Friends in High Places

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This was the prayer I posted yesterday on the page of Saint Apollonia at Catholic Online:

"Saint Apollonia, please pray for me and my teeth this week. At age 23 I'm finally getting braces, and I am afraid of the pain this process will involve, as my particular case will need extractions and possible surgery on my jaw. Help me to confront the fear and pain, as you did in the face of persecution and torture. Calm my mind and heart and help me brace (no pun intended) against the discomfort and embarrassment, so that when this process is over, I might smile with purer joy and greater confidence than I have ever had in my smile. This I pray in Jesus' name. Amen."

Around the time I posted that prayer, on Facebook I posted a status saying I was heading to Mass in the evening and praying to Saint Apollonia for my teeth this week.  A Baptist friend of mine commented, confused that we have a patron saint for teeth, of all things.  I replied with the reason why she is the patron saint of teeth and dental diseases: because in the third century A.D., she lost all her own teeth following a blow to the face by anti-Christian persecutor, before embracing martyrdom for her faith in Christ.  "We have saints for almost everything," I said, then quipped, "...we have friends in high places."

It's not that we Catholics pray to them as if they were divine beings on the same level as God.  We view them in the same light as the Virgin Mary: extraordinary human beings blessed by God.  They live forever in paradise, rewarded for their great faith in Him, and regarded as patrons of something that was significant in their lives on earth.  For example, Saint Francis of Assisi, the patron of my parish, is honored as the patron saint of animals because he was so close to nature; and every October on or near his feast day (October 4th), the Franciscan Friars welcome the parishioners to bring their pets for a blessing.

To pray to the saints is simply to ask their prayers in return, to ask for their intercession with God for whatever we need.  Of course we may pray to God Himself for everything, but it helps to have others praying for us, too, no matter if they are living or dead.  They continue to pray for us even in death, so long as we ask.  It is true what Miriam sang in The Prince of Egypt: "There can be miracles, when you believe..."  Miracles have occurred by God's grace when the faithful have prayed to Him in the name of a particular saint; that is what allows an individual to become canonized as an official saint of the Church, when a certain number of miracles have been attributed to prayers in that person's name and requests for their intercession with God on our behalf.

As for me, I find in them kindred spirits.  The saints led lives so very different from mine, but there is always something therein for me to relate to.  At the very least, I take comfort in knowing that they were as human as I am; they know the trials of human life, in all its pain and joy, and I am not ashamed to ask their prayers for me, for whatever it is that I need or desire.




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