Santos intercede for human grace
It is again the seasonal observance of All-Hallow’s Eve, All Saints’ Day, Diá de los Muerto, and the Memorial Month of November for remembrance of and reflection upon the lives of our deceased familial and community predecessors.
The Blessing Way column now recalls in a special way certain of these antecedents and ancestors such as our parents, abuelos and abuelas and some historical leaders and influential spiritual guides of El Norte. These are leaders such as Padre Antonio Jose Martínez, Father Luis Jaramillo, Padre Casimiro Roca of El Santuario de Chimayo, Margaret Mascareñas and the recently deceased Mary Macias of the Taos Guadalupe Parish – all representative of the innumerable company which though now gone are yet with us in La Comunión de los Santos – the Communion of Saints, which is comprised of the living and the “dead.”
At this writing, the entire world is now afflicted by an invisible deadly pandemic of a onceunknown coronavirus that has upended all the previously normal ways of life and business. Icy heraldic winds and premonitions of the coming winter are raging.
There is much uncertainty, confusion and fear in the people of El Norte and the globe.
Yet there is also an unconquerable spirit of strength, but equally invisible life-giving force and essence here which gives the people a vital determination to “make it through” these afflictions.
Taos and El Norte and the regions beyond are able to invoke and to depend upon ancient spiritual resources that are known by many names and attributes. These are helpful forces of what is natural and supernatural, including those carved, sculpted and painted objects of religious art known as the santos, or wooden saints, which are called on to assist the people in their most trying circumstances.
The santos, such as Nuestro Padre Jesús Nazareno, Señora de Guadalupe, San Isidro Labradór, Los Arcangeles, Santo Niño de Atocha and a host of others, are kept in homes, chapels, moradas, churches and even museums, and represent powerful aspects of the spiritual life of El Norte.
These santos are considered to represent a “divine” characteristic in humans through a great and holy spirit that connects the living and the dead in the communion of saints as is also exemplified in the conjoined All Saints and All Souls’ days observances. They are invoked to intercede for the people, for the blessings and grace of the Most High. And this relationship with that communion of saints serves to engender mutual charity for the greater good – a righteous way to live.
The santos are powerful spiritual figures, even though obviously they are rarely seen to move or to express audible speech, yet they are recognized as having a form of vigor and vitality from some other realm perhaps, like that of other spirit figures in many other world cultures and traditions.
One santos prayer goes like this: “All powerful and ever-living Most High, you have put us in charge of this created world, so that in everything we may honor the demands of charity. By your grace, listen to our prayer, so that your blessing may come upon all who encounter these images of your faithful and beloved, the santos, that we also may attain the best for us through their intercession. Permit that all may perceive you as the good that surpasses all other good, so that we may care for our fellow humans and all creation with right hearts.
“Thank you for the gift of these santos and all of who and what they represent for the healing from and the rejection of all that presently afflicts us. And thank you for the life and strength that you have given to the world’s people to live in righteous ways so that we may frustrate and overcome these afflictions, as we also recognize that in some ways we might have brought these things upon ourselves.
“And finally we thank you for the steadfast and vital blessings that emanate always from our communities of Taos and El Norte, as symbolized also by the knowing steady presence of these santos, and most importantly by the steadfastness and courage of our hearts.”