Jesus lived 2000 years ago. (I know, technically Jesus lived from the beginning as still lives now, but his earthly life was 2000 years ago). In the time since his death, resurrection and ascension, there have been millions if not billions of people who followed him and his teaching, commonly called Christians.
In some Christian traditions, some of these Christians are especially important – they have lived a life that was virtuous and holy and pointed to God. They are grouped together as Saints. A large number of the Saints appear to have been martyred, although I haven’t studied them all.
For this tradition, the Saints can intercede on our behalf and therefore are prayed to in certain circumstances – for example when travelling, St Christopher may be prayed to as patron saint of travel. This is not a tradition I was brought up in or taught about, but I have friends that it is important to, so I asked about it. They had a couple of responses:
Intercessors
We often ask our friends and communities to pray with and for us. Praying to the saints is like that – asking other Christians to pray with and for us. This is a principle in the bible which Paul talks about when writing to give advice to other churches.
Prayers of the righteous
Following on from that, in James’s letter, he writes about the power of the prayers of the righteous. The saints in heaven definitely come under that category, so it makes sense to ask them to intercede.
Learning
This was my favourite response: they have lived such interesting lives and can teach us so much – we would be missing out on so much to ignore them. This is the reason for my bog post today. The Saints have led interesting lives, come up against all sorts of trials, have lived in the real world, made mistakes and still left a legacy that points to God. They come from all backgrounds, all nationalities, all ages – they are all so wonderfully different like us. Their stories are so rich and they have so much to teach about living in step with God.
Growing up in a church, I wasn’t always great at listening to the sermon, but from my seat I could see a stained glass window with St Martin, who saw a beggar by the roadside and cut his cloak in half to share with the man who had nothing. It’s still one of my favourite stories. St Francis and St Clare were rich nobles who gave everything up to follow Jesus. Contemporaries in the same area, they ministered differently. Francis travelled around to spread the gospel, Clare set up an abbey for girls to join her and dedicate their lives to God.
The Saints offer us a rich tapestry throughout history of people who lived their lives for God, who didn’t have it easy but chose to do it anyway. If they could walk through their trials and still lean on God, then so can I. I have a book of Saints through lent – one saint a day, just a snippet and what that may teach me – and I am looking forward to the lessons God will teach me through it.
Do you have a favourite saint? Maybe there are a couple whose stories can inspire you. If you are looking for a way to grow closer to God this lent, why not try looking at these Christians that history has remembered as good examples of followers of Jesus?
The Reason for my Hope Blog 