Saints preserve us, angels protect us

There are saints for everything imaginable, from lost keys and hopeless causes to the pangs of childbirth and broken limbs. The late Pope ensured that a further 2,000 will be knocking on heaven's door. So why, asks Quentin de la Bedoyere, have we stopped singing their praises in the Litany of the Saints?
"Saint Stephen, pray for us. Saints COMMIS and Damian, pray frir us. Saint Anastasia. pray for us."
My old missal tells me that the Litany of the Saints is sung on various liturgical days, and "when the Church wishes to avert a calamity or implore the mercy of God". It "dates back to the early centuries of the Christian era" which. in sonic people's view, seems to be roughly at the beginning of Vatican II.
It came into my mind when. by coincidence. I went to Mass on April 29. which turned out to be the feast day of St Catherine of Siena. my mother's patron saint. and to whom she was devoted. Catherine was.a mystic, living in the turbulent 14th century when the Church was at one of its lowest points. She was nothing if not vigorous, and quite ready to admonish the pope directly when she had cause. What a splendid saint to have for a patron in the 21st century, when our need is so great!
But it is far too long since I shared publicly in the Litany of the Saints, and far too long since I studied the life of a saint and tried to draw some inspiration from it. This is a great pity. My childhood and youth were full of accounts of saints. One of the great features of the Church is that. through its mediation. God offers so many diverse entrances that each of us can choose the doors that suit us best. Some approach the Church through the intellect, some through interior perceptions; you may choose to which person of the Trinity you most naturally address your prayers; I may choose Our Lady as my way to her son all roads lead to God.
If that diversity is still not enough, how about the saints? I have made a rough count of 3,600 saints and that was before Pope John Paul got cracking with nearly 2,000 canonisations and beatifications. We are spoilt for choice. Admittedly St Serf, a Pictish bishop, or St Potamon, one-eyed and argumentative at Nicaea, may not spring immediately to mind, but there are plenty of others, You have no less than eight Teresas to pick from; some will favour Padre Pio, others Josemaria Escriva, Mary Magdalen, John of the Cross, Thomas a Becket. two Augustines, the English Martyrs who died for the unity of the Church, or the recent Latin American martyrs who died, at Catholic hands, for the justice and peace of the Gospel, all the apostles, save one the choice is wide, and each has some quality of holiness which will appeal to one or the other of us.
We can even take inspiration from knowing that they, too, often had their faults. Margaret Mary Alacoque was not, by many accounts, distinguished for her charm, yet she was chosen to promote devotion to the love that God has for us; Peter was a man of many weaknesses yet he was made strong enough to head the Church. It is a great encouragement to know that God often chooses unpromising material to fulfil his promises. They are all heroes and deserve our devotion.
In fact some might argue that there are too many saints. Some commentators have been critical of Pope John Paul's profligacy, and I see that Pope Benedict is raising the barriers somewhat, which may be a good thing. Quality rather than quantity is what we require. On the day on which I write this 10 saints have their commemoration. Have 1 time to pray to them all?
On the other hand, there may be too few. Why does Oscar Romero still languish outside the pale when in Latin America he is revered by millions? And we should remem ber that everyone in a state of grace is a saint. One lady I spoke to said that she did not often pray to the formal saints, but chose instead saints from her family and friends, all now in heaven.
Another, an adult convert in 1954, told me that she did not think so much of the individual saints as of the great line of holiness which joined her, over 2,000 years, to the first saint of all.
By the accounts of my friends, St Antony of Padua, whose feast is June Saints, right, are still objects of devotion, but the Litany of Saints has died out in many churches Photo: CNS 13. is the most overworked saint and certainly by me. His reputation came from compelling, through prayer, a novice to return a stolen psalter. Perhaps we should make a diary note to say thank you on his feast day for all he has done for us during the year. Try not to mislay your diary. And we each have our own patrons. You need to know that, when St Quentin was beheaded for the faith, a dove flew up to heaven out of his severed neck. This may account for my annoying absentmindedness.
All this made me think of the Communion of Saints. an awareness which seems to have fallen a little into the background. The other day I had to give a short address in my local church, and from the pulpit I noticed an empty space. Of course that was Biddy's place. before she died just weeks ago. But she was still with us, and still praying with us, and we with her. The veil which separates me from. say, St Paul, is as thin and translucent as the veil which separates me from my parents or my brother and sister, all with God. And one day it will be as translucent between my wife and me, unless we are fortunate enough to die together.
I am not going to say that this is a particularly Catholic thing. because that implies that we are one among many. I hasten to acknowledge the virtues and the presence of the Spirit in other denominations, and indeed we will be all one in heaven. But it was the Church which Christ founded which preserved the unbroken tradition of sanctity back over two millennia. It teaches that we are all truly made holy through grace. On earth, in purgatory and in heaven we are all joined in one vast crowd of saints a very few of us heroically and most of us scraping by because God is greedy for souls. We are indeed saved as individuals, but as individuals within a great community of saints in this world and the next.
We pray to the saints just as we ask for favours from our friends, and they from us. They do not stand between us and God; on the contrary they are a flare path lighting us to him. If we disregard the saints, care nothing for their influence with God, treat them as historical obscurities. we are missing out on important assistance and example from our closest friends, preserved for us by the recognition and the tradition of the Church.
And if ever we needed to avert calamities and implore the mercy of God. we need to now.
"All ye holy Angels and Archangels All ye Patriarchs and Prophets All ye holy Apostles and Evangelists .411 ye holy martyrs All ye holy Bishops All ye holy Priests All ye holy men and women, Pray for us."