Questions
- A person asked me: Where do Catholics get the idea that they can ask Mary to pray for them?
- Catholics don't just use Mary for advocacy (we usually say "intercession"), but all the angels and saints.
- So really we're asking: Where do Catholics get the idea that people in Heaven ("saints") can pray for them?
Contents
- One Mediator?
- People Are Heaven (and they pass our prayers to God)
- Mary is One Among the Multitude
- The Way Christians Have Understood It
- Conclusion
One Mediator?
Answer: Yes. St. Paul writes that there is only one mediator between God and man (1 Tim 2:5). There is only one person who is both God and man who can reconcile the two "opposing" parties, us and God (not that we're fighting against God, but that our sin is opposed to His perfection). In other words, only one person can make everything OK again between God and sinner. That's Jesus.
St. Paul doesn't contradict himself, either, when he asks other Christians to pray for him (Col 4:2-3, Eph 6:19). These other Christians aren't mediating anything when they pray for us--they're enacting the "One Body" unity that Christ willed for His church (John 10:16, Eph 4:4) by bringing