....They Do Their Thing

But I shall assume, for the purpose of serious miracles, that people pray a lot to St. Giles or St. Aldegundis for a cancer cure.  Heart problems are directed to St. John of God.  Breast cancer pleas go to St. Agatha.  And the list goes on. I must also assume that countless numbers of people have dutifully followed this route. I would go so far as to pose that saints are continuously inundated with requests from desperate persons, every hour of every day.

And yet it seems to me that the authorities search long and hard to verify just 2 miracles.  Most saints only get their stripes after a long and arduous process.  But, on occasion, find those miracles they do, which must mean, by definition, that saintly intervention can cure people.

Now I have prayed mightily for friends and strangers, and begged the saints for intervention.  But alas, the people I want to live, don’t.  The ones whose conditions I beg to be improved, aren’t.  Overall, I think I have a dismal record of convincing any saint that those for whom I pray are worthy of their consideration.  Yet, they are good, decent folks who deserve much better than they are getting.

I am certain I am not alone in my frustration.  After years of simply accepting the results, I have grown impatient and reflective.   It began to dawn on me that this is true: many pray, few are answered.  So, I pondered, if they can cure people of earthly maladies, then why do they do it so selectively?

Let us role play.  Say I’m a saint, hanging out on my little cloud with all the other saints, part of the heavenly management team, and it’s “listen to prayers” time.  I bet I would hear scads of pleas floating up to me for my consideration.

Why, I wondered, would I ignore any of them?  Is it my job to sit in some kind of judgment?  And based on what criteria? Is that what saints are all about?  What kind of saint would that make me? Isn’t it my job to just simply help everyone?  Just why would I grant life (face it, that’s what we’re usually praying for – and it’s the basis for the 2 miracles) to one person, and refuse to help another? 

Now, in the spirit of fairness, these musings must apply to all persons.  But there is a special group of persons for whom this is absolutely applicable….children.

Now, I can almost begin to see the reasoning behind not helping older persons (partially on the assumption that they ain’t got long anyway, and perhaps saints, like cops, are on some kind of quota system). But how could any saint in good conscience not help a baby, or a toddler, or a little person? 

 I believe that more people pray to saints on behalf of little kids than for any other reason.  No saint will ever receive a more fervent, impassioned plea, than one from a desperate mother begging for intervention for her baby, even to the extreme of offering her own life for that of her child.  How any saint could fail to be moved to help in such a scenario is far beyond my comprehension.

If saints can, and do,  cure people of terminal illnesses and fatal conditions, then there should be no baby, no toddler, no little person, dying in any hospital, anywhere.  Period.  And yet newspapers daily tell a different story.

So, there you have it.  To my admittedly limited intellect, that’s how I see things in the world of saints. Too simple?  Unrealistic?  Wrong focus? Not to me.  But I’m sure any novice theologian could blast holes in my reasoning with an argument that would have me believe that saving one person in 100 at the expense of the other 99 is really acceptable and part of the grand master plan.  If that be true, then a lot of people die every day waiting for a call back from their favorite saint, who, in my humble opinion, has their priorities upside down, and backwards.

Mark Twain Quote:  “Heaven goes by favor.  If it went by merit, you would stay out and your dog would go in.”

Oh When The Saints.....

Coming from a family largely Irish by trade, I was born both a Roman Catholic and a Democrat. I was not consulted. My parents gave me absolutely no say in the matter.  And thru such circumstance, much of life is channeled at birth.

I attended public elementary school, but for reasons that now rest with them, my parents shuffled me off to a Catholic high school.  At least the name of the school had the word “Academy” attached to it, which I suppose gave it some kind of real or imagined predominance and status.

Thus, I spent arguably the four most pivotal years of my life in the embrace of the Sisters of St. Joseph. Those good nuns used the time honored methods of the day in their dispensing of knowledge to our eager, yet wandering minds…the clicker, the ruler, and the rote.

I was deathly afraid of those black and whites, and attempted to fly way under the radar during my time there.  But early on, one of the first things that caused me to sit straight up and take notice was the “nine first Fridays” perk (as I saw it) of my faith. My interpretation of this short cut to heaven was:  if I made the nine first Fridays, my salvation would be assured. My future status of  “toes up” would become the only requirement for punching my ticket on the express to Heaven. No fool from Liverpool, I immediately made this goal my first priority.  Saved, no matter what else I did in life.  Now that was a load off. I contentedly awaited my future.

But I digress.  Among many other things, we also learned about saints. You know,  saint – a person formally recognized or canonized by the Church after death, who may be the object of veneration and prayers for intercession.  Saints, we were told, were very powerful, capable of extraordinary deeds.

There is, as I vaguely remember, more than one way to achieve “sainthood.”  Martyrdom (dying for the faith) brings instant salvation.   No surer way to fast track oneself to everlasting bliss, although the act required could be a tad painful and prolonged. Personally, I would not recommend this road.

The road most of us are familiar with is: miracles.  If a saint-to-be can be shown to have performed 2 (I believe), miracles, then they were, as a nun once told me, “as good as in.”  These miracles usually take the form of curing people of  terminal illness or a fatal medical condition, where it can conclusively be shown that there was no medical or rational basis for the cure, save the intervention by the saint-to-be.  And how to approach the saint-to-be, or saint?  Prayer. 

In most cases, prayers are simply directed to saints in general.  In some cases, one prays to a particular saint, as they all have a specialty. Tooth problem?  St. Antipas.  Your cat need help?  St. Gertrude of Nivelles can purr for you.  A tinge of VD got you depressed, then St. Fiacre is your go to guy.  Aspiring comedian?  St. Vitus awaits your prayers.  Afraid of wasps?  St. Friard can ward them off. Fledgling poet with writer’s block?  Look to St. David for inspiration. A bout of dysentery got you feeling low? Dial up St. Lucy of Syracuse. Even beggars have a protector in St. Alexius.  I am not making this up folks! 

(…..To Be Continued)

Mark Twain Quote:  “I have never seen what to me seemed an atom of truth that there is a future life..and yet—I am strongly inclined to expect one.”