ALL SAINTS: Thought it might be interesting to list the saints whose examples have played a particularly strong role in my own life. If other Catholic, Orthodox, Episcopalian etc. bloggers want to join in I’d be quite happy.

Prayer to saints is a huge part of my prayer life. I don’t need them–if I really thought I had to “go it alone,” I would–but knowing I can pray for their intercession and draw strength from their examples really helps me in everyday life and in the (frequent) prayers in which I go mano a mano with my Lord. I experience prayer to saints as drawing me toward prayer to, love of, and contact with God, not as drawing me away from Him.

Anyway, so my saints, my homies: Augustine, of course.

Anselm, whose account of the skeletal structure of justice and sin deeply influenced my conversion.

Elizabeth of Thuringia, my patroness, whose bread became roses; who fed the poor.

Elizabeth, friend of the Virgin–I would love it if she were designated patroness of pregnancy center counselors.

Joseph, saint of chastity.

The good thief, traditionally named Dismas.

Edith Stein/Teresa Benedicta of the Cross, saint of hope in history’s darkness.

David, who sang before the Lord.

Peter, at cockcrow.

Sarah, who laughed; Abraham, who challenged and believed in God.

Mary, whose yes renewed the world.

Philip Neri, the sidekick saint, another of the many jongleurs de Dieu.

Thomas Aquinas, who saw things that made all his writings like straw.

Pray for us.