bronzemax replied to your post: catholic saints
That makes total sense and I wanted to thank you for sharing it? Bc thatās 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, itās kinda fascinating? like some protestant denominations considered catholics idolatrous because of the whole saints thing? and i can totally understand why itād look like that at first blush.
but there is something very, like, humble? about goingĀ āi have these problems but i feel too insignificant to ask god directly to solve them, so iām 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.ā
and that power does carry over even when you donāt buy into the specific religious significance of it.
because belief, however itās applied, is powerful.
and with catholic saints, you have a built-in decades/centuries of pleas and hope from desperate, hurting people. thatās 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 donāt believe in the god those saints died for.
and yeah, thatās why i collect saint medallions. itās like having a good luck charm, but itās specifically charged by the desperate, hopeful, sincere belief that the people depicted on the medallions will help to elevate peopleās prayers as exceptionally devotional and faithful.
itās powerful, and itās beautiful, and i feel like it can still be powerful outside of the catholic context.