The saints have long been a special love of mine. It’s just SO COOL to have a group of heroes and mentors and real-life people who are already in heaven. They weren’t perfect, either. They were a colorful, often crusty bunch.

As I’ve been reflecting on the importance of praying for others, I realized that I’m not tapping into this heavenly crew nearly enough.

I’ll send a shout-out to a favorite patron here or there, but am I doing it with any regularity? Nope.

In the last few weeks, I’ve composed a personalized litany. I looked up all the former patron saints I’ve had from previous years and included my patron saint, my children’s patrons, and saints who have become special to me over the years. Because I have a special devotion to about 100 different titles of Mary, I alternated the saints with titles of Mary.

After each name, I pray, “pray for us,” thinking of all the intentions and family members and close friends and perfect strangers who so need divine intervention and the graces of God.

The final litany has become one of my favorite parts of my morning prayer time. I generally pray it before I pray for my list of intentions, so it feels like I’m tapping into a whole group of pray-ers. As I drink my coffee and invoke my heavenly friends, I really feel the reality of the Communion of Saints.

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