![](\"https:\/\/2.bp.blogspot.com\/-_S3bsRp5D2o\/Td8CgdnHiyI\/AAAAAAAAArA\/zhRDYt4o28Y\/s1600\/images.jpg\")
<\/a>My beautiful friend Ann Burt<\/a>, who I first met on these pages, (and later in real life in her hometown of Raleigh, NC!)\u00a0 has found a vocation making retablos. The small devotionals are labors of love; Ann runs a decorative painting business for a living.\u00a0 My husband and I gave a retablo to our son Gabriel, on his Confirmation day.<\/p>\nI have just ordered a slew of them for friends in my life who are marking milestones and who have special devotion to a particular saint. I was so excited when Ann emailed me this afternoon to say: \u201cSt. Bernard and his traveling companions are on their way. Sorry I tried to get him out this morning but was not quite finished :(\u201c In transit from Raleigh: For a girlfriend moving home to Milano, St. Bernard of Clairvaux<\/a>; for a new teacher-friend who recently bought with her husband their first home: St. Joseph<\/a>; for a School of Community friend who landed a job at Tulane University;\u00a0 St. Anthony of Padua.<\/a> And finally, for a high school senior and friend of our family: St. Cecilia. I\u2019m hoping this trumpeter will hang the retablo of the patron saint of music in his dorm room at university, where he will study music.<\/p>\n Only when I read, at Webster Bull\u2019<\/a>s recommendation,\u00a0 Fr.\u00a0 James Martin\u2019s spiritual memoir My Life with the Saints<\/a>, did I understand what they might offer us. Writes Fr. Martin: \u201cThe lives of the saints, parts of which seem confusing, bizarre and misguided, are \u2014 when you know the whole story \u2014 really tales of love. And they can offer some important lessons for all of us. If we just let them.\u201d So, once again, who is accompanying you toward your destiny, and why?<\/p>\n My beautiful friend Ann Burt, who I first met on these pages, (and later in real life in her hometown of Raleigh, NC!)\u00a0 has found a vocation making retablos. The small devotionals are labors of love; Ann runs a decorative painting business for a living.\u00a0 My husband and I gave a retablo to our son […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":144,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-746","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\n
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How blessed we are to have this Communion of Saints<\/a> to accompany us to our destinies. Some folks might think we Catholics worship saints; we don\u2019t. We do ask them to pray for us. We meditate on their lives in Christ in an effort to draw closer to Him.\u00a0 This week, all my retablo ordering got me wondering: Dear readers, who are your special saints?<\/p>\n![](\"https:\/\/3.bp.blogspot.com\/-aBnswViaejw\/Td8Bf-FV4OI\/AAAAAAAAAq8\/BMvQH9MwE_Y\/s200\/il_570xN.224034372.jpg\")
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