Communion of the Saints

One Friday afternoon during the school year I became very restless with my studies and decided to venture out to Titles, not knowing what I was going to do there. I went in and looked around and perused the religious section, like always. There was a book called “Where there is Love there is God” that was completely based on Mother Teresa’s writings to the sisters in the sisterhood she founded, Missionaries of Charity.  I skimmed through the book and liked what I saw and decided to purchase it. Daily I read from it and used it during personal prayer. Slowly, Mother Teresa started feeling like a friend, and after while it felt like she was personally guiding me to holiness. My first Spiritual Mentor! I developed a strong connection to her and would ask her to intercede for me. And she did gift me in a beautiful way…

So that was my first experience with a saint (well, hopefully soon to be canonized!!). The saints really do reach out to us; they want to help us achieve complete union with God on earth. 

Now my life fast-forwards to working at Notre Dame. Last week I went to the bookstore for the first time and walk out with a book called “Dark Night of the Soul” by St. John of the Cross. I had heard of it before from the Internet and decided to buy it. Turns out that I thought it was something else, however it turned out to be just what I needed right now.  It talked about the soul and the stages she needs to go through in order to have complete union with God on Earth. I devoured most of it. I finally understood what I have been going through here! Indeed I am making progress although I feel stagnant.  St. John described it all, how I was feeling, my actions, etc.; his insight was incredible. I had never read a book that spoke so loudly to me. I felt like St. John had sent me his book and that he wanted to help me grow. I began asking for his intercession.

The next day I made my way back to the bookstore and bought a book called “Interior Castle” by St. Teresa of Avila. I began reading it and to my surprise, she talks about the same subject: the soul on her path to achieving complete union with God.  Although, St. Teresa of Avila uses different metaphors and is much more wordy and eloquent, whereas St. John of the Cross is more harsh and quite blunt. I couldn’t believe the connections I was making between the two books. Immediately I had this sense that my two new friends were working together to help guide me on the path to unity with Christ.

Before then, I had no background information on either saint. I came to know that both of them where Carmelites, so it then made sense that their books jived so well together.  During the weekend tour with a choir I joined we went to a parish in Wisconsin called Holy Hill. Turns out that the parish was home to Carmelites (I didn’t make the connection to my two saints though). I went into the church and walked up to the front and was blown away… At either side of the altar were pictures of St. Teresa of Avila and St. John of the Cross. At that moment I knew beyond doubts that they truly were working together in my life.  

For further confirmation, I later learnt they both were reformers of the order, and to my utter amazement, worked together in the reformation! So of course they were working together in my life.

The saints really do reach out to us!  They love us and are interceding to us and will help us in our need. They want to have friendships with us and all we have to do is let them…