What are saints and why pray to saints?
Saints are persons who have died and have gone to heaven. They lived a life of heroic virtue because of their love for Jesus Christ. The saints are the good and faithful servants of the Lord (cf. Matthew 25:21), they are the blessed ones who have inherited the kingdom (cf. Matthew 25:34).
Christians need to be reminded of the saints because although saints are human persons like us, they inspire us to live a life of heroic virtue out of love for Jesus Christ. We ask the saints to pray for us so that we too can live a life that is pleasing to the Lord. We can always pray directly to God, but God has given us the saints to be our helpers. In this life, God always sends people to help us. In the same way, God also sends angels and saints to help us, even if we don’t see them with our eyes.
Acknowledgement: painting by Gwyneth Thompson-Briggs Holy Innocents (martyred 7-2 BC) Feast Day: December 28 When Herod realized that he had been deceived by the magi, he became furious. He ordered the massacre of all the boys in Bethlehem and its vicinity two years old and under, in accordance with the ...
Saint Stephen (5-34 AD) Feast Day: December 26 The martyrdom of Stephen (from the Acts of the Apostles 6:8-7:2a, 44-59) Stephen was a man filled with grace and power, who worked great wonders and signs among the people. Certain members of the so-called “Synagogue of Roman Freedmen” (that is, the ...
Saint John (d. 100 AD) Feast Day: December 27 From the First Letter of John 1:1-4 What was from the beginning, what we have heard, what we have seen with our eyes, what we looked upon and touched with our hands concerns the Word of life – for the life ...
Saint Ambrose (340-397 AD) Feast Day：December 7 Let us die with Christ, to live with Christ We see that death is gain, life is loss. Paul says: For me life is Christ, and death a gain. What does “Christ” mean but to die in the body, and receive the breath ...
Saint Francis Xavier (1506-1552 AD) Feast Day: December 3 Woe to me if I do not preach the Gospel We have visited the villages of the new converts who accepted the Christian religion a few years ago. No Portuguese live here—the country is so utterly barren and poor. The native ...
Saint John of the Cross (1542-1591 AD) Feast Day: December 14 In Christ, God has spoken to us Under the ancient law prophets and priests sought from God revelations and visions which indeed they needed, for faith had as yet no firm foundation and the gospel law had not yet ...
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