On the day that the troubles broke at my last job, I called a Catholic friend on my way home and asked him if he could recommend a saint.

I was firmly opposed to the idea of addressing prayers to saints, as I believed the dead had better things to do than pray for the living, and I particularly resented the standard, seemingly preprogrammed line that my Catholic friends gave me about it: "Think of it as though you were asking a friend to pray for you."

Big difference, I thought. My friends are alive.

But there are no atheists in foxholes. I had a strong feeling that I needed all the friends I could get, and the lack of a mortal coil didn't seem strong enough grounds for exclusion.

My friend recommended one of the patron saints of journalists, who shall remain nameless because I looked him up in the Patron Saints Index when I got home and, well, I'm sure he was saintly and all, but he seemed dull. There was nothing about him that made me feel any connection with him. But I did notice something interesting about the Patron Saints Index; its patron-saint categories were hyperlinked. I clicked on "journalism" out of curiosity.

That's how I found Maximilian Kolbe.

Several things about Kolbe's life touched me deeply, especially his early acceptance of the crown of martyrdom; his spreading the faith by founding and publishing newspapers and magazines; and his writing articles against abortion. It fascinated me that he was both a patron saint of journalists and of the pro-life movement. Most of all, I was struck by the sacrifice of his death at Auschwitz. The Nazis killed him after he offered to die in the place of a prisoner who had a wife and family. The prisoner whose life Kolbe saved was present when John Paul II canonized him.

I didn't know the first thing about praying through saints, so I just started talking to Kolbe as though he were a living person whom I was asking to pray for me. It came very naturally. Although a storm was gathering around me at my job, as I prayed I immediately began to feel a sense of peace.

My main objection to praying through saints had been that such prayer would inevitably direct one away from God. While I can't speak for others, I discovered that for myself, the case turned out to be the opposite. Through becoming emotionally intimate with a saint—or, as a skeptic would say, with my image of who a saint was—I gained a better understanding and appreciation of how God moves in our lives.

Show me a person with lukewarm faith and I'll show you someone who does not believe in a personal God. As it says in Hebrews, "Those who come to God must believe that He is and that He is the rewarder of all those who diligently seek Him." Yet it is God's very ominipotence—His hugeness—that often makes it difficult for us to understand how He can care about us individually. Imagining God's love personified in Jesus helps, but Jesus, despite His humanity, still seems much larger than life.

Kolbe became, for me, what I believe the saints are for other believers as well—God with skin on. Because I believed that the saint understood completely what I was going through—including persecution, fear, self-doubt, and guilt—I believed that God understood them too. Yet I felt more comfort when addressing certain prayers through Kolbe than when addressing them directly to God—though I continued to pray to God as well—because he put a face on the compassion and empathy that God had for me.

I continued to address petitions to Kolbe—mostly regarding my career—after I lost my job, and as I was looking for a new one. I asked him to pray for specific help for me, and I asked him to ask God to let me feel the Lord's peace and guidance. All of my prayers were answered during this time, and I felt myself submitting to God's will with more peace than I had in the past. Although I did experience dark hours, knowing what Kolbe had gone through for his faith was a great encouragement to me. The worst of my sadness lasted for a week, and then I turned the corner, finding many reasons to be hopeful.

Meanwhile, at the time when I was petitioning Kolbe, my friend Dimitri Cavalli was busy making successive novenas on my behalf to the Sacred Heart of Jesus, Kolbe, St. Jude, St. Joseph (stepfather of Christ), and Our Lady of the Miraculous Medal (Mary). In addition, reader Maureen, touched by my writings about living chastely in hope of marriage, was petitioning St. Anthony to find me a husband.

To be honest, I still have trouble imagining how saints figure into God's means of answering prayer, if at all. Then again, if I think about it, I have trouble figuring out how prayer itself figures into God's means of operating the universe. But I've been showered with blessings these past few weeks, and the comfort I've felt in praying through Kolbe makes me wish to give the saints their due.

Today I start my new job, far better than the one I lost. I also have a pending book deal. Neither would have come about had I stayed at my last job. I'm also deeply in love with a man who shares my love of the Lord—a longtime pen pal whom I phoned for the first time after I lost my job and needed to hear a friendly voice. God has turned the worst thing that had ever happened in my life into the best, and I am deeply thankful to Him, as well as to family, friends, and readers who have offered all manner of support and prayers.

One can never plan on so many things going right all at once. I'm sure there will be times ahead when I will be disappointed that my prayers are not being answered as I'd like. Yet I believe that whatever happens in the future, my spirit will be better able to handle it, because I now believe that my communion with the saints extends to both those in this world and those in the next.

ADDENDUM: Roman Catholic seminarian Jeff Geerling sent me the following thoughts after I wrote to him in January asking about the theological basis for praying through saints:

In order to understand how we are able to implore the help of Mary and the Saints, we must try to throw out our misconceptions of communication with other people on a "spiritual" or "more-than-physical" level. It is obvious that there is some higher feeling in communication when a person is near another person and talking to him or her with body language, facial expressions and voice instead of, say, speaking via a phone call or an e-mail. But there's also something to be said for speaking to another person by means of simple presence and emotion. On a spiritual level, we can, in a way, "speak" to each other—not on some magical hocus-pocus way, but in a way that is done through God's grace and love.

We must then believe that our brothers and sisters in Christ who are now in Heaven (including Mary) are even more caring for their neighbors both in Heaven and earth, and love to help us by not only comforting us in what way they can, but also imploring God on our behalf for good to happen in our lives (whether or not we realize it). The communication of love cannot be described by words, nor can it be easily demonstrated—nevertheless, it is a great means of Jesus communicating to us, and it is the method of true loving communication.

Jesus has told us that we must care for our neighbor as ourselves and love others as Christ loved us if we are to attain perfect union with God in Heaven. Are we to stop loving our neighbors (especially the lowliest ones, those on earth) once we attain Heaven (God-willing...)? No; we will help and love our neighbors even more once we are made perfect in God's glory! We will love our neighbors everywhere (the Communion of Saints) when we are united to Jesus Christ in Heaven. It is true that we will stand in awe before God, and praise and worship Him. BUT, why would Jesus instruct us to prepare for the Kingdom of God by helping others if we would simply stop helping the lowly (those still on earth) once we finally love him perfectly?

It is my opinion (and that of the Catholic Church's) that it is a very beneficial action to ask for the Saints' help in various matters—in fact, there are patron saints for many occupations and activities (i.e. "St. Joseph the Worker") to aid us in times of difficulty. We are in no way detracting from God's glory when we ask saints or Mary for help—for they are part of God's creation, as are our brothers and sisters on earth, and asking them to help us or pray for us is much the same as asking our earthly brothers and sisters...at least on a spiritual level.
                            — Jeff Geerling