⚓️ is there anyone here “high up on the candle” who incorporates prayers to the saints in their private devotionals? I’m feeling a pull to incorporate this historical practice but still have some of the typical Protestant uneasiness about it. Would love to about it! - ThreadSky

meddlesomecleric.bsky.social • 6 days ago

⚓️ is there anyone here “high up on the candle” who incorporates prayers to the saints in their private devotionals? I’m feeling a pull to incorporate this historical practice but still have some of the typical Protestant uneasiness about it.

Would love to about it!

Comments

gildassapiens.bsky.social•5 days ago

Suppose on most things I’m Protestant, but on this one not quite. I haven’t incorporated saints. I do pray on occasion for dead relatives. Light a candle by a photo. I don’t pray *to* them, (excepting one time…), not for feeling it’s superstitious, but because I take the superstition seriously (lol)

gildassapiens.bsky.social•5 days ago

Put another way, my feeling is the departed, including the big name ancient saints, can be engaged, possibly. They’re real people, so take care as to who and how. That being said, I’m not convinced of some sort of injunction against engaging the saint-saints as brethren, exemplars, etc.

postbrechtian.bsky.social•6 days ago

A seminary classmate of mine's official theology is that we wait till the resurrection of the dead to be present with God but still prays to the saints when she's in trouble b/c it makes her feel better

I have a bit of idiosyncratic relation to faith (who doesn't) but my fall back is Matthew 7:16

postbrechtian.bsky.social•6 days ago

What kind of fruit does it bear? Does it bring you closer to God? To the great cloud of witnesses? To loving your neighbour?

I'm United Church of Canada though, we've been accused of having, shall we say, an overly loose theology

kathnotkathy.bsky.social•5 days ago

I do, I have saints I regularly pray the chaplets for and ask for intersession with problems they're known to be especially keen to help with. God gives us gifts in life. If people ask me for help using my gifts in life, why not when I am with God? That's my logic with the saints.

meddlesomecleric.bsky.social•5 days ago

What chaplets do you mean and where did you find them?

kathnotkathy.bsky.social•5 days ago

There's a bunch! Some have beads to go with them. I do the chaplet of Saint Dymphna for mental health a lot these days, also Saint Andrew for Advent and the Divine Mercy which can be done on a Dominican rosary.

margueritek.bsky.social•6 days ago

In this part of the bcp Evening Prayer office, I will frequently name a saint I am thinking about or whose feast day it it. Always mention the BVM and, for me, Julian of Norwich.
I am not praying TO the saint(s) but with them.

meddlesomecleric.bsky.social•6 days ago

You are right with the distinction… I was imprecise, I meant more the asking intercession of the saints, such as “pray for us now and in the hour of our death” not the “please help me find this lost thing”

meddlesomecleric.bsky.social•6 days ago

I guess also for me, how did you develop a relationship with St Julian of Norwich? I’ve heard of ppl feeling an “affinity” for a saint. I suppose for me that’s probably St Thomas Becket, but is it just interest in the story of the person or a connection/love of the Saint himself?

margueritek.bsky.social•5 days ago

Some years ago, I felt a decisive calling to become affiliated with a monastic order. I then found the Order of Julian of Norwich. We, with the Order, are meant to study Julian's theology and life story, but our main focus, as was her main focus, is on Jesus.

margueritek.bsky.social•5 days ago

Her "Revelations of Divine Love" translated by Barry Windeatt and "Julian of Norwich, Theologian" by Denys Turner are the best references.

blueberrymill.bsky.social•6 days ago

Im too Protestant to comment but I worked for an Anglo-Cath church, so I’m familiar with some of these matters. An easy thing to do is add the Angelus onto the Daily Office. In Eastertide (or even thru the octave of Pentecost and Trinity) you can replace it with the Regina Coeli.

margueritek.bsky.social•5 days ago

I'm almost as Protestant as Ben and do not feel comfortable asking for the saints' intercession, although there probably isn't anything wrong with it. They are there. They are one with us. I just have seen devotion to a saint or saints become primary with some people.

meddlesomecleric.bsky.social•5 days ago

Thank you for your comments throughout this thread. I definitely don’t want a devotion to a saint to come anywhere close to overshadowing devotion to Jesus.

anglocat-holic.bsky.social•5 days ago

People make fun of the "it's like asking a friend to pray for you" explanation but that's literally how I see it and how I incorporate it into my devotions. Because the saints in heaven are our brothers and sisters, just as we are brothers and sisters on earth. Let's all pray for one another.

meddlesomecleric.bsky.social•6 days ago

Chat. Would love to chat about it.

bolshevikbear.bsky.social•6 days ago

If it's worth anything at all:

I've been both Anglo-Catholic and even Roman Catholic. During times when my faith and life were fine then the Saints have been inspirational and all, but difficult still to connect with. But during times of spiritual aridity, that's when I could truly pray with them!

bolshevikbear.bsky.social•6 days ago

I suppose what I'm getting at here is that I came to see the Saints more as fellow pilgrims (admittedly so much more loftier than me) only in times of torment and difficulty. Then I could truly relate to them, and yes, rely on them.

meddlesomecleric.bsky.social•6 days ago

That is helpful. I’ve long been convinced that the typical low-church Protestant “death separated us from the faithful departed” view is simply an incorrect and incomplete view of the “intermediate state” (for one “God is not the God of the dead but the living”)… just don’t know how far to take it

meddlesomecleric.bsky.social•6 days ago

Does that realization give us license to interact with them as fellow creatures who are just now residing in the unseen realm in God, or is it just a detail of biblical anthropology that doesn’t really have impact one way or the other on our mutual pilgrimage?

amateurmonastic.bsky.social•6 days ago

The way I look at it is: I ask people I know in mortal life to help me and specifically to pray for me. Why would I not ask help of someone who is now, as I believe, closer to God than they were in life? The blessed dead still care and still pray for us.

blueberrymill.bsky.social•6 days ago

Can’t help you personally but WABlueSky is full of Anglo-Catholics who will give you great advice! The new St. Augustine’s Prayer Book has many useful devotions to the saints.

sarahcjones.bsky.social•5 days ago

What is WABluesky?

meddlesomecleric.bsky.social•5 days ago

Weird Anglican Bluesky

We used to have Weird Anglican Twitter which was WAT

missalmodernist.bsky.social•5 days ago

Yes, I use St. Augustine’s Prayer Book!

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