Cultivate Communion with the Saints

Yesterday, I stumbled upon a gem.

Flannery & I read this book last week.  It was great! 

On Facebook, a friend of mine had posted a video of Father Thomas Hopko's 55 maxims for Christian living.  I googled the podcast transcript and was just completely overwhelmed by the wisdom in this little list that an Orthodox priest (who died 1 year ago yesterday, May his memory be eternal.) had written.

Here is just a tiny snippet of his list of maxims:

4.  Say the Lord's Prayer several times a day.
5.  Have a short prayer that you constantly repeat when your mind is not occupied.
7.  Eat good foods in moderation.
8.  Practice silence, inner and outer. Just sit for a few minutes everyday in total silence.
9.  Do acts of mercy in secret.
16.  Read good books, a little at a time.
17.  Cultivate communion with the saints.
18.  Be an ordinary person.  Try to be like others as much as you can.
19.  Be polite with everyone--first of all, the members of your own family.
20.  Maintain cleanliness and order in your home.

There is so much here!

But what struck me most was #17 - to cultivate communion with the saints.  I've talked about this before on this blog, about how helpful it is for me to "consider the saints" and learn about them, so that I can be encouraged in this life on earth, which can really be tough.  The saints that went before us faced the same problems we do, and worse.  Yet they managed to rise above them.  They weren't  superhuman.  They were just people like us.  

For example, Flannery and I read last week about Saint Patrick.  I didn't know that he was captured from Britain as a child and taken to Ireland as a slave.  After six years as a slave shepherd, he escaped and tried to get away on a ship.  The ship was full of hunting hounds, and the story goes that when Patrick tried to board the ship, the captain didn't want him there because he suspected he was an escaped slave.  But the hounds howled and barked each time Patrick stepped away from them and quieted when Patrick was near, so eventually the captain agreed to take him home.  And even though he made it home to his family, Patrick felt called to leave them to share the word of God with the people of Ireland (who had earlier enslaved him!).  He went back and started a church in a barn in Ireland.  And now he is Ireland's patron saint.  I mean, I may have a stressful life sometimes, but I've never had to go try to teach my former captors about love and forgiveness.

So today, as I look ahead at a week crammed with too many evaluation reports to write and too many meetings to hold and too many meals to plan and too many birthday presents to buy and too many appointments to keep, it helps to think that others have faced all this and more.  That others have fought the good fight and won, and are now cheering me on from above.  It might sound cheesy, but in the Orthodox faith, we do believe that the Saints are able to intercede for us and to help us in our worldly struggles, even now.  Sometimes when I'm having a tough day, I like to pray for Saint John the Wonderworker to pray for me, and it gives me strength.  I also often pray that my grandparents (and my husband's grandfathers) and my uncle pray for me & my family.  Many times, I have felt so comforted by the thought that they are interceding on our part.

Cultivate communion with the saints.  It's more than just "considering" the saints, I think.  And this week, I'm going to try to do just that.



What about you?  Do you feel connected to those who have gone before you on this journey?  How do you cultivate that communion?  

Consider the Saints

I'm really inspired by reading about the lives of the saints.

You probably remember that one of my friends recently lost her 4 year old daughter in a car crash. I've prayed constantly for her for the last month, and one thing that has brought me a bit of hope for her healing has been praying to the saints to also intercede for her.

I've specifically prayed to Mary the Mother of Jesus and Saint Melania the Younger, both of whom lost children during their lives on earth. The agony of losing a child is something I can imagine, but I know I can't understand how it feels. But these saints have been there, and have somehow managed to bring glory to God even amidst lives of pain and suffering. When I ask them to pray for Rachel, I know that they will intercede for her knowing fully what she needs at this dark time.

Consider the saints. It's at once inspiring and humbling, and it really helps me out of any "poor me" funk or inward focus.




Who inspires you? Do you think it's crazy or inspiring to feel a connection with people who have already died?


By the way, my church has this great new link on its site of printable icon coloring pages. In the busy life I lead right now, I'm so thankful that wonderful folks make it easy for me to print materials for quick and easy spiritual teaching activities. Flannery seemed to enjoy coloring one of these pages this weekend (an icon of Jesus walking on water and pulling St. Peter up when he began to sink), and it inspired me to teach her a new(to-her) song about Saint Peter. The icon of the Annunciation of Mary is above, one of my favorites.

Help Where You Can

I heard a replay of a really amazing interview on NPR this morning with Miep Gies, one of the people who helped hide Anne Frank and her family during WWII. I had to sit in the car for a few minutes before going into a client's house to pull myself together after hearing it. (I admit it, I cried!) Miep was just so humble! (If you don't already know, Miep Gies died yesterday at 100 years old. She was the last of the remaining helpers of the Frank family, and she was the one who found and saved Anne's diary when the family was discovered and taken away.)

In the interview on NPR, Miep talked about how she would get a list from the family in the morning, and would go out and buy groceries and supplies for them each week. I read on Wikipedia that she didn't like being called a hero. Here's a quote from an online chat she did with some students:

"Imagine young people would grow up with the feeling that you have to be a hero to do your human duty. I am afraid nobody would ever help other people, because who is a hero? I was not. I was just an ordinary housewife and secretary."

She also said that when Otto Frank (Anne's dad) asked her to help hide the family,

"I answered, 'Yes, of course.' It seemed perfectly natural to me. I could help these people. They were powerless, they didn't know where to turn."

I love that she said, "I could help these people." It makes such an amazing act of kindness seem so normal, so do-able.

In Orthodoxy (have I mentioned I'm Orthodox?), reading about and learning from the lives of the Saints is right up there with praying on the list of important things to do to better yourself. Considering the lives of the saints helps point us in the right direction. In trying to learn more about Miep's life, I found her website, which was really interesting. Check it out to see some amazing photos of her, including one of her and her husband beside the bookshelf hiding the annex door.

Consider the saints.

And sometimes the saints are just normal, ordinary housewives and secretaries, helping where they can.



What helping opportunities are in front of you right now? Which ones seem to be the most do-able?