When a friend became a pastor of a parish in Texas he found that the church was chock-a-block full of statues of various saints to the point that the altar seemed like an afterthought. There was an unused balcony in the back of the Church so he arranged a ceremony where a selection from Hebrews was proclaimed: we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses. Then a brief biography of each saint was read and they were solemnly processed from the front of the church into the balcony. The new pastor assured the people that now their many patrons would be praying along with them. He knew this strategy had succeeded when a mother was getting her disruptive child to behave by point to the back of the Church reminding him the saints were watching! In your prayer today think of the many people, like the bleeding woman in the gospel and Jairus, whose example have witnessed to you what faith in Jesus really looks like.
