Why Do We Pray For Intercession?

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SybilMolly

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Hi,
I know this is an over asked question but I have never really understood. I know that we pray for the intercession of saints and we pray to God. But what are we actually asking the saints to do? Why can’t we just ask God to do this? If God isn’t going to do something the way we want when we pray to him, why will he do it when we pray for intercession? Does intercession means the saints are praying for us, in which case don’t the prayers all go to God anyway?

I have lots of questions that have just been floating around in my mind. Thank you.
 
Why ask anyone to pray for you?

God has willed that certain graces come to us only through the intercession of others. He has no absolute need for this, it is simply how he set it up. We are a Mystical Body.

There are certain benefits to this. For one thing, it honors God by honoring those whom he has specially associated with himself. It is also humbling to us and honoring to God to follow the “chain of command” as it were. We can of course go directly to God, and sometimes we should; but it is very helpful to make use of the graces God has ordained through others’ participation.

Think of a child whose father says “no,” so the child goes to Mom, and she gets Dad’s consent, because he does it for her. This is only an analogy of course.
 
Okay. Intercessory prayer works like this.

If I asked you, “Would you please say a prayer for me?” Would you have a problem with that?

Okay, if not. We believe that when we “die”, we continue to exist and be alive in another realm. Christ often referred to death as “sleep”. We are told by Christ that we continue to live even after death. In the Bible, God says he is the God of Abraham, Isaac, Jacob. We believe the saints are LIVING, NOT the dead. So, just as you could ask me to say a prayer for you, and wouldn’t even hesitate to do so, probably, we believe you can ask someone in heaven to pray for you.

In fact, we believe it would actually be more productive to ask someone already in heaven,
because I suspect many of them may have more pull, unless you are asking a saint on earth! So, why is it so strange we ask someone who is probably a lot more saintly for prayer? Why is that considered so “wrong” by some?

Sometimes, especially when we are very unworthy, it is difficult for God to listen to us, because we are so full of sin. However, if a saint asks on our behalf, he will often listen to a saint because of their holiness and relationship to God.

At times, saints, and the Blessed Virgin Mary, act like our advocates. They intercede on our behalf, helping us.

We can often present their merits, especially if we are short on our own!
 
As has been stated, it’s similar to asking a friend, family member, or your pastor to pray for you. The difference being that since the saint is dead (but alive to God, and to you since you are both in the Mystical Body of Christ!) you have to invoke him or her through prayer rather than a typical human encounter. Why do we do this when we could just ask God ourselves? Well one reason is that the Bible tells us to. James tells us “The prayer of a righteous man has great power in its effects” (James 5:16), and if this is true of we who still live on this Earth and sin, how much more true is it of those who now dwell in paradise and have been perfected in God’s grace? It is without question that we should pray for our brothers and sisters in the Lord, and so I ask why we think this obligation would end at death? Does it make sense that when we reach the greatest point of personal holiness we’ve ever experienced that we would stop praying for other people? I don’t think so.
 
That is a really good question, for it brings up a doctrine taught by Jesus himself.

Jesus said that he is the vine and we are the branches. Meaning, we are connected.

St. Paul mentions this same analogy but uses the human body, that is, all parts depend on one another, and each part plays a good role in helping the whole body function. No part can say to the other that the other is not needed, and no part can function or live without belonging to the body.

The parts of the body make up the church on earth, the saints in heaven, and those holy souls in purgatory. These three make up the one body of Christ and are connected to each other.
So one part can help the other, either to be holier, or to help in some way.

We on earth are the body of Christ on earth needing grace to persevere to the end which is obtained by prayer. The body of saints in heaven can pray for us for this end as well as help us in special moments of need. “Where two or three are gathered in my name there I am in the midst.” And then God especially listens to holy people which the saints are. Mary, the mother of God, being the holiest.

To not ask saints to pray for us is like a person who has others around him to help him, but he doesn’t ask but prefers to go it alone. Yes, he can do that, but isn’t it better to ask friends for help rather than going alone? Our friends in heaven, members of our body, are real as we are real and are more than understanding when asked to help. The communion of saints is something important not just a doctrine. They are willing and wanting to give us a hand, for they are part of the one body of Christ as we. When that love us, they are loving Christ.

May God bless and keep you. May God’s face shine on you. May God be kind to you and give you peace.
 
God is not a minimalist. If we were to follow the omniscience and omnipotence of God to its logical conclusion, then it is supposedly just as meaningless to pray directly to God as it is to pray to saints or have others pray for us for intercession. After all, he knows what we need before we even ask him. And yet we are told to pray fervently and without ceasing. Love is not interested in the minimum. It leaves flowers on the table, makes breakfast in bed, gives kisses on the cheek before running out the door, and dies before renouncing its love. We pray for one another because it is what God told us to do, and in prayer there is power.
 
I am content that mine is the only physical heart beat in my house, but I ask the Saints and Blessed Mother if they would pray with me, so spiritually I am not praying alone especially for things that I feel are big prayers e.g. God’s peace for Syria and the Middle East. Other times, I need prayers and I will ask them to pray for me. As I am aware that what I think is my need, may not be what I really need; or that God has other ideas, I simply ask them to pray for me.

I know we have books of intentions in our churches, but I am put off by the one or two people who (to my mind) abuse it by trying to dictate the contents and gossip about the prayer intentions (although not within earshot of the priest).

God always hears my prayers, I just don’t want to be praying alone for 99.9% of the time.
 
Those in Heaven {including God] AND those of us here on earth are in effect one big family, and the asking for intercessions/advocacy is part and parcel of what families get up to.

The big assurance is that Our Blessed Lady, and the Angels and Saints will not champion anything that is spiritually bad for us or others.
 
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