Praying with the Saints
Recently I read scripture at a Mass at the Gateway Lodge in Canora. The passage wrapped our attention. As we contemplate our leaving this earth, we want reassurances about God’s plan and our eternal future.
Ezekiel 37 describes a plain of dry bones. Ezekiel had to walk among the bones that covered the whole plain. They were very dry. The Lord asked if these bones could come to life?
The prophet said, “You alone know that.” The Lord asked him to prophesy, “Dry bones, hear the word of the Lord!”
“I prophesied and they came alive…a vast army.” There was a rattling as the bone came together. Sinews and flesh started appearing on them. But there was no spirit in them.
Then the Lord asked the prophet to call the spirit from the four winds to enter the dead, and they were brought to life.
Then the Lord said these bones are the whole house of Israel. “I mean to open your graves and have you rise from them… I have promised, and I will do it, says the Lord.”
We often seek assurances that all is well and God is in charge of our lives. Sometimes we get an answer. Let me share an experience of Night Prayer of the Church I had recently.
It began with “God, come to our assistance. Glory to the Father. As it was in the beginning. Alleluia."
Antiphon 1 said: Lord, how wonderful is your wisdom, so far beyond my understanding.
Psalm 139 continued:
“O Lord, you search me and you know me,
You know my resting and my rising,
You discern my purpose from afar…
For it was you who created my being,
Knit me together in my mother’s womb.
I thank you for the wonder of my being,
For the wonders of all your creation.
I can picture the prairie home, back in 1945, without electricity. Secure in my mother’s womb, I was already in a place of God’s grace.
The Psalm continues:
Already you knew my soul,
My body held no secret from you…
Your eyes saw all my actions…
Every one of my days was decreed.
All I ever would be, do, was written in your book.
And the Canticle from Colossians 1:12-20 gives thanks to the Father for having made us worthy to share the lot of the saints.
How blessed we are to have the Communion of Saints to guide us through this world. Every morning in my prayers I commune with my ancestors – my great grandparents Wilhelm and Elizabeth, my grandparents George and Catherine, John and Pauline and Barbara. My Godparents, parents and siblings that have gone before me.
Even Jesus had this Communion of Saints to assist him. At the transfiguration he saw Moses and Elijah and he heard his Father’s voice saying “This is my beloved Son… With him I am well pleased” (Matthew 17:1-8).
On the journey of Jesus to Jerusalem, to the crucifixion, Peter tried to stop this. “This must not be.” But Jesus reacted strongly. “Get behind me Satan” (Matthew 16:23). The time of his sacrificial death was not something to stop.
When we have our Transfiguration, and the time of our death is near, what is our reaction? We say, “This must not be.” As if our plan is better than God’s plan.
Recently Pope Leo said, “In the liturgy, we are always also in invisible communion with all the angels and saints.” We are present with them who most recently were with us, singing and worshipping.
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