As I mentioned before, talking about all the most powerful novenas, St. Jude Shrine / Our Lady of Guadalupe Catholic Church is where miracles happen! Let me also add, like I have to do as a disclaimer so many other times, I’m from NEW ORLEANS. I’m a Creole girl (BLACK, still very BLACK with four Black grandparents) from New Orleans. So religion to me might not be what it is for you. I’m Catholic, but I know very well that what happens in New Orleans Black Catholic churches might be different from what happens in the white ones, and I’m sure very different from what happens in other Catholic churches outside New Orleans.
Having said that, when I was little and up until they tragically closed (I mean that literally, no exaggeration), going to F & F Botanica was a huge part of my life. In addition to herbs and sprays and oils and candles, they sold rosary beads, prayer cards, prayer books. All of that. Jonathan, God rest his soul, when I would come in and tell him I had some sort of problem, he would tell me to basically walk around and let the right things find me. Le sigh, I really miss Señor Felix, Jonathan and Ms. Rose. I pray Tanya is doing well. She really got dealt a Job hand.
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Here’s how it all began
All that to say, I was already doing a St. Jude novena and believing strongly in it, but something told me to go to the St. Jude Shrine and basically ask for an ETA on the blessing. I was praying that I would get this job I applied for, so I could go and tell my landlady, “HA HA HA JOKE’S ON YOU! You said I shouldn’t bank on getting a job well here’s your money, leave me alooooone, I’m working for one of the most important companies in New Orleans! Nah!”
Soooo on December 2, 2025 I pulled up at the shrine, maybe I was crying? I can’t recall, but I know I was stressed because time was running out. On October 23, 2025 I’d had been served with a notice to vacate in five days, after being told via text on October 15 or so to start looking for another place. I had no job! No money! Nowhere to go. Not for lack of trying. I was finally able to get in touch with Unity Housing on October 23 (Maya Angelou on Oprah gif because GIRL THAT IS FOR THE HOMELESS!) and they told me I should get a job as a maid. No offense, but I literally work in hotels as a guest. I order the towels and tip for them, I don’t take them out the room to put them in a cart. And that still wouldn’t be enough money to pay this lady $1,500 to stay in my home of 40 years, with the black mold and possums and messed up floors and stuff.
Once at the gift shop…
So I tell the nice lady at the gift shop in the shrine what’s going on. She recommends a prayer card for getting a job, which I still have now, but I just didn’t feel like that was working. I came across a card that said “Powerful Novena of Childlike Confidence.” Imma keep it real with you, after being chronically unemployed since 2020 I absolutely was thinking it was me. Like WOW girl, you really just are the worst. Can’t get no job, can’t even get a damn second interview for a job you basically already do. Maybe your landlady was right, maybe you shouldn’t bank on getting a job.
I’m thinking cool, that’s gonna help with confidence. That’s something I can use anyway. But then I notice the prayer card says you make the novena in just one day. Just one day?! That’s awesome because I don’t have much time and I have like $50. Which, at the time, was a lot. It’s December 2 and I told my landlady I’d be gone by December 8. To make you laugh, when I told her that, she said she was hoping I’d be gone be November 30, since “no one wants to rent in the middle of the month.”
Here’s why I call it the “Eff It” novena
It makes you want to to just say, “Eff it, Imma do this.” I was making the novena in hopes that I’d get a second interview for this job. At one point on December 3, 2025 I said, “Eff it,” and texted one of the guys I interviewed with. I know him and his mom really well. He told me the CEO or whatever was already interviewing people. What. The. Hell. WOW. Can’t even get a second interview?! And I wasted so much time and money, you know, on the first interview. (Spoiler: They hired a lovely young lady from, basically, a parallel organization. It’s a marketing and communications role. I see she’s excellent at pottery, so that’s wonderful. I wish her many years of joy and success.)
My heart was broken, I just kept sobbing in the damn Burger King parking lot. Didn’t even want my SpongeBob pineapple cream slush anymore. Not that I really really wanted that job, but I just wanted to prove my landlady and, honestly, myself, wrong. Applying for the job felt so right. Le sigh.
