Sunday, April 21, 2013
Sunday Reflection: The Saints I Know
As I have pretty much already definitively established, I don't believe in the kind of heavenly saints who intercede between humans and God-- my faith allows for a direct connection to God that does not need, and would not benefit from, from such intercession.
That said, I am lucky that there are saints here on earth who have interceded on my behalf, many times. I am lucky enough to be with some of them this weekend here in Chicago, where I gave a presentation yesterday with Hulitt Gloer and Randall O'Brien, two such saints. Today, I will hear Randall preach.
I don't mean this in a flip or silly way; both of these men have in very real and direct ways interceded on my behalf, have confronted and improved my relationship with God, and have helped me to understand more clearly what the world needs from me, and what God requires. Hulitt is the one, for example, who convinced me that what I needed to pursue was law as a vocation, a life project where teaching and scholarship and advocacy are bound together by a stout rope woven of faith. Randall, more than once, has saved me from doubt.
Recognize, too, that with these saints they have not just helped me, but helped me in the way that Catholic Saints help believers in that faith-- interceded in a flawed relationship with God to bind it up, nurse it to health, and encourage it.
How do you thank your saints?
Comments:
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The biggest saints in my life are my in-laws, Jack and Dee Willome. I don't know where we'd be without them right now. And several years ago, we weren't even speaking to each other. I'm glad we all got past that.
Everyone has saints. They come in and out of our lives and they are wisps of grace. Some of them stay longer than others -- and sometimes we do not even recognize that they are saints at all until after they are gone. Saints surround all of us - we just have to be aware enough to be able to breathe them in.
# posted by 
: 4:40 PM
: 4:40 PM
How do I thank my saints? By not taking for granted anything and I really mean anything this life of mine has in store for me. So that when I get to see them here or beyond, I can honestly tell them the life lessons they taught me took me on a journey well worth it, all thanks to them.
This hymn is one of my best answers to the question posed:
1. I sing a song of the saints of God,
patient and brave and true,
who toiled and fought and lived and died
for the Lord they loved and knew.
And one was a doctor, and one was a queen,
and one was a shepherdess on the green;
they were all of them saints of God, and I mean,
God helping, to be one too.
2. They loved their Lord so dear, so dear,
and his love made them strong;
and they followed the right for Jesus' sake
the whole of their good lives long.
And one was a soldier, and one was a priest,
and one was slain by a fierce wild beast;
and there's not any reason, no, not the least,
why I shouldn't be one too.
3. They lived not only in ages past;
there are hundreds of thousands still.
The world is bright with the joyous saints
who love to do Jesus' will.
You can meet them in school, on the street, in the store,
in church, by the sea, in the house next door;
they are saints of God, whether rich or poor,
and I mean to be one too.
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1. I sing a song of the saints of God,
patient and brave and true,
who toiled and fought and lived and died
for the Lord they loved and knew.
And one was a doctor, and one was a queen,
and one was a shepherdess on the green;
they were all of them saints of God, and I mean,
God helping, to be one too.
2. They loved their Lord so dear, so dear,
and his love made them strong;
and they followed the right for Jesus' sake
the whole of their good lives long.
And one was a soldier, and one was a priest,
and one was slain by a fierce wild beast;
and there's not any reason, no, not the least,
why I shouldn't be one too.
3. They lived not only in ages past;
there are hundreds of thousands still.
The world is bright with the joyous saints
who love to do Jesus' will.
You can meet them in school, on the street, in the store,
in church, by the sea, in the house next door;
they are saints of God, whether rich or poor,
and I mean to be one too.
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