Nov. 1, 2013 Friday: Solemnity of All Saints

They say that friends are the people that know all about you and still put up with you. A priest took that saying and made it more Christian: a friend is one who knows us, but loves us anyway.

I think C.S. Lewis had the best quote about friendship when he said, "Friendship is born at that moment when one person says to another, 'What! You too? I thought I was the only one.'"

When you really think about it, all of us are meant to have partners to journey with us through different phases of life. Whether we are married or single, we need solid connections in our lives that go deeper than meeting for coffee once a week or catching a movie after work. We call them friends, but I'd like to make a distinction between friends and spiritual friends. Spiritual friends walk with us--like the two disciples traveling together on the road to Emmaus--talking with us, teaching us, praying with us, bringing us closer to God and, helping us reach our fullest and truest potential. Spiritual friendships may develop slowly over months or even years. That's true, too, of the spiritual friends we call saints. We may not know much about them, other than someone telling us that we should pray to them when trying to find something that is lost, or that we should ask that person to pray for us when we have a particular illness. I’m sure many of us have prayed, ‘Toni, Toni look around! Something’s lost and must be found.” And how many of the women here prayed, ‘St. Anne, St. Anne, send me a man!’

The other day, I visited with someone who was recently diagnosed with cancer. On her coffee table was a drawing made by her granddaughter. It was a picture of a man with a bleeding leg, and on the back of the picture was written, "St. Peregrine: Patron Saint of Cancer Victims. Peregrine was afflicted with cancer in the foot. The night before his surgery to have his leg amputated, Peregrine prayed all night. His case was considered hopeless. The next morning he was cured. Peregrine turned to God and was rewarded for his faith. He was able to lead many others to the truth.” It was signed, ‘we love and support you!’

Saints are the spiritual friends who traveled the road of challenges and difficulties themselves. They desire to help us because they care and love us. We are not praying to a static statue or a picture. They are living spiritual friends who can offer insights and prayers, comfort and encouragement when we are struggling with our children or a problem at work. Such companionship can bring us a deep sense of peace that comes from knowing that we are loved in a particular way and that we are not alone. Do you have a saint as a spiritual friend? If not, what’s keeping you from seeking one?