Meet Sister Wendy
I just start driving down Bullard, then down Chef, boohoo crying. Like, can’t see the road crying. However! I see a new thrift store! Do I need anything? No! Especially since I only have days to move out of my home of 40 years, to where I don’t eeeeemuch know. Another hour had passed, so I did my lil novena again. Not even sure what I prayed for, since the job was now out the window. I walked in, trying to keep my lil composure. Because who cries at the thrift store?! Me. After looking around, I didn’t really see anything I wanted. Saw a Jackson State lanyard I was gonna get for a friend, but who wears lanyards?
A little bitty Latina lady with open-face golds, who seems to own the shop, as I’m walking out, tells me, “You know God love you, right?” Chile. I break down. Like. Embarrassing! She gives me a hug and lets me cry cry cry in her bosom. Ugly face, wet shirt, hyperventilating crying. Then she asks if she can pray with me. I don’t know this lady from a can of paint, but I trust her.
It felt like a scene in a Tyler Perry movie (IYKYK). She changes the music, grabs the blessed oil and starts rubbing my hands and forehead with it, all the while praying for me in Spanish. “Tell Him, tell Padre what you need, tell Him everything how you feel.” After that, when I go to leave again, she says, “God brought you here today, sister. Look, you didn’t need nothing. You didn’t want nothing. But He led you here.” And she basically said it was done, and that I’d come back with a testimony soon. Sister Wendy has a mighty testimony too, she’s a strong little lady.
High school friend was also sent by God
It’s time to do the novena again, so I do it in the parking lot of the thrift store. Then I drive past Winn-Dixie and something says go in. I felt like a little wind-up doll, pushed around by some invisible force. Parked, walked in, made a lap and left without buying anything. “::: BEEP! BEEP! BEEP! ::: MEGAN ANNE BRADEN-PERRY! The most talented writer and journalist and a great mom!” Now I see who it is, one of the first friends I made at 35. So we’re talking and I’m trying to not mention my housing stuff because, you know, it’s embarrassing. She keeps going on about how talented I am and I’m like GIRL PLEASE STOP because I will cry. I can’t even …
She says I need to listen, because I’ve made a difference in her life. I’m like OK girl, what, I told you about a restaurant or something? Tell me why she said that more than once I literally kept her from deleting herself?! “Girl, I had the pills in my hand. But I’d post and you would comment or message me…”
Now, she didn’t know at the time, but I always kinda blame myself for my cousin deleting himself. I had a dream about him and didn’t even text him, because he seemed fine! Lesson: If someone says online that others are kinda weak for talking about their problems online, PLEASE MESSAGE THEM. It was very much a cry for help. I miss him dearly and wish he woulda held on, because he would be making so much money now as a comedian. Jesus.
God sent others, every hour.
Literally every hour, God would send someone to help. My friend Kaila randomly texted me FROM PARIS, FRANCE on vacation with her family to tell me to not only create a GoFundMe, but to “tell the whole story.” Basically don’t keep it cute to appease those who wronged you. About $20,000 later and here we are.
My friend April, who I talk to maybe once a year, called and told me about FurnishedFinder. There, I was able to move into my dream apartment! No need for furniture, no need to pay utilities, any of that. MY GOD.
Another friend sent me something to help me stay awake lmao. Uber Courier is very cool, by the way!
THANK YOU! THANK YOU! THANK YOU!
God told me to post on social media about what was happening, and so many friends came to help me! THANK YOU: Cincia, April, Kaila, Cardell, Jade, Chachera, Heather, Christina, Jenny, Uncle Larry, Ms. Cheryl, Danielle, Corinne, Sister Wendy, the lady at St. Jude Shrine, my high school friend, Damion, Demond, Bricolage Academy, Mary, Bre, Sage, Sage’s young men, Rochelle, Angel, Nikita, Aunt Dee Dee, Betty, Katie, Millie, Dawn, Madison, Fay, Josh, Exodie, Arielle, Aunt Terry, everyone who donated to the GoFundMe, everyone who sent me other money. I’m so sorry if I forgot any names! Please charge my head and not my heart.
I could probably go into more detail, but I’ve forgotten over time. Just been so busy moving forward, so incredibly thankful.
When you make this novena, please please please let me know how it works out for you!
