In case you’re reading this on Halloween – the day I posted it – tomorrow is All Saints Day. If you’ve got a pile of petitions or complaints or belated thank you’s to address to God, this is an expeditious day to get them processed in real time. For a very good reason. Instead of relying on your own feeble presentation, maybe you can get a whole lot more bang for your buck in reaching the desk of the heavenly CEO by employing the advocacy or intercession of a Saint.

Think of it this way: why make the plea yourself, or through an inexperienced court-appointed attorney, when you can be served for free by somebody along the lines of Clarence Darrow or Socrates or Perry Mason – only at the most nuclear Supreme Court level – and on steroids!

Thanks to the devout nuns who educated me, I’m still a fervent believer in saints, angels, and the power of prayer! If you aren’t though, you’re excused from reading on, and you will probably be relieved to know that in spite of my possibly over-imaginative spiritual leanings, at least, I don’t believe in Santa Claus anymore……Except on rare occasions, such as when I don’t feel like doing the Christmas shopping and decide it’s time for that red-suited derelict to step up to the plate and DO HIS JOB for a change. How many times have I found the cookies and milk still there in the morning with nary a present in view?

On the other hand, relying on prayer for gifts – now that often works wonders. And it helps relieve stress and worry. I read once the good advice to “Give your troubles to God. He’ll be up all night, anyway.”

Of course, with or without outside help, getting an answer to our prayers can be unpredictable. I have learned this through vast experience. It’s been said that all prayers are answered, but sometimes the answer is “No”, and sometimes it’s “You’ve got to be kidding!” And, of course, when you do get a “Yes!” often you may discover that you didn’t actually want what you asked for!

But as for prayer, next time you are whimpering with pain or heartache, sleepless with worry, or need other kinds of drastic help from above, don’t forget to ask one or more of the Saints to at least give you a good reference!

If you’re accustomed to thinking of the Saints as the dorks they’re usually pictured as, erase those images from your mind. Pick up instead any well-researched tome on the Lives of the Saints, and get yourself ready to delve into the suffering, violence, drama, persecution, and, yes, sins and mistakes of some of the toughest and bravest action heroes of all time; and stand in awe of the way they managed the cards they were dealt.

I’ve got a whole list of favorite advocates that I lean on, not counting, of course, the Blessed Mother, who, for obvious reasons, is possibly first on any prayer list for help. Like me, you may be operating on the convincing theory that it must surely be harder to say “No” to His Son’s Mom.

Just to name a few, your own handy spiritual “Rolodex” of additional helpful Saints might include the following:

1. SAINT JUDE is the patron saint of lost causes and desperate situations. Jude is his nickname. His real name was Judas, but Bible scholars refer to him as Jude to differentiate him from Judas of Iscariot, the betrayer of Jesus. According to tradition, St. Jude suffered martyrdom about 65 AD in Beirut, in the Roman province of Syria. The axe that he is often shown holding in pictures symbolizes the way in which he was killed. He’s got a great rep for being the go-to guy when you’re faced with decapitation, virtual or otherwise, or whenever you’re desperate and when all else has failed. You can read more about him here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jude_the_Apostle

2. SAINT JOAN OF ARC is the patron saint of France, prisoners, people ridiculed for their piety, rape victims, and soldiers (particularly women who are soldiers). If there was a patron saint of feminism, Joan would be a shoe-in! She was was a very tough cookie. (I always liked knowing that she was my sister Joan’s patron saint.)

Believing she was acting under divine guidance, and after winning over some male skeptics, Joan was about 18 years old when she led the French army to victory over England’s troops in the 1429 battle at Orleans during the Hundred Years’ War. She was a war hero in France, but a year later, she was captured by the English, accused of witchcraft and heresy, and then burned at the stake.

One of the charges against her was “cross-dressing” from feminine clothing to military armor and uniform. She continued to wear the gear when in prison for protection against molestation and rape by other prisoners. She was only nineteen years old by the time of her trial, but it was reported that she faced her horrific death with the same stoicism and courage that she had used in her heroic efforts to serve God – while she was incidentally shattering the male stereotypical “glass ceiling” of her day. Read more about her at: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joan_of_Arc

3. SAINT ANTHONY OF PADUA is the patron saint of lost things. He was a Franciscan friar and, in Portugal, he’s considered to be one of the Church’s greatest preachers. He was devoted to the poor and nicknamed the “hammer of the heretics.” He drew such large crowds that he often had to speak in public squares rather than churches. Since the 17th century, people have invoked his name for the recovery of lost things. Next time you lose your car keys, you might try the familiar refrain:

Dear Saint Anthony. Please come around.
Something is lost, and cannot be found.

