Saint Reflection from a Marianist :-)

Recently, a miracle occurred in St. Louis that was announced to perhaps be the final miracle needed for Blessed William Joseph Chaminade to become a canonized saint within the Catholic Church. For those of you who do not know, Fr. Chaminade is one of the founders of the Marianist order, the order that founded UD, where I now work and study. One of my Marianist friends Andy expressed some concern as to why a person needs to pray to a saint for a medical/physical miracle. "Why shouldn't we just pray to God?", he pondered. Prayer to saints is probably one of the most misunderstood and controversial topic within the Catholic faith, and I am still not sure if I fully understand it, but I seek to try. Here is a very well-written response to Andy's concern by Brother Tom Peiper, a Marianist brother here at UD:

Andy, thanks for sharing the information on Rachel's miracle and her life story. I certainly had heard of her, the cancer and her praying to Chaminade. People have been praying for miracles for centuries. As you said Andy, in your email, that God can do what God wants and therefore God can work miracles. God does not need any saints to do miracles; but God created all of us and calls all of us to love and share the gifts we have with one another. I believe in the communion of saints both in heaven and on earth and that we pray, talk to those who have died and gone to heaven. I pray and talk everyday to both of my parents who have died. I sense their spirit with me at times. Because of God's love for us all, both in heaven and on earth, God invites saints in heave, and all of us on earth to continue to love each other and help each other. God works through saints in heave and through us on earth to make miracles happen in each others' lives. God has used you Andy, and God has used me a number of times to bring about new life to others! And others have helped me find new life too. Sometimes these intercessions like with Rachel and Chaminade, bring about a killing of cancer and new life for a person, in this case Rachel.

I do have a dislike, for how the Church states that for a person to be called a "real Saint" he or she must have three miracles from people who prayed to that person before that person can be called a Saint, like Chaminade and other more famous saints. If a person trieds to lead a good life on earth and prays, loves and really shows their love of God here on earth, then when that person dies they should be called a saint without having to have any miracles.

And last, I believe their are thousands of miracles that happen every day, most of us are just too "blind" "too busy" to see any of them. Blessings and Love, BT

Something to ponder!!