Posted on 01/02/2013 9:48:48 AM PST by NYer
It’s that time of year again! I just used my little Saint’s Name Generator program to have a saint chosen at random to be my patron for the year. So, umm, should I be concerned that this is who I got?
St. Michael the Archangel
Patron of (among other things): people in danger at sea, ambulance drivers, bankers, dying people, the sick, swordsmiths
(What on earth does God have in store for me this year?)
Click here if you’d like the generator to choose a saint for you! Note that you have to click twice to get your saint (I wanted to throw in a little pause for prayer). There are around 275 saints in the database so far, about an even mix of men and women.
I absolutely love hearing about the saints that other folks have chosen for them. Leave a comment and let me know which saint decided to be your patron for 2013!
The Bible directs us to invoke those in heaven and ask them to pray with us. Thus in Psalms 103, we pray, "Bless the Lord, O you his angels, you mighty ones who do his word, hearkening to the voice of his word! Bless the Lord, all his hosts, his ministers that do his will!" (Ps. 103:20-21). And in Psalms 148 we pray, "Praise the Lord! Praise the Lord from the heavens, praise him in the heights! Praise him, all his angels, praise him, all his host!" (Ps. 148:1-2).
Not only do those in heaven pray with us, they also pray for us. In the book of Revelation, we read: "[An] angel came and stood at the altar [in heaven] with a golden censer; and he was given much incense to mingle with the prayers of all the saints upon the golden altar before the throne; and the smoke of the incense rose with the prayers of the saints from the hand of the angel before God" (Rev. 8:3-4).
And those in heaven who offer to God our prayers aren’t just angels, but humans as well. John sees that "the twenty-four elders [the leaders of the people of God in heaven] fell down before the Lamb, each holding a harp, and with golden bowls full of incense, which are the prayers of the saints" (Rev. 5:8). The simple fact is, as this passage shows: The saints in heaven offer to God the prayers of the saints on earth.
Bookmarking for later - work firewall blocking it (go figure)...
Cool - I got Father Pro, one of the Mexican martyrs.
It's a random number.
A roll of the dice.
A spin of the wheel.
Actually, it's probably a pseudo-random number, therefore completely predictable if you know the algorithm and the seed ...
So in reality, Linus Torvalds is out to get you.
No thanks, it sounds like an Ouija board to pick saints. I’ve been able to find plenty of applicable saints through Salvation’s posts.
Cool...I got St Leonard of Port Maurizio. He was a great proponent of the Stations of the Cross, as am I. That sounds wrong...I’m not a great promoter of anything but I have a great devotion to the Stations.
I got St. Joseph Calasanz... patronage of school children and college/universities. Pretty cool!
It’s not a Ouija Board of any sort. It’s a harmless little thing that may inspire some to get to know a Saint or two that they didn’t know before. Any study of the Lives of teh Saints can be edifying.
My Godfather was my Uncle Mike.
You did well, NYer!
I got St. Claude de la Colombiere which is very good. His memorial day is Feb 15 which is 2 days before my birthday. He became venerated on Aug 11 1901 which is twenty years to the day before my dad’s birthday.
He is the patron saint of toymakers and I have been making and designing little stuffed toys with my granddaughter this year.
My own opinion is that there is no place for randomness or quasi-randomness in religious study. It may seem harmless and insignificant to you but the parlour game aura seems irreverent to me. Let the Holy Spirit guide you.
You are right. I did it twice and got two different names.
Perhaps more like a lottery than a ouija board but, I understand the feeling. Yes, Salvation has done an outstanding job of introducing us to the saints. Another excellent source is Bob and Penny Lord's "Super Saints" program on EWTN. This husband and wife have visited the birthplaces of hundreds of saints and blesseds and brought their stories to life.
Since this is a new year, I would like to introduce you to a holy man I met through EWTN.
Fr. Solanus Casey, Capuchin Franciscan, was born Bernard Francis Casey on November 25, 1870 on a farm near Oak Grove, Wisconsin. He was the sixth child in a family of ten boys and six girls born to Irish immigrant parents.
At the age of 21 Bernard entered St. Francis High School Seminary in Milwaukee to study for the diocesan priesthood. Five years later he contemplated a religious order. Invested in the Capuchin Order at Detroit in 1897, he received the religious name of Solanus.
After his ordination in 1904, Fr. Solanus spent 20 years in New York, Harlem, and Yonkers. In 1924 he was assigned to St. Bonaventure Monastery in Detroit where he worked for 20 years. Because he ranked only in the lower half of his class, his teachers recommended that his priestly office be severely restricted. He could say mass but was not permitted to expound from the pulpit on dogma. He was not allowed to hear confessions except under emergency circumstances.
Fr. Solanus spent his life in the service of people. At the monastery door as porter he met thousands of people from every age and walk of life and earned recognition as "The Doorkeeper." He was always ready to listen to anyone at any time, day or night.
During his 21 years as porter at St. Bonaventure, he filled seven notebooks with more than 6,000 requests for help from petitioners. And to some 700 of these he recorded reported cures from cancer, leukemia, tuberculosis, diphtheria, arthritis, blindness, and other maladies. These brief postscripts also report conversions of fallen-away churchgoers and favorable resolutions of domestic and business problems.
During his final illness, he remarked, "I'm offering my suffering that all might be one. If only I could see the conversion of the whole world." His last conscious act was sitting up in bed and saying, "I give my soul to Jesus Christ." He died at the age of 86 on July 31, 1957 at the same day and hour of his First Holy Mass 53 years earlier.
In 1995, Pope John Paul II declared him “venerable,” the second of four steps on the path to sainthood. The third step is beatification, and the fourth, canonization, would make Father Solanus the first American-born male saint.
Perhaps you can benefit from this venerable's intercession. He could certainly benefit from your prayers, as well. Happy New Year!
“...there is no place for randomness or quasi-randomness in religious study.”
Haven’t you ever randomly opened the bible and started reading? I have. It didn’t seem particularly irrevrent to me, but if it leads you to sin, by all means DON’T!
The Holy Spirit may be guiding your hands there — no problem.
The game seems unbecoming to me.
On my way out, will pay close attention when I get back. Thanks!
I will pray both for the Venerable Fr. Casey’s beatification and canonization, as well as ask his intentions for my wife’s daughter, who is very ill and impoverished yet two weeks away or less from giving birth to a little girl, yet is in danger of losing all her kids due to circumstances (no malfeasance whatsoever on her part and she is Catholic).
OK, if anyone else reading wants to offer a prayer via any saint, even one picked by the silly game, go for it.
Blessed Father Pro and all the martyrs of Mexico, pray to the Lord, for whose sake you suffered torture and death, that He will pour out every divine grace upon Steve’s family. Amen.
Thank you. Very bad situation over there.
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