More on My Life With the Saints

Well, I haven't finished this yet, but I need to return to the library stat. It is several days overdue, but because superdesign sister was in town last week, I didn't have much time to read or do anything else except to make my house prettier. More on that later. I'll have to finish this book another time. Each chapter--a profile of a saint with the author's experiences woven in--can stand alone, so it will be easy to pick up again.

Mormons look down on the Catholic practice of sainthood and praying to saints. As a missionary, I heard it compared to idol worship. Mormons believe in only praying to God the Father. But, I like Martin's introduction which explains his relationship to and feelings about saints.

First, he describes them as models of discipleship, each one individual, with a unique mission. "Each saint was holy in his or her unique way, revealing how God celebrates individuality. As CS Lewis writes in Mere Christianity: 'How monotonously alike all the great tyrants and conquerors have been: how gloriously different are the saints.' " As Martin learned about the lives of the saints, he studied not only their miracles and saintliness, but also their foibles and struggles, which in turn encouraged him in his weaknesses.

He also describes the saints as companions who can encourage us along the way. "Why not accept the gift of their friendship and devotion? And there's no reason to feel as if devotion to the saints somehow takes away from your devotion to Jesus: everything the saints say and do is centered on Christ and points us in his direction."

In some ways, his view of saints reminds me of how Mormons think about angels (except that there aren't nearly as many famous angels for Mormons as there are saints for Catholics). But Mormons believe that there are people who work for our benefit beyond the veil of earth, who can help us and comfort us, and who we could even talk to. We wouldn't call this praying to them, but prayer is a form of communication.

Here are a few other things that I liked from this book.

From a prayer by Thomas Merton:
My Lord God, I have no idea where I am going. I do not see the road ahead of me. I cannot know for certain where it will end. Nor do I really know myself, and the fact that I think I am following your will does not mean that I am actually doing so. But I believe that the desire to please you does in fact please you.

St Ignatius detailed a way of praying called the examination of conscience or the examen, after the Spanish word Ignatius used. He describes this way of communicating with God as a prayer of awareness, that helps God's presence to be more noticed in everyday life. These are the five steps.

1. Ask God to be with you
2. Recall the events of the day for which you feel grateful. These can be anything--small or large. "Offering gratitude help you recognize God's presence in these moments."
3. A review of the day. "Here you try to notice God's presence in the day, seeking an awareness of where you accepted (or did not accept) God's grace. I like to think of this as a movie of the day being replayed. When you recall someone offering you a kind work, you might say to yourself, "Yes, there was God." Conversely, when you recall treating someone with disrespect, you might say, "Yes, there I turned away from God."
4. Asking for forgiveness of any sins
5. Asking for the grace to follow God more closely during the following day.

Martin profiles quite a few saints, and a lot of them are women, including Joan of Arc, Mary, Dorothy Day, and Mother Teresa among other. I like that saints can be women as well as men, and I liked the stories he told about them.

A good read. I was impressed and inspired multiple times in reading what I did.