this
and how badly it will affect them later in the
future. I know Paul is trying to find a way of
getting out of it, please give him the will and
I am certain the sister will follow. I leave all
in our Father’s hands.
i pray to ST.JUDE for a lady with mental illness please all pray for her and GOD bless you all.l
I am truly touched by the notations of the misdeeds of some of the people of the gospels. Contrition can be an ongoing thing but not bludgeoning ourselves for it. Christ died for our sins and mistakes. Not that we should take this lightly and just carry on in our own ways, but make a difference in the many ways that we can each day. Thank you for this website.
Just to ask why you do not mention, the Shrine in Baltimore, Md. which has been there for many years in honor of St. Jude?
Services are held every wednesday.