SAINTS PRESERVE US!

 

I am asked  sometimes why the emphasis on the SAINTS? Several have even suggested I go back and put on this Blog some of the saints I have already done over the years, especially those most relevant to our present world crises- threats of war, the on-going Covid, etc.

Feb 2 the holy Father in an audience said:  “Even when we rely fully on the intercession of a saint, or even more so that of the Virgin Mary, our trust only has value in relation to Christ. As if the path toward this saint or toward Our Lady does not end there, no. Not there, but in relationship with Christ. He is the bond, Christ is the bond that unites us to him and to each other, and which has a specific name: this bond that unites us all, between ourselves and us with Christ, it is the ‘communion of saints’.

As Catholics, we have a great devotion to the saints as we know them  to be good models for us in our faith as we journey to the Father. We feel a connection to these holy people, who in so many ways were a lot like us. It is one thing to read about  and study the saints of eons past, but our modern saints we can know much more about- not just myths of their holiness- but how truly human they were- how like us in our own sin condition. How they strove to be good, to go beyond the norm.  We have tapes and photos and documentation like no other time in history.  There is no covering up and sugar coating their lives.

St. John Paul II  said: “The Saints have always been the source and origin of renewal in the most difficult moments in the Church’s history.”  

With all we face in our world today, we need all the help we can get. It is to our spiritual advantage to get to know and make friends with the saints. Most of us treasure the friends we have, those we can really talk to in depth, through thick and thin- so why would we not want to have friends who can intercede for us in matters beyond what anyone here can help us with?  As we prepare for Lent, which is just around the corner, try to find a friend or two you can relate to- those who has already achieved what we strive or.    

                                                     Cathedral-  Los Angeles, CA

"Devotion to the saints is “simply talking to a brother, a sister, who is in the presence of God, who has led a righteous life, a model life, and is now in the presence of God. And I talk to this brother, this sister, and ask for their intercession for the needs that I have.” (Pope Francis)