/ by Edward Mullany

I imagine I will go see it, and say a prayer in its presence, if I have the opportunity to do so. There is something of the tourist in me, in this respect, but that does not diminish the sanctity of the relic itself. Nor the fact that any prayer elicited by a touristic impulse is still a prayer that will have efficacy to the extent that it is sincere. One prays to the saints for their intercession, I should say, not to the saints as an end in themselves. Catholics believe in the reality of intercessory prayer.