Renewal is a special facet of a devotional prayer life. We need daily renewal as individuals, and we also need renewal as a community of God's people. As devotees to St. Jude, the grace of renewal is much like the grace we experience in devotion.
Turning to God often happens, as we know so well, in the most pressing of our needs. Prayer is the lifeboat of our hearts, transporting us from fear, pain, and suffering into the calm waters of hope and peace. In hope, we find renewal of the highest order. Renewal is change, and we are changed by the hope we hold on to that God, through St. Jude, is there for us to provide grace and calm.
Devotion to St. Jude as a component of daily renewal gives us that much more strength to look clearly within, to draw the needs of others to us and to God in hope-filled prayer, and to humble ourselves before the purity of St. Jude and the glory of God. Devotion to St. Jude is a form of taking care, and taking care is a form of renewal. Taking care of many small things over time results in the care and feeding of the big thing, our soul and the souls of others, over time.
When something is renewed or restored, it is never the same as it was before. Our longing for renewal may help us reach for a former state, whether that's to do with physical or spiritual health, or any prior way of life. But what we receive in renewal is not really what we were before, but something much better: a better prayer life, better relationships with God and others, deeper joy.
