Prayers for the Feast of Sts. Simon and Jude, Apostles
On October 28 the Church honors two of the Twelve together. St. Simon is called the Zealot (Luke 6:15) to tell him apart from Simon Peter. St. Jude, also called Thaddeus, is the "Jude, the servant of Jesus Christ, and brother of James" who wrote the short Epistle of Jude, urging Christians "to contend earnestly for the faith once delivered to the saints" (Jude 1:3). An ancient tradition says the two Apostles preached together in Persia and died there as martyrs, which is why they share one feast.
St. Jude is loved everywhere as the patron of desperate and seemingly hopeless cases. Below are the traditional collect and postcommunion of their feast from the older Roman Missal. They ask that the Apostles who first brought the knowledge of God's Name to the nations would help us grow in that knowledge and in every good work.
The Prayer
Collect: O God, who wert pleased to make Thy blessed Apostles Simon and Jude a means of bringing us to the knowledge of Thy Name: grant that, by endeavouring to advance in all good, we may both worthily celebrate their everlasting glory and, by so celebrating it, increase our advance. Through our Lord Jesus Christ, Thy Son, who liveth and reigneth with Thee in the unity of the Holy Ghost, God, world without end. Amen. Postcommunion: Having received the sacrament, we suppliantly beseech Thee, O Lord, that, Thy blessed Apostles Simon and Jude interceding, what we do in veneration of their martyrdom may avail us for a remedy. Through our Lord Jesus Christ, Thy Son, who liveth and reigneth with Thee in the unity of the Holy Ghost, God, world without end. Amen.
St. Simon and St. Jude, holy Apostles and martyrs, pray for us.
See also: Prayer to St. Jude Thaddeus and Litany of the Saints.
Sources: Collect of Sts. Simon and Jude from The Roman Missal Adapted to the Use of the Laity (London, c. 1920 edition reformed under Pope Pius X); Postcommunion from The Mass Every Day of the Year (1916); Scripture from the Douay-Rheims Bible (Challoner revision). All public domain.
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