3 Answers To Your Questions On The Saints- Interview with Al McCauley

I am a cradle Catholic, and have been exposed to the saints for all of my life. But there are still questions that have come up for me on the saints, whether they were my own as I was learning about them, or ones that I’d see posted in other social media groups. I wanted to address these questions before sharing all the stories on friendship with the saints. The 3 questions that have come up the most or that I found needed to be answered are:

1. Why do Catholics worship the saints?
2. What is the Communion of Saints?
3. Why do we need to go to the saints instead of directly to God?

At first, I went to (where else?) the dictionary and the Catholic Catechism and looked in the index to find anything about “The Communion of Saints,” and while that information was enlightening and provided the answers I was looking for, I also wanted to supplement my research with an expert on this subject.

Introducing Al McCauley

I am so happy to share the following answers from an expert on the saints, Al McCauley. Al has a love of history and studied it as well as theology. He especially has a love of biographies. He grew up in a pre-Vatican II household, and it was his study of the saints that brought him back to the faith when he found himself straying.

He was very generous and not only provided the following answers to the questions listed above (as well as share his own story of friendship with a saint), but also answered any additional questions I had for him over the phone. It was a true delight to discuss this with him, and I thoroughly enjoyed our conversation!

For more information on Al, you can read his biography at the end of this post! Please also check out his video series, Fish on Fridays, where he shares different facts on our faith. He told me a few of the stories during our chat (did you know that dumbbells have a Catholic origin?) and it was so interesting to learn new things about our faith! He covers all sorts of topics, including saints.

1. Why do Catholics “Worship” Saints?

It is important to note that Catholics do NOT worship Saints. We honor them as virtuous
heroes. As such, Catholics look upon them as intercessors to God, who pray for us and with us –
just as we would ask any good friend to pray for us and with us. We call this special relationship
the Communion of Saints.

*When talking with Al, he pointed out that we are praising God’s creation when we go to the saints. God made man- these people are His creation, so in the end, we are praising God, and NOT the saints.*

2. What is the Communion of Saints? (CCC #962)

All Christians have an existential horizon that stretches far out beyond this material world to
the afterlife, or Heaven. While Saints are physically dead, we believe them to be spiritually alive
in Heaven. If we believe that certain people were “saintly” – helpful and kind when living –
certainly, these virtues don’t cease when they die. Rather, their goodness lives on with them as
they are still alive in Heaven with God.

It’s very Catholic to pray to Saints, but I prefer the idea of Saints praying WITH me to God. This
practice allows for esteem to be paid to the Saint, while recognizing that it is ultimately God
that graces us. The Saint accompanies us, rather than solves our problems. And it’s a beautiful
thing to know that there are saints for all occasions and all people – so that we always have
someone with whom we can connect. Put simply, we don’t need saints to reach God; God uses
saint to reach us.

Why pray to the saints, instead of going directly to God?

The short answer is to absolutely pray directly to God! But it helps to have others pulling for
me, relating to me, and helping me to recognize that God can work miracles through each of
us! It’s important to remember that Saints are not the source of any miracle or supernatural
deed, but God works through them for a specific purpose. Think of Jesus’ request of Simon to
cast his nets out again after a long day of fishing with no success (Lk 5:1-11). The abundance of
fish Simon eventually caught was not due to his own skill as a fisherman. Rather, Jesus was the
true source of the miracle; Simon merely co-operated with obedience and trust in the Lord. So,
in humility, Saints always point beyond themselves to Jesus.

Saints aren’t perfect. We are all sinners, and some saints, such as Paul, Augustine, Francis of
Assisi, and Teresa of Avila, did not lead model lives before their conversions. Still, with God’s
grace to inspire and guide them, these holy men and women moved beyond their sinful flaws
and successfully “graduated” from this world as believers in and exemplars of the Christian life.
That’s why we look to them – to help us get to the point where they are.

Far from the caricatures we see depicted in idealized statues or serene stained-glass windows,
Saints are real humans who struggled, sinned, and suffered – yet remained true to the Gospel
of Jesus Christ. As such, they are examples of faith: men and women who are conduits of God’s
grace despite their faults and shortcomings.

Lastly, we are all called to become Saints by virtue of our Baptism, but in our own way and in
our own time and place. The world doesn’t need another St. Catherine of Siena or St. Thomas
Aquinas – we’ve already had them! We should learn from such distinguished people, but each
of us is called to embrace the spiritual gifts given uniquely to us and to use them to further
advance the Kingdom of God.

My personal friendship with a saint

Ask me on any given day who my favorite saint is, and I’ll typically give you a different answer:
It’s usually the Saint I happen to be reading about or researching at the time. But when push
comes to shove, my absolute favorite Saint is Therese of Lisieux. She entered the Carmelite
convent at the age of 15 and died of tuberculosis at 24, after living in relative obscurity.
However, she wrote this little book – The Story of a Soul – and in it, she related a simple way of
living our faith that is perhaps the easiest thing to understand but the most difficult thing to put
into practice.

In a nutshell, Therese explains that everyone is capable of living faith-fully by practicing humility
and practicing a radical trust in God’s mercy. Regardless of one’s station in life, we are all
capable of doing little things with great love. No one is off the hook when it comes to living a
faith-filled life! Being Christian is not just for the learned or intelligent or religiously called –
everyone can respond to God’s love in their lives. No good intention or deed or thought or
word is ever wasted if it is directed by love.

At the risk of sounding strange, when I read Therese’s autobiography, it’s as though I can
picture a real person. She doesn’t seem untouchable or aloof or as “spirit.” Indeed, she’s as real
as anyone else in my life who has passed away or physically separated from me due to
geography. When I go to prayer, I invite Therese to pray with me, and it brings me great
comfort knowing that she is with me.

Additional question for Al: Did you find out about a saint that most have not heard of?

I had to ask Al this question given his knowledge on the saints. And what he said stuck with me. One of the things he mentioned when talking about St. Therese is that, “Every problem in the world can be solved with 1 word- humility.” It is this virtue, combined with trust in God and practicing grace through God, that is shared among so many saints. He pointed out the importance of realizing that the Church is diverse, and that there are a lot of saints out there (many that we have not heard of) that have similar stories to each other despite a difference in time, place, and geography, because they all share these same virtues.