A faithful person may choose to rely on personal or communal Catholic Devotions to grow in her or his faith in addition to the Church’s’ regular liturgies such as celebration of the Mass or the Sacrament of Reconciliation. This practice may include things like the Novenas we pray here at the Dominican Shrine of St. Jude, Eucharist adoration, or regularly praying the Rosary. Some people wear one of the different scapulars, join the Legion of Mary, or adopt one of our great Saints–like St. Jude Thaddeus–as partner in prayer, often referred to as “praying to the Saints.”
When Catholics say something like “pray to St. Jude,” we do not in any way mean or imply worship of the saint. We worship God ALONE. We simply ask the saints to pray with us and for us to God in exactly the same way we ask our friends and family to pray for us here on earth. We firmly believe saints dwell with God in heaven and hold them up as examples of all the possibilities which lie before us.