http://www.saintsforsinners.com/ 's Saint Raphael, a Patron of Healing, a Saint Invoked for "Happy News!"
NOTE: Totally True Story!
SaintsforSinners Saint Raphael, featured twice, left, has "The Power."
The actual Testimonial has been scanned and also appears at left, along with some beautifully elaborate decoration.
A lady in New Jersey, Michele Logan, had been ordering medals and in one of her packages, I decided to include a "FLOOD MEDAL," one of the saint medals dug up out of the muck of my home office that got flooded from floor to ceiling. For some reason I could not let the bulldozer obliterate my Saints medals, so, I spent a day digging for them and "recovered" them. There are photos of my day in the muck on the site. I am happy I dug them up and have kept them.
I grabbed a medal from the bucket of flood medals, enclosed it in a bag, and noted it was Saint Raphael, who is known as the patron of healing and the saint invoked for happy news. I wrote on the bag and sent it off to New Jeresy
I did not know that Michele was a Registered Nurse. I did not know she had come down to New Orleans to volunteer after the flood. It turned out that the rusty, ruined, saint Raphael medal, a flood medal, meant more to her than the nicely painted one she received from SaintsforSinners. She wrote to say how much she appreciated getting the medal and that she found it to be very significant, since I had so many Saint medals to choose from (thousands). Michele took it as a "sign" and that was great. Receving heart-felt notes from strangers is probably the gas that has kept SaintsforSinners running, through the many obstacles, over the years. I don't go to our Testimonials pages very often, because, to be honest, I can't seem to prevent myself from getting too emotional, but itis clear that many, many people have been helped by our hand-painted saint medallions (and, it turns out, the "flood medals" too).
Yesterday, I sent out a bunch of e mails to people who have visited the web site and who I sort of "knew," even though we have never actually met, face-to-face. The responses were nice. I got an order from a guy who I went to school with but never had the chance to get to know, and that was fun for me somehow. I guess I took it as a sign he was saying "Hello" and "I wish we had gotten to know each other" or "How are you doing?" or some other pleasantry. It is quite possible I read too much into things these days!
This morning I went to check my e mails and was pleased to see another order had come in and that some folks had responded to my e mail. One lady was from New Orleans and she had a "Rush Order" of sorts. She was going out of town on Monday and really needed, coincidentally (?), a Saint Raphael medal to take to someone. So, we made special plans to meet up early tomorrow, Saturday morning, for her to get the Saint Raphael medal package. When you run your own business, which SaintsforSinners is, after all, you work pretty much every day. To quote the performer Bruce Hornsby, "That's Just the Way It Is. Somethings Never Change." ( I'm not complaining! )
After making the plans to get Saint Raphael to the lady, I then went back to check on my e mails and found the 2nd note from Michele Logan, part of the illustration above, a note about the power of her Saint Raphael medal, along with a lovely story of her friend who is living well with cancer, and whom she has given the medal to, who wears it "right next to her Tiffany bracelet." Michele wrote about how she started to understand the SaintsforSinners concept, which was, initially, that folks would "wear the medal and then share it with someone you love." The Basic Rule being this: If someone comments that they like your medal, you ought to pass it on. All of the Saint Raphael issues coming in one-after-the-other, the cynic in me says "coincidence." Thankfully the bigger part of me says, "Not!"
It's nice to be re-affirmed every now and then. Michele's notes let me know that it is not me, Rob, running this SaintsforSinners Show, it is, and I will quote Michele, "I have to believe a higher power with a plan." Funny how another friend, named Michele, has been saying the same thing to me for a very long time.
Thank you, Michele Logan. You made my day! rob clemenz @ SaintsforSinners
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