How does intercession work?

[TimothyIgnatius]

Assuming that the saints and Mary are not omnipresent as God is, how is it that they can hear our prayers? Is there an official Church teaching on this issue? I’m just curious as to how this works. We ask the Saints to pray for us, but how do they hear us? Does God allocate the message to them for us? If so, is there even a point in asking the Saints to pray to God for us, if God is the one who has to deliver that message to them? I’m just confused and hopeful for some clarification! Any help is greatly appreciated.

I thought maybe it works something like this; that the saints aren’t omniscient but receive our messages to them in Heaven when we deliver them on Earth? Or that the saints in Heaven can actively view the happenings of the Earth, and can therefore see/hear when we pray to them? This way they wouldn’t be omnipresent as God is, but rather have a saintly/angelic ability to see/hear the things on Earth through the gift of God (ie Heaven). Can someone clear this up for me?

 

[fred_conty]

Interession works just like you normally use it in your life.
As children we went to mom to ask dad. Intercession.
As citizens we go to congressmen to get to congress. Intercession.
As unemployed we go to head hunter to find us jobs. Intercession.
Or someone asks another employee to recommend them for work there. Intercession.
And so on.

We even do it when we ask each other to pray for us or our special intention. Intercession.

Jesus did say, “wherever two or three our gathered in my name, there I am in the midst.”
Intercession in a group.

Jesus also looked at a child one day, and said not to do anything to harm him for his angel sees their Father face to face. What that means is, that the angel knows what is happening to that child because they see what is going on by being one with God. The saints too see God face to face as well and they too know what is going on. So they know when we ask them to pray for us.

Just some thoughts.

 

[Fidelis]

We actually don’t know how things “work” in the afterlife-- heaven, hell or purgatory. All we know is what God has revealed to us about each place and try to make logical deductions about them based on that revelation.

Presuming that it pleases God when we invoke the intercession of the Saints, and that it is his will that they intercede for us, suffice it to say that He can, in his omnipotence, make it possible.

 

[po18guy]

What I try to keep in mind is that, by our faith and baptism, we are parts - members of the Body of Christ. Each soul who has believed and been baptized is living in body or in spirit, in communion with one another. Does it make sense to believe that parts of Christ’s living body cannot communicate in some manner? Just as our body communicates from one part to another, so also with the mystical Body of Christ. When we are injured, a pain signal is sent to the brain and the body’s healing process is triggered. We can only guess as to how that happens. And, that is in the physical realm. In the spiritual realm, the possibilities are endless. As with much of science, we don’t know how it happens - only that it does happen.