The Saints are our friends

By Kristen Bourgeois

I’ve heard it say we don’t find our saint friends, but they find us. How we stumble across a particular saint, for me, has always seemed arbitrary. But probably not arbitrary to the saint who has been privately praying for us without our knowledge.

A have a few saint friends that have intrigued me, seemingly, by arbitrary means.  St. Pope John Paul II is one of those saints. It’s easy to know of saints but not really know their story. I remember seeing a smiling photograph of JPII and thought he looked like my paternal grandfather who was also Polish. JPII’s friendly grandfatherly smile seemed to be an invitation to get to know him.

A found a documentary on JPII’s life that I watched countless times. I was just blown away by his life story and how he lived out his faith. It wasn’t too long after that someone suggested taking a Theology of the Body for Teens seminar that was being held at a local parish. I attended this seminar with the intention that what I would learn would help me with my volunteer work with our youth group at our own parish.

But it turns out, this seminar was really for me personally. JPII’s collection of lectures known as Theology of the Body brought such healing to a part of my own woundedness that I didn’t know existed.

It was later that I felt that JPII’s friendly grandfatherly smile was the smile that I felt he adopted me with as his spiritual granddaughter. Since then, I’ve had such a devotion to JPII and am so thankful God gives us the saints to help encourage and point us towards Christ.

So, if you feel a tug on your heart by a particular saint, respond to it. They are probably praying for you and want to help you along your spiritual journey towards Christ.