Ben Lansing & Rev. Dan Marotte present 52 Saints of the Christian Life

“Our Church Speaks: An Illustrated Devotional of Saints from Every Era and Place” By Ben Lansing and DJ Marotta (IVP)

One of my very favorite hymns is “For All The Saints”, sung in most liturgical churches, celebrating those who lived and served the church faithfully in the centuries that preceded us. This book does the same. It is the result of the collaboration between two friends: DJ the Anglican priest, and Ben the creator of an online art series, “Our Church Speaks”. They created this book to celebrate and inform all followers of Christ of the riches of our human inheritance, the “cloud of witnesses” who came before us in the faith.

They are not “celebrities” (who are famous for being famous). In fact, most aren’t even known by the members of the denominations in which they served. They are “flawed but faith-filled” men and women who strove to serve Jesus to the very best of their abilities. They come from the twenty centuries before our time on Earth, from places around the world, and from various Christian disciplines. A few might be known to the average modern Christian; most are not. Their experiences, challenges, failings and triumphs point the way toward their Redeemer rather than themselves. For many, we don’t know their birthdates, but the day they died. Some were martyred, some were not. All sacrificed and trusted in the Savior.

Their stories, their witness, and their courage can and should inspire all who follow Christ.

Three saints whose celebrations have become secularized (and balderized) are probably the best known: Saints Nicholas, Valentine and Patrick. But their stories, like the others, are much different than the glitzy or profane modern observances. All were willing to die for their faith (and two did.) There are more ancient saints presented here, but also some from the Middle Ages, and some from their last two centuries.

They are not all “official” saints (that is, canonized by the Roman Catholic or the Orthodox Churches) but they all followed Jesus and sought to serve Him and His people. There are many that could have been included, but time and space constraints exist. However, I was pleasantly surprised at some of those fellow believers who were included: CS Lewis, Martin Luther King Jr., Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Harriet Tubman, Thomas Aquinas, brother Cyril and Methodius, Athanasius, Joan of Arc, Juliam of Norwich, Johann Sebastian Bach, William Wilberforce, Augustine and his mother Monica, John Bunyan, Mother Teresa, Hildegard, Francis of Assisi, William Tyndale, and a host of others who are new to me from Africa, Asia and the Middle East. All we Christians have much to learn about serving God in our own communities from these who mostly did that very thing.