For a better description of hs life, and the reason for his patronage of lost things, read: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anthony_of_Padua

4. SAINT JOSEPH was the husband of the Blessed Virgin Mary, the mother of Jesus. A carpenter by trade, he is the patron saint of carpenters and laborers. He is also one of the most popular saints. Plenty of people swear by burying a St. Joseph statute — usually upside down — in the yard as a sure-fire trick to buying or selling a home. But this practice is not part of Church teaching. Here’s more about him: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saint_Joseph

Or if you’d rather read one of my somewhat more frivolous bios of him, try this one: https://goingon80.com/2020/12/20/386-the-nativity-scene-re-visited/

5. SAINT THERESE OF LISIEUX, often called the Little Flower of Jesus, is the patron saint of florists, foreign missions, loss of parents, priests, and the sick (particularly those with tuberculosis, the illness that caused her own death in 1897 when she was 24 years old). As a modern saint, there are many photos of her available, and her own writings – especially her little book published after her death called “The Story of a Soul”, are still popular spiritual reading today. I could never do justice to her in this silly blob, so I wish that you would read about her life at sites such as this one: https://en.wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Th%C3%A9r%C3%A8se_of_Lisieux or https://catholicsaintmedals.com/saints/st-therese-of-lisieux/

I vaguely knew about St. Therese – although we named one of our daughters after her – but it wasn’t till 1970 that I came to know her – up close and personal. It was December 20, the day after our 18 year old son Mark had been hit by a car and was in a coma at Group Health Hospital. My husband Gene and I had just rushed home to get some things and were returning to the car, when our neighbor – Jane Fawthrop – came running across the street. “Patty!” she cried out. ‘This is a relic from the habit of St. Therese, the Little Flower. Pin it to Mark’s hospital gown, and then pray this novena.” She handed me the small oval relic and the text of the novena prayer. Then she added, “But please give it back to me when you don’t need it anymore.”

I did pin the relic to his hospital gown, but the next day, with Gene and I and nearly all our children surrounding his hospital bed, Mark died. The nurse reached forward and removed the breathing apparatus from his mouth. Crazed with grief, I leaned over to kiss Mark, and was enveloped in the sweet smell of what had been his last breath. The scent seemed familiar, but I was too dazed to recognize its comforting sweetness..

Somehow, later, we went home. We were driving up to park the car and get out, when we realized that the street was dark. In respect for our grief, and in spite of the Christmas holiday, and the multitude of children who lived on our block, none of the neighbors had turned on any of their Christmas lights.

We didn’t want the little ones on the street to have to share in our suffering, so as soon as we got in the house, I went into the living room and knelt to plug in our own Christmas lights as a way of letting our neighbors know that they should, too. I don’t think I’ll ever forget what happened next. The lights twinkled on, and I proceeded to stand up when I was nearly enveloped in the same sweet smell of Mark’s breath. Dizzy with shock, dazed and confused, I finally saw the source of the scent. A large bouquet of roses had been delivered and had been placed on the table next to me.

I didn’t understand it at the time. Much later, I remembered my promise to Jane that I would return the relic to her. With it was a little packet that included some text about the saint. That’s when I finally read a little more about St. Therese and understood the gentle gift she had extended to us.

To explain, the following is from the website catholicsaintmedals.com. “While alive, St. Therese made two promises that have been ringing true since her death. The first, “I will spend my heaven doing good on earth”, and the second, “I will let fall from heaven a shower of roses,” mark the way by which St. Therese often communicates with those who seek her intercession. The “St. Therese Rose Novena” is a common prayer seeking her aid, in which many people have reported God answering their prayers through roses – sometimes physical roses appear, other times the scent of roses. Sometimes roses are not a part of the answered prayer, nor are they required to know God hears and cares about us. However, this particular outward sign is unique, and as such, noteworthy when discovering the beautiful and special ways of St. Therese.”

As a footnote, I did keep my promise and returned the relic and the packet to Jane. After her death, though, her children remembered what had happened, and delivered it back to me. I still have it. And whenever roses come into my life, they always seem to bring comfort. As an example, this week, a package arrived in the mail from my niece Denise. Contained in it are three rose bushes to be planted outside the kitchen window in the farmhouse in Enumclaw where we moved in July. By next summer, we’ll be welcoming another ‘shower of roses’, compliments of Denise – perhaps aided and abetted by Saint Therese. They must have collaborated!