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Anna Camacho shares the story of CORDA candles, which use scent as a way to connect with the saints.


Is it possible to connect with saints in real, concrete ways?   

If that seems like a strange question to ask about people who have died, think about ways we use physical things to remember and stay connected to loved ones we’ve lost. We look at their picture, visit their grave, sing their favorite song, or make their beloved holiday dish. Because these things were part of who they were, they are part of who we are, and we hold on to things that remind us of the life they lived on this earth. 

And on this feast of All Saints, we remember and celebrate our extended family in the body of Christ. And it’s just as important to have physical connections to them, too! 

As Catholics, matter matters, because “the Word became flesh and dwelt among us.” We are creatures made of body and soul, and we need things that we see and smell and touch and eat and hear to make visible the invisible realities of our faith. With the saints, for example, we treasure things they once wore and touched, and even keep their very bodies close to us and place their relics in the altars on which the Eucharist is celebrated.  

I know that sometimes the idea of “the saints” can seem pretty abstract. Perhaps what comes to mind is a bunch of perfect people walking around in a haloed bubble, completely disconnected from the things you and I deal with in everyday life.  

But before they made it to heaven, every single saint lived a concrete, and complicated, life. They dealt with hard things like chronic illness, tricky relatives, dishes piling up, an anti-Christian culture, unemployment, kids who stopped practicing the faith, and struggles with prayer.  

In our domestic churches, there are tangible ways we can connect with saints, and one of my favorite ways is through scent. Our sense of smell has a uniquely powerful way of connecting us to the physical world, and through it we can enter into the day-to-day reality of a saint’s time on earth. 

 

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I love to picture just hanging out with a particular saint and putting myself in the places they would have been. I imagine Joseph planing wood in his carpenter shop, Joan of Arc riding through the fields of France, and Pier Giorgio taking a deep breath of mountain air while climbing. These are the places and scents that made up the physical reality of their lives and were a deep part of who they were. And if I could have spent time with them, that’s what I would have experienced, too. Thinking about their lives, and even smelling those scents, helps bring the saints to life. 

That’s what inspires me at CORDA to translate the lives of the saints into scents, and then into candles—because the saints have always been so real to me, I want to help other people foster that same kind of connection with the holy men and women who have gone before us.

Whatever we’re going through, there’s a saint who has been there and done that, and what is so incredible about the saints if that they’ve made it through. These were ordinary people just like us, who learned to love God in the messy everyday and then, through his grace, grow in holiness by saying “thy will be done” over and over.

That’s why the saints matter to us in this exact moment. While it’s all too easy to get caught up in the present difficulty, when we really get to know the saints we see the bigger picture. Their example of finding and following God in their own lives helps us to do the same. 

And even if the saints feel abstract on our end, they are deeply connected to us. It’s their job, actually, to be there for us and keep praying for us so that we can one day make it to heaven, too. Lumen Gentium reminds us that “they do not cease to intercede with the Father for us” and that through their “interest our weakness is greatly strengthened” (49).

The saints are an incredible gift to us from God, and as we get to know them better, we see over and over that the light of their lives always points us to the Light of the World.  

As we celebrate all the saints today, I hope we also remember that one day, this could be our feast day, too. All you holy men and women, pray for us.

 

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Copyright 2022 Anna Camacho
Images: copyright 2022 Anna Camacho, all rights reserved.

About the author: Anna Camacho has been handcrafting Catholic candles since 2019, when she started CORDA after St. Joseph gave her the nudge. Inspired by the holy men and women who have gone before us, she loves translating their lives into unique candle scents. Every day she's grateful to make things with her own hands and to run CORDA alongside her husband, Michael.