bronzemax replied to your post: catholic saints
That makes total sense and I wanted to thank you for sharing it? Bc that’s not something we had really considered before. Changed our view on saints a bit! (We grew up Baptist so we never really were exposed to them much)
yeah, it’s kinda fascinating? like some protestant denominations considered catholics idolatrous because of the whole saints thing? and i can totally understand why it’d look like that at first blush.
but there is something very, like, humble? about going “i have these problems but i feel too insignificant to ask god directly to solve them, so i’m gonna ask this super awesome person who is already in heaven and who god totally does like to put in a good word for me.”
and that power does carry over even when you don’t buy into the specific religious significance of it.
because belief, however it’s applied, is powerful.
and with catholic saints, you have a built-in decades/centuries of pleas and hope from desperate, hurting people. that’s gotta mean something, you know?
and when you tap into that, you kinda connect to all that suffering, but also to all that HOPE.
i find a great deal of comfort in that collective hope, even though i don’t believe in the god those saints died for.
and yeah, that’s why i collect saint medallions. it’s like having a good luck charm, but it’s specifically charged by the desperate, hopeful, sincere belief that the people depicted on the medallions will help to elevate people’s prayers as exceptionally devotional and faithful.
it’s powerful, and it’s beautiful, and i feel like it can still be powerful outside of the catholic context.
