In the Midst and Beyond

This game we enjoy, Saintfest, gets more fun with more and more participation from you and others. Actually, I'm going through the practice of plucking up the courage to ask for promotion for our contest around the catholic media corner of the internet. And this morning, God's Providence blessed me with some inspiration by coming across an excellent video from Amber Rose, The Religious Hippie, livestream and posted to YouTube touching on the topic of choosing a patron saint. The link is down below. Please check it out, and feel free to head over to her social media if you'd like to hear more.

In the midst of the video, I enjoyed the practical methods of getting to know saints better with some guiding theology sprinkled on top. God's inspiration connected her topic to the vision beyond Saintfest for me: Saintfest is a gateway to enjoyment of the vast number of saints of the Church. It is a meet-and-greet to relish in the magnanimous, in the strong, and, perhaps more importantly, in the lesser-known saints. It is my prayer that all of this playful exploration leads to both us, here in the Church Militant, loving the saints more earnestly, more trusty, but also them, in the Church Triumphant, having more concrete opportunities to seek our friendship. As Amber notes, St. Thérèse of Lisieux, will involve roses (their placement in our paths, their scents, their petals, etc.) as she is seeking a holy friendship with us. All of the saints have lived real lives here on Earth, and they are patrons because they intimately know the details of struggling and of overcoming. They are given to us as a way to demonstrate that we are not dealing with things no one has ever dealt with before, and as a demonstration of God's detailed awareness of our lives: He connects us with people have gone through the same experiences.

To summarize some ideas from her video (below), you could start just asking for more intercession each day from a new saint. Or if there is a saint who has some life experience that inspires or calls to you, perhaps you could pray a novena to them. Many graces, even unperceived, come from this practice.