by Father Keith Chadwick
Who are the saints? They are a key part of living the Catholic life, and yet there is much confusion over devotion to them. Canonized saints are the men and women that the church formally declares are in heaven, and that we can follow their example to attain heaven as well.
This does not mean that they never sinned or never struggled. They, like us, had the effects of original sin.
When we pray to the saints it is a different type of prayer compared to when we pray to God. When we pray to the saints we are engaging in intercessory prayer; we are asking the saints in heaven to pray to God for us; it is the same as when we ask someone here on earth to pray for us.
I like to think of saints as our older brothers and sisters: They have walked this earth before us, they have struggled with the same things we struggle with, they rejoiced in the same things we rejoice in, they simply have attained the goal of our faith: the salvation of our souls (cf. 1 Pt 1:9).
Two examples of saints in Scripture not being perfect are Sts. Peter and Paul. St. Peter denied the Lord three times and abandoned him in his passion. Yet, we see St. Peter repents after the Resurrection.
St. Paul actively persecuted the church and consented to the death of St. Stephen, the first martyr. Yet, St. Paul went on to convert and then help the Mediterranean world know the Good News of Jesus Christ.
How can we learn more about the saints? Slowly! We can’t drink the ocean except for a cup at a time, and there are thousands of canonized saints. Every saint has a feast day or a day that we celebrate them.
Start by finding out which saints we celebrate on your birthday or other important days in your life. Read the stories of saints! If you have children, read short stories to them. When I was a boy, my parents had a book of the saints that occasionally we would read a story of a saint before bed.
A local way to learn more about saints would be to come visit our cathedral. The Cathedral of St. Peter, Prince of the Apostles, has relics of saints given to our diocese when we became the Diocese of Kansas City. Our cathedral is also the Shrine to St. Maria Soledad, who just happens to be my favorite saint.
Ultimately, having devotion to the saints helps us to experience in this life that the universal call to holiness is possible. We are called by Jesus Christ to become holy.
The church teaches us through the Second Vatican Council document “Lumen Gentium,” that “All the faithful of Christ of whatever rank or status, are called to the fullness of the Christian life and the perfection of charity; . . . They must follow in His footsteps and conform themselves to His image seeking the will of the Father in all things. They must devote themselves with all their being to the glory of God and the service of their neighbor” (paragraph 41).
We can learn from the saints how to live so as to become saints ourselves.
“We can, if we will, become a saint, or God will never refuse to help us to do so.”
St. John Vianney
