Today is the feast of St. Jude, the patron saint of hopeless or desperate causes and a special advocate for those in trouble. Across the world, people turn to him for hope, healing, and help when the way seems closed.

My mother’s sister and my godmother, Aunty Adeline, prayed to St. Jude her entire life. “He comes through for you,” my aunt believed. Also known as Thaddeus, a name that speaks of sweetness and generosity, St. Jude dedicated his life to serving Jesus Christ. He has been called the “forgotten saint” because his name is similar to Judas Iscariot, the apostle who betrayed Christ.

“It makes no difference how deeply seated may be the trouble, how hopeless the outlook, how muddled the tangle, how great the mistake,” observed metaphysician Emmet Fox. “A sufficient realization of love will dissolve it all.”

With the outset of World War II, devotion to St. Jude grew in meaningful ways. Throughout the world today, thousands join a powerful circle of prayer to St. Jude for hope, healing, and miraculous intercession.

“Do not let your fire go out, spark by irreplaceable spark, in the hopeless swamps of the approximate, the not quite, the not yet, the not at all,” urged Presbyterian minister Henry Ward Beecher. Hold fast to faith, and to the good that is already on its way.