This is such a beautiful thought! Hearing that the Church is a "communion of saints" means that we are never alone - there are always holy men and women cheering us on our entire lives, until we go to join them!
One way I have always imagined this is through an experience I had last year on my crew team (for those of you who are not familiar with crew, it's rowing a boat). At the beginning and end of every crew season, you are given the chance to row on these rowing machines to show your progression throughout the year. It's 2000 meters, which is pretty far (about 1.24 miles) and can be very, very taxing after the first two or three minutes. While you were rowing those very painful 2000 meters as fast as you possibly could, you had about eight or nine kids encouraging and praising you, giving you the strength to keep at it.
In my head, I've always imagined that in a way, that is how the saints operate. I like the idea of them gathering around and encouraging you, especially when you're having a hard time. Life can be really taxing - even more so than rowing 2000 meters consecutively! - so having the encouragement and prayers from the saints is a really beautiful thing!
It's pretty easy for me to lose hope on tests sometimes because, unlike my other friends, I don't have classes with anyone really close and so I can't study with them or talk to them about it all. Because of this, I like to imagine that when I'm taking a test, in particular a really, really scary geometry test (like the one I'm taking tomorrow!), my best friends in heaven are praying for me and cheering me on, maybe whispering a reminder into my ear. Or perhaps, when I'm running for crew and I'm absolutely dying (because I'm NOT a runner...), my saint friends are running on beside me, or cheering on the sidelines.
Over the past few years, I've really tried to connect myself with my friends in heaven. Just like I want to learn everything about my best friends on earth, I try to learn as much as I can about my saints. This comes in handy when I am doing all sorts of things - for example, when I'm writing an essay for one of my classes, I can ask for the intercession of Giulia Gabrieli because I know she loved to write and was very good at it. Then I can imagine her sitting next to me and writing with me, and that's always quite encouraging. Also, I've gotten into the habit of finding quotes from my saints and putting them on the inside of my locker door (which is JAM PACKED, unfortunately, so I can't add any more...) - it's like they're talking to me!
My point in all this is...the saints want to be your best friends! And they're the best ones you'll ever have. These ordinary people made the journey through life and made it to G'D in Heaven, and they're reaching out their hands for you to join them! I encourage you, if you haven't already, to research deeply your patron saint, your confirmation saint, or some saints who have always stood out to you, and ask for their intercession in everything you do. They will not abandon you, and through their holy examples, with the grace of G'D, we can reach our goal...Heaven!!!
May G'D go with you!
So inspiring!
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