My fascination with Saints

Hello:

It's probably because I'm not Catholic, but over the years, I've developed quite a fascination with the Saints. Those that know me are often surprised to learn that I was raised Southern Baptist (which is about as far across the spectrum from Catholicism as you can get). The Church of my youth maintained a certain smugness in its simplicity which laid the foundations of the curiosity I have today for the richness of Catholic ceremony and tradition (can you say "run-on" sentence?). The art, the architecture, the ceremonial hocus pocus all call to me to be explored and investigated. For some reason though, my fascination has always centered on the Saints.

In modern times the Catholic Church has found itself in a bit of quandary in regard to the Saints. In the past strong emphasis on the supernatural carryingson (sp?) of the Saints lead to an awkward devotion that sometimes diverted the faithful from God and caused mistrust with other faiths. Today the Church tries to down play Saintly miracles, while strengthening the importance of the Saints as heros setting good examples through strong and pure character traits.

Myself, I find my fascination with them in the old style. I have accumulated a collection of books and other references that I pour over in idle moments like a child with a comic. Trans and bi location, levitation, divine knowledge and communication. We should develop a Dungeons and Dragons like card game played with Saints, Angels and Demons. Now that I think of it, I bet there is something out there.

Well, this post hit ramble mark from the first sentence. Oh well, that's what get sometimes if you're a BLOG reader (I presume I have SOME readers). I'll wrap this up with another Liguori Publications title that I actually read. A Year With the Saints by Mark Water. This book gives nice brief summaries of the Saints and has beautiful full color illustrations throughout, not just on the cover. It's arranged in a sort of Saint a day format that I think would appeal to anyone wishing to indulge their curiosity regarding the Saints.

Congratulations - it looks like you've made it to the end of this post. If you've been reading since the beginning, we've more than made it past the one week mark (Saturday and Sunday included). Saints are a topic that I will visit from time to time and I'm sure that St. Sebastian will walk onto the stage at some point. He always seems to.

Peace,

P. Del Ricci