Taos blessing of santos in the viral affliction
It is now again the seasonal observance of All-Hallow’s Eve, All Saints’ Day, Día de Los Muertos, 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, like Padre Antonio Jose Martínez, Father Luis Jaramillo, Padre Casimiro Roca of El Santuario de Chimayo, Margaret Mascareñas, Gustavo Teodoro Fernández and all those of our recently deceased now rejoined with 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 in late October 2021, the entire world is still afflicted by a deadly pandemic of a previously unknown Sars-CoV-2 virus and variant strains that have upended the previously normal ways of life and business. There is much uncertainty, confusion, and fear in the people of El Norte and across the globe.
But there is also an unconquerable spirit of strength, a quietly invisible life-giving force and essence here which gives the people a vital determination to “make it through” these afflictions.
Taos, El Norte and regions beyond are able to invoke and to depend upon very ancient spiritual resources that are known by many names and attributes – 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.
These 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 in museums. They 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 on Nov. 1 and 2. They are invoked to intercede for the people, for the blessings and grace of the Most High. And this relationship with the “Communion of Saints” serves to engender mutual charity for the greater good, a righteous way to live.
The Santos are very 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 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.”