“Surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses” (Heb. 12:1) we do well to remember that the saints also have free will and personality. They desire to help us, because this pleases God – and the saints who come our way – even introduce themselves to us – do not do so by accident. They do so because they want to. It is important then not to neglect holy men and women who are connected with our sense of place, because they seek us out as much as we seek them.

So who do we have as local saints? Well, first and foremost our Parish has two principal patrons because it is a merged entity – the Sacred Heart is a devotion to an aspect of Our Lord’s life – and Our Lord is not a saint, he is Sanctity itself! But St. Patrick was a living and breathing human person. A Welsh bishop who became patron to the Irish nation and famous for his devotion to – the Most Blessed Trinity, which mystery we celebrate today.

Our Guild bears the title of the Oratory Church – the Most Sacred Heart of Jesus – which would leave us rather bereft of a human intercessor. For that reason, because the Feast of the Sacred Heart unusually coincided with the Nativity of St. John the Baptist in our founding year, this was taken as a sign that the holy Prophet desired to be associated with us – and therefore he is the Guild’s patron saint.

The Oratory Church is located in the village of Georgetown, CT, which officially straddles three towns: Redding, Wilton and Weston; and is located on the border with Ridgefield. Indeed, our campus is 95% in Redding, but a sliver of land at the front is actually in Wilton, because Church St. does not follow the town line precisely. As you know, Redding and Wilton are both named for towns in England – Redding; for ‘Reading’ (the spelling has changed over time) in the county of Berkshire and Wilton; for what is the namesake town of the county of Wiltshire.

Here, the Paraclete proposes even more devotions to us: Reading is the location of a notable shrine to Our Lady by the bridge over the Thames at Caversham – indeed, Our Lady of Caversham is still a shrine today; whereas Wilton is famous for being the site of a royal Abbey and the shrine of its most famous abbess, St. Edith. It’s no coincidence either that St. Fiacre (pronounced ‘Fiak’ with a little R tucked in at the end) proposed himself to our gardeners and florists, having taken up residence in the Oratory over 50 years ago.

These saints and patrons give us great reassurance, that the difficulties and struggles of a life of Faith are all overcome in our Trinune God! The Trinity is their life – and the Trinity is ours too, as we confess God as Father, Son and Holy Ghost. Amen.