St. Jude Novena “fail” ☹️ (dare I say)

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Misschris

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A St.Jude Novena I did properly and with genuine intent and true faith did not satisfy my intention.
What has me discouraged and a bit p’oed at the publisher is that it clearly says on the Novena that healing will occur on or before the 9th day. That’s pretty big of the catholic publisher to promise. Wussup with that? I’ve always accepted things in Gods timing. But I will say I was hopeful this Novena would provide my child’s healing immediately like it promised.
 
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its the will of God and in the time of God that these things happen or not.

God is not a vending machine.
 
who is the publisher, have you got the original document
 
“Chain prayers” like that are superstition. I’m assuming it’s a “chain prayer” based on the many prayers to St. Jude I have seen that are “never known to fail” and say you will get a certain result by day 9 if you follow the instructions of praying and sometimes leaving a copy of the prayer in church every day, etc.
God can say “no” to the prayer. There is no prayer that is a guarantee or a “never known to fail”. Prayer isn’t a vending machine.

You should be praying in order to build your relationship with God, not to “get something”. I understand you are very concerned about your child and it’s hard when a prayer doesn’t seem to be answered, but you should continue to pray and ask God to heal your child if it be his will. Ask God to help you understand his will.

You could even continue to pray to St. Jude and say you are disappointed that the novena was not answered with the healing you expected, but you still have faith that God will do what is best, or you are struggling to understand the will of God, and ask for God’s grace to continue to have faith and to understand.

When I was a teenager I did a St. Jude novena and didn’t get what I prayed for either. Many years later, I see that what I wanted likely would not have been a good thing for me and in any event it wasn’ t necessary. I realize again that a child’s health is very important, but sometimes when we look back we understand better why things did not happen right as we wanted them to.

By the way, which “Catholic publisher” published this prayer? A reputable Catholic publisher does not publish prayers stating that healing will happen before the 9th day. This is inconsistent with the Catholic teaching about prayer as I said in my first paragraph; no prayer has a guaranteed result.
 
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I’ve seen a number of prayers and novenas out there that make the “never known to fail” claim. It’s an irresponsible claim to make. It creates false expectations that people are always going to have the prayer answered the way that they wanted.

I could pray an urgent novena to St. Jude that I may wake up on Day 9 and be able to do a flying jump kick like Bruce Lee and buy the winning jackpot lottery ticket before I go to work that day, but that’s probably not going to happen.
 
Tis_Bearself said:
God can say “no” to the prayer. There is no prayer that is a guarantee or a “never known to fail”. Prayer isn’t a vending machine.
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Exactly. The error wasn’t that you didn’t pray enough. (Though I’m with Tis in recommending further prayer.) It was in the publisher’s false claim.
 
It is a great prayer that I have prayed many times but never heard of something happening on the 9th day.
 
The most successful prayer is usually along the lines of “Please give me the graces you most want me to have” and “Thy will be done.”

I’m very sorry for your child’s troubles. That’s very difficult to deal with, for sure. ❤️
 
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St Jude is my favorite saint, but I must say that I do not like these “never known to fail” or “publish this and your prayer will be granted”. That’s not how prayer works. St. Jude hears us, and prays for us. It’s just that our prayers are not always answered in the way we would like, or in our own time. Please don’t stop asking for his intercession; he is a powerful saint. But ignore the hocus pocus that sometimes goes along with folks promoting novenas.

The St. Jude Shrine in Chicago, is currently having their novena for healing (it ends on the 26th). It’s never too late to join.
 
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Novenas, prayers, are not some sort of magic incantation. In fact if a prayer says “guaranteed to never fail” you can know it is superstitious and the Church warns against superstition.

Pray, always with “Lord, if it be your will”. Sometimes he says yes, sometimes no and sometimes to wait.
 
As the Bible says “You ask, and receive not; because you ask amiss” (James 4:3). Even when we have good intentions, God knows better than us and what we are asking for might not actually be for the best.

The promise that you receive what you ask for is conditioned on it being good for your salvation or the salvation of another, if praying for another. As Jesus says, prayer is answered “that your joy may be full” (John 16:24)–full joy is salvation. Perhaps not granting us what we ask is better for our or another’s salvation in a particular case, even if it means suffering (See Jesus’ own prayer in Matt. 26:39).

The Roman Catechism sums this up:
For God will either grant what is asked, and thus they will obtain their wishes; or He will not grant it, and that will be a most certain proof that what is denied the good by Him is not conducive either to their interest or their salvation, since He is more desirous of their eternal welfare than they themselves.
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Of all the novenas I’ve ever prayed I feel the most connected and helped by St. Jude. However, unless it is something small, I can’t say I’ve ever had a 9 day answer or cure. It does not work like that.
 
Chain letters, and superstitious publishings of when answers will be received does NOT come from Catholic teaching.

Another superstition that has crept in that a holy priest warned us about, is that to buy a miniature plastic statue of St. Joseph and plant him upside down on your property if you want to sell your house quickly. (along with prayers, of course). This is misleading…we don’t have to feel we must “do” something to go along with the prayers.

The Lord hears our prayers and knows how to answer them.
 
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I agree with the prior posters that prayers are not magic, to give us exactly what we want and think we should have. Only God sees ‘the big picture’ and knows whether what we request would be good for us or not. Prayer is always answered, but as @Tis_Bearself indicated, sometimes the answer is No. This, along with forgiving our enemies, is perhaps the most difficult thing we have to accept about the Faith.
 
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I also think chain prayers are unhelpful…

But there is another thing. Be it here on the forums or other Catholic websites or blogs, you read of people praying this or that novena and experience getting what they requested for. Which is very good. But then, people would read this and ‘try’ to pray the same novena hoping that they would receive what they are asking for even after several times. When it does’t happen, they start thinking that they prayed in the wrong manner, did not pray hard enough, or what is deeply wrong with them that it was not granted, or they could also think that it proba ly was not God’s will. I feel the first two reasons are incorrect ways of thinking.
 
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