28 October 2020

A Shout Out to St Jude

Today is the Feast of St Jude Thaddeus, Apostle & Martyr, Patron of Lost Causes (or Difficult Cases). I can personally attest to the efficacy of his prayers!

As my friends and relatives know, almost 20 years ago, the Cuter & Shorter Half 'divorced' me. I had been a bad husband and a worse father. I don't really blame her and I admit my fault.

However, I never gave up. After we were separated, I began asking for St Jude's prayers. I also invoked his female co-Patron of Lost Causes, St Rita of Cascia. I laid siege to Heaven calling on all my Patrons, other Saints, and my Holy Guardian Angel, but always concentrating on St Jude and St Rita.

She did not so much as speak a word to me for well over ten years. Then, in November 2016, my sister's husband, Charles (R+I+P), died. She had always stayed close to my family so she was planning on going to his funeral. Knowing that I no longer drove, from the children who had maintained minimal contact with me, she called me out of the blue to ask if I would like a ride to the funeral.

We had a pleasant enough trip under the sad circumstances, albeit a bit tense. We started chatting online and by phone after the trip. Over the next few months I visited her two or three times. The whole time, I kept bombarding St Jude and St Rita with prayers, fully aware that sometimes prayers are answered with 'No'.

Memorial Day weekend, 2017, we were chatting when she said, 'Well, I guess it's official. I'm asking you to come back.' Just over a month later, on 1 July, I moved to Wilber, where she lives. 

A few weeks ago we were talking over supper and I said that when anyone who knows the story asks me how it's going, I say that it's been three years and she hasn't killed me or thrown me out yet. 

She said that there are times I still irritate her a great deal, but she has no desire to get rid of me.

If you had asked me in 2005 or 2010 if I thought we'd ever get back together, I would have replied, 'Unlikely', but I never gave up my prayers to St Jude and St Rita. And for those who don't believe in prayer, I say 'Nah, nah, nah!' My situation is proof it works to any unbiased observer.

Thank you, St Jude and your Heavenly sidekick, St Rita! Thank you from the bottom of my heart!

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