Saints

Happy St. Pat's Day !! (yesterday)

Saint. * The word means different things to Catholic, Orthodox, and Protestant. But I think it's good to understand why people believe what they believe historically and today, especially if we're part of the same Body or if we hope to build bridges that people are willing to cross to interact with the God we claim to know.

Here is an Orthodox info-site specifically for non-Orthodox inquirers with lots of avenues to investigate.

This information about saints comes from an Israeli art exhibition with a tie-in to beauty.

This article is from a Catholic source. It's critiquing another article, but it's interesting because it talks about the difference between saints and heros.

When it's time for Christmas, this is about St. Nick.

I don't know much about these sources. I'm not sure where they fall on the conservative/liberal spectrum. They're just sources of information. If you have better sources, feel free to share.

Given my Protestant background I only started thinking about this a few years ago. As an elementary student, I loved American History biographies. As a young adult I wasn't reading biographies much because I figured Jesus is enough. I think of Jesus as human but perfect because He's God. I think of saints as falling somewhere between human and perfect but closer to perfect and, as people of faith, they were overcomers. The Protestant perspective is that all believers are saints and God is looking for all of us to be overcomers.

We usually appreciate strong role models and real-life faith-filled heros for kids. Real people. People they can look up to, relate to, and learn from. People who overcome obstacles. Jesus was like that (is like that) He came as a real person. He's also God. He had obstacles to overcome and He worked miracles. Bible heros and people in our faith communities - we all have obstacles to overcome and God is still doing amazing things in our lives, but not everyone's willing to share their stories.

The word "saint" is in the scriptures. Consider it a language-of-faith issue, a specialized vocabulary word. What does it mean, this word "saint"? What does it mean to us? What does it mean to other people? Is it important? Not to take away from the scriputures but alot of the stories are great stories, stories that point people back to God.


*"Saint" as used in the scriptures also makes an interesting word study.