Praying with the Saints

One of the topics that I often like to talk about is the Saints. Usually when someone asks me about ways to pray, I recommend starting with wrote prayer (our memorized prayers), meditational prayer and having that conversation with God, praying with Sacred Scripture, and often times praying with the saints.

Some of the reasons that I like to recommend praying with the saints, is that first of all, they were just regular people like us, they were born, they lived, they made mistakes, sinned, but in the end, they ended up living out the life that God was calling them to.

When praying with the saints, i usually recommend to find a topic that you can relate to and then look up a patron saint that is related to that. For example, if you are someone who loves music, then St. Cecilia is the patron saint of music and musicians, because she heard heavenly music in her heart when she was married. If you have a passion for sports, St. Sabastian is the patron saint of athletes because he was a strong soldier who was shot so full of arrows that he looked like a pin-cushion. There are some things that there are many patron saints that will help and guide; the Blessed Virgin Mary is the first one that will come to mind, as well as St. Anne, her own mother who taught her, St. Martha who was a friend of Jesus who famously complained that her sister was sitting at the feet of Jesus instead of helping her with the work of the house, St. Monica the mother of St. Augustine, she prayed for years that her son would have a conversion of heart and become a Christian, as well as many others for mothers. For fathers, there are also a number of them that can help us; St. Joseph the husband of Mary who is also the patron saint of the Church, St. Joachim, the grandfather of Jesus, St. Thomas More, who thought that he was to be a monk, but was called to be a husband and father, St. Maximilian Kolbe, who gave his life for a father with young children, as well as many others. If you like to cook, St. Lawrence, he is the patron saint of cooks, ironically, because he was grilled to death.

Sometimes you can be drawn to a saint for other reasons, for example, I am drawn to St. Anthony because I was born on his feast day, and I forget a lot of things and he is the patron saint of lost items. I am also fond of Therese of Lisieux, because of the holy life that she led, and of Mother Theresa because of her missionary zeal.

There are so many wonderful examples for us out there and they are an incredible help, we simply need to utilize them. You quite literally can find a patron saint of just about any activity or hobby, so look one up and then find out why they happen to have the patronage that they have. With the obvious exception of Mary, the saints weren’t perfect, but they did end up in the glory that God is offering each and every one of us.

God bless,
Fr. Ken