The Saints are Role Models and Dear Friends

Canonized saints are role models, showing humanity what’s possible when people dedicate their lives to knowing God, loving God and serving God. There’s a process of evolution that occurs after a person is “saved,” and that process (hopefully) is growth in holiness and growth in evolution to become more like God.

To become more like God involves getting to know God, but not like knowing a fact written in a book, but by having a relationship with that person. To have a relationship with a person you have to spend time with that person. That’s where prayer comes in.

Prayer is just having a conversation with God. There are lots of ways to pray, including praying just by thinking about God. And there’s also “praying without ceasing.” To “pray without ceasing” isn’t only about saying prayers (formally praying), or just thinking about God. “Praying without ceasing” means to live your life—however ordinary or extraordinary your life may be—in such a way that whatever you do, even the most mundane things you do, you do those things in a spirit of love and selflessness.

A lot of people go through their “holiness growth spurt” after they die, and they find themselves in Purgatory shedding away any remnants of their selfishness and their attraction to sin. Then there are those who go through their holiness growth spurt while on Earth. Most of these “Earthly saints” are never formally recognized or even informally recognized. But regardless of whether a person attains sainthood in Purgatory or while on Earth, November 1 is the day set aside to recognize every saint who is not in the list of canonized saints.

The process of being canonized by the Catholic Church has changed over the years, but one thing is certain. The canonized saints are the people we should look up to as role models, as examples of the highest levels of “human potential.”

There’s a lot of diversity within the ranks of the canonized saints, perhaps not enough diversity to please some people, but there is definitely a lot of diversity. Just pick up any book of the “Lives of the Saints” and you’ll likely see stories of people who will capture your imagination and give you the inspiration you need to become more dedicated to knowing, loving and serving God, to become more dedicated to evolving in holiness, in love and in selflessness.

Don’t hesitate to have a relationship with saints who you feel drawn to, who you feel attracted to. And just like developing a relationship with God through prayer, you can also develop deep relationships with the saints through prayer. Praying to saints involves having a conversation with them, thinking about them, and loving them (not worshiping them like you worship God, but loving them and venerating them for giving their lives in such a beautiful way so as to give all of us the inspiration we need to become more like God, to become more “fully human”).

I have had so many wonderful conversations with saints – not always audible (messages coming in through my ears) or visual (messages coming in through my eyes), but nonetheless very perceptible in the depths of my being. The messages are so real that they cannot be denied. How do I know they are real? I know they are real because they reveal truth that is a) always in alignment with the teachings of the Magisterium of the Catholic Church and b) always promoting one or more of the “gifts” or “fruits” of the Holy Spirit:

The seven gifts of the Holy Spirit are wisdom, understanding, counsel, fortitude, knowledge, piety, and fear of the Lord. They belong in their fullness to Christ, Son of David. They complete and perfect the virtues of those who receive them. They make the faithful docile in readily obeying divine inspirations. (Catechism 1831)

The fruits of the Spirit are perfections that the Holy Spirit forms in us as the first fruits of eternal glory. The tradition of the Church lists twelve of them: charity, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, generosity, gentleness, faithfulness, modesty, self-control, chastity. (Catechism 1832)

Pope Benedict XVI stated that “nothing can bring us into close contact with the beauty of Christ Himself other than the world of beauty created by faith and light that shines out from the faces of the saints, through whom His own light becomes visible.”

Every day I grow more deeply in love with the saints who are personally accompanying me on my pilgrimage from this Earthly “valley of tears” to my destination in Heaven.

Above all, I am so deeply in love with Mary. She has absolutely transformed my life and my understanding of the “communion of saints” – a communion that enables me to actively participate in the amazing and wonderful events in Heaven, where there is indescribably joy of being in the presence of God.

My beloved canonized partners on this journey of faith are, first and foremost, Mary, as well as Saint Joseph, Saint Therese (The Little Flower), Saint Faustina, Saint Teresa of Avila, Saint Thomas Aquinas, Saint Padre Pio, Saint Francis, Saint Anthony of Padua, Saint Anthony of the Desert, Saint Dominic, Saint Peter, Saint Paul, Saint Timothy, Saint John of the Cross and Saint Augustine.

My non-canonized partners are my mom and dad, who I regularly converse with in Heaven, and Mother Angelica, who although is still with us on Earth, gives me the inspiration to keep proclaiming the splendors of the Catholic faith even though I often find myself with one foot in the air and a queasy feeling in my stomach.