Father and Joe E468: How to Become Friends With the Saints — Prayer, Biography, and Supernatural Friendship

The saints can feel like distant, two-dimensional figures—names on churches, statues, feast days, and stories from another world. Continuing the conversation about Saint Boniface, Joe Rockey and Father Boniface Hicks explore how someone can move beyond simply knowing about a saint and begin developing a real relationship with that saint through prayer, curiosity, and time.Father explains that the saints are alive in Christ and closer to us than we often realize. The process can begin simply: notice when a saint repeatedly captures your attention, speak directly to that saint in prayer, and begin learning about the person behind the image. A short biography may provide the introduction, while longer accounts, films, papal reflections, and continued prayer gradually reveal the saint’s personality, struggles, limitations, courage, and humanity.As that relationship develops, a saint can move from “two-dimensional to three-dimensional”—becoming a spiritual friend whose example speaks into your own circumstances. Their lives show that holiness does not erase struggle. Saints endured failure, misunderstanding, temptation, conflict, unfinished work, and gradual conversion. Their friendship gives us examples to follow, encouragement for our own weaknesses, and intercession as we continue growing in our relationship with ourselves, others, and God.Key IdeasBegin simply: notice which saints keep appearing, address them in prayer, and ask for their help.Use biographies, trustworthy films, and Church teaching to discover the saint’s humanity—not only the polished summary.Saints become relatable when we understand their fears, failures, conflicts, limitations, and gradual conversion.Learning about history through a saint’s life helps connect unfamiliar circumstances with the human struggles we still face today.The goal is not collecting information; it is developing supernatural friendships that help us become saints ourselves.Links & ReferencesSaints for Sinners by Archbishop Alban Goodier:https://sophiainstitute.com/product/saints-for-sinners/The Chosen:https://thechosen.tv/Pope Benedict XVI’s General Audiences:https://www.vatican.va/content/benedict-xvi/en/audiences.index.htmlCTA: If this helped, please leave a review or share this episode with a friend.Questions or thoughts? Email [email protected] and Joe, Joe Rockey, Father Boniface Hicks, saints, communion of saints, friendship with the saints, supernatural friendship, intercession, prayer, Saint Boniface, patron saint, spiritual friendship, saint biographies, Saints for Sinners, Archbishop Alban Goodier, Pope Benedict XVI, general audiences, The Chosen, Saint Maximilian Kolbe, Saint Francis Xavier, Saint Camillus de Lellis, missionary saints, conversion, gradual conversion, holiness, sanctity, human weakness, failure, perseverance, martyrdom, Church history, Christian history, discernment, spiritual growth, Catholic prayer, relationship with God, relationship with others, relationship with self, becoming a saint, faith and imagination, Catholic books, lives of the saints