St. Jude stories

[rm]

In the back, left-hand corner of St. Pat's (facing the altar) is a little shrine to St. Jude. In the pews there, people leave their xeroxes about how to say whatever version of the St. Jude novena they are doing. If you go there a lot, you can sort of watch the ebb and flow of these -- which ones are popular, which ones are spreading like chain letters -- based largely on the quality of the copies. It makes me wonder about the people who bring them and their prayers. One person clearly laments the poor quality of most of the novena xeroxes and has retyped theirs so it could be copied cleanly. Another has just set the darkness on their copy maching very light so as to clean off a lot of the dirt on the copy. Some people fold theirs precisely in fours or halves, others just leave sheets on the pews. You can tell who is uncertain of the ritual, who is rushed, who might be young and who might have older and shaking hands. I wonder if they are Catholic, how they first heard of St. Jude, and if any of them did the Math-a-thon for the children's hospital when they were little. I hope they get what they need and wonder who else studies, as I seem to, this odd, silent and necessarily speculative narrative.

In my own personal news of causes almost despaired of -- money has once again come through at the Germans, alleviating a bit of Great Big Dread.

Comments

[mystrys.livejournal.com]

When I was a tween we participated in the St Jude's Bike-A-Thon every year. It was a nice time and you felt like you were doing something good for the world.. just an random memory your post brought to mind. -Mystrys

[splix.livejournal.com]

My childhood parish was St. Jude's. He was one of the lesser-known apostles, but was obviously our go-to saint. He is the patron saint of hopeless cases, and when I used to visit St. Pat's I would wonder, in the strangest proprietary fashion, if the people leaving their petitions were using him as a last-ditch effort.