praying to saints
and also for world peace
God prays so that his mercy may overcome his anger.
This is someone else’s beautiful thought. I don’t know God like that - I can’t even ask him for favors. That falls more to the saints. Like St. Anthony, when I lose my things.
I like the idea of these human intermediaries that help us with earthly and highly specific problems like a tooth ache or burnt vegetables or generalized anxiety or finding a parking spot of bumming a cig or passing an organic chemistry test or nice weather on my birthday or for my period not to come on my wedding day.
Saints are interesting people because they embody two extremes by definition. They want to emulate Christ and christlike qualities: faith, virtue, patience, brotherly kindness, forgiveness, generosity, humility. But saints are rarely subservient. Their conviction is why most of them end up flayed, upside down, nailed to a stake, waterboarded, whatever. There’s polarity. That tension is interesting.
I think worship does that to you.
Which is why you’re best off picking a god, or something like a god (the 4 noble truths, the universe, the sun) to serve. I think Jung talked about this.
When I was a kid, I felt insecure that I used to pray for trivial things. Like I wasn’t thinking enough of the world, my fellow men, or the good that I could be doing. So at the end of all my prayers I would add on, “oh, and I also pray for world peace. Amen.” It’s really cute how disingenuous that was but I figured I would get points for trying, for at least trying to think of someone else other than myself.