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During the Catholic Church's liturgical year, nearly every weekday is dedicated to a particular saint or saints.
While it might appear to some that Catholics are worshiping saints, feast days are actually designed to lead us back to Jesus Christ.
Beacons of light
The Catechism of the Catholic Church explains that first of all, feasts dedicated to the Blessed Virgin Mary are meant to bring us closer to her Son:
"In celebrating this annual cycle of the mysteries of Christ, Holy Church honors the Blessed Mary, Mother of God, with a special love. She is inseparably linked with the saving work of her Son. In her the Church admires and exalts the most excellent fruit of redemption and joyfully contemplates, as in a faultless image, that which she herself desires and hopes wholly to be."
Furthermore, feasts that are dedicated to saints are like beacons of light that draw us closer to Christ and show us a path we can follow:
When the Church keeps the memorials of martyrs and other saints during the annual cycle, she proclaims the Paschal mystery in those "who have suffered and have been glorified with Christ. She proposes them to the faithful as examples who draw all men to the Father through Christ, and through their merits she begs for God's favors."
It is a belief that the closer we are to the saints, the closer they can bring us to Jesus Christ:
Exactly as Christian communion among our fellow pilgrims brings us closer to Christ, so our communion with the saints joins us to Christ, from whom as from its fountain and head issues all grace, and the life of the People of God itself"
Catholics do not worship saints, but recall their memory on a regular basis in hopes that we too can join in the heavenly banquet that is being prepared for us.
