Colloquy

I learned a new word this week as I continued to experience the Ignatian Prayer Adventure for Lent: colloquy.  A colloquy is an intimate conversation with God, Jesus or one of the saints at the end of your prayer time. Conversing with God and Jesus, I'm familiar with, but being a Protestant, I've never really conversed in prayer with a saint. Until I came to the Episcopal church, I'm not sure I even was much aware of saints. But having a conversation with a saint is appealing, and I've been giving it some thought. Which of the many hundreds of saints might I speak with? Here in France, the Virgin is, of course, the most popular of the saints with St. Joan of Arc and St. Therese of Lisieux running close in second place. But which saints speak to my heart? St. Jacques is my favorite. St. Jacques, the saint of the chemin or the camino. The saint of pilgrims and of seekers. And what would I say to him? "Please intercede on my behalf with the Holy Father to heal my knee, so that I, too, can walk the way to Santiago de Compostelle."

St. Foy is also a favorite. I first met her in Conques. You can see by her photo that many others pray to her as well. Her story is amazing; I've blogged about her in the past. I continue to be pulled into her mystery. I'm reading "Little Saint" by Hannah Green right now...for the third time!....because Foy has called me again to come to her. As I pray to her, my question would be "Why? why do I feel so drawn to you and your abbey church in Conques? What are you asking me to do?" When I think about St. Foy, her matrydom, and her miracles, I don't really envision her as she's shown in her chapel at Conques...all gilded and grown-up looking. My favorite image of her is as she's depicted in the church tympanum...a young girl kneeling in prayer and asking for God's blessing on her people.