Communion of Saints

[VAC]

What is the definition of ‘communion of saints’?
I always believed it to mean that the saints hear us when we pray to them and they intercede for us.

Here’s an excerpt from my 8 year old’s CCD text he just got today:
"The church is sometimes called the ‘communion of saints’. This means that the members of the Church on earth, in purgatory, and in heaven are all united. The saints join you in worshipping the Father, Son and Holy Spirit.

This is a new one on me. Maybe someone can enlighten me?

 

[SMHW]

Here’s a link to New Advent. It might explain things better than anything I could say. What you thought it meant is kind of a subset or maybe a corollary of the doctrine of the Communion of Saints.

newadvent.org/cathen/04171a.htm

 

[PhilotheaZ]

The excerpt from your child’s textbook is quite correct. For more information on the communion of saints, check the following sections of the Catechism of the Catholic Church:

#946-962, available online at vatican.va/archive/catechism/p123a9p5.htm

1474-1477, available at vatican.va/archive/catechism/p2s2c2a4.htm (scroll down to the lower part of the page)​