Spiridion was a shepherd who lived in the 4th century. One incident speaks volumes about what made this man a saint. Butler tells this beautiful story thusly:

[A] gang of thieves attempting one night to carry off some sheep, were stopped by an invisible hand, so that they could neither perpetrated the intended theft, nor make their escape. Spiridion finding them the next morning thus secured, set them at liberty by his prayers, and gave them a ram; but exhorted them seriously to consider the danger of their state and amend their lives: observing to them that they had taken a great deal of unnecessary pains, and ran a great hazard for what they might have made their own by asking for it. [emphasis added]

How much damage occurs unnecessarily because we will not humble ourselves enough to ask for the help we need, the resources we require, that which truly feeds our bodies and our souls. Instead, we plot, we grasp, we angle, we manipulate… when, perhaps and even most helpfully, we need only ask.

And if we are not blessed enough to come upon a Spiridion the first (or second or third) time we ask? We need only bless the person who cannot or will not provide us what we request. How many, many times have you and I passed by persons asking us for any spare change, and even when we could not or would not offer our dimes, quarters, or dollar bills, they would nevertheless say, “God bless you!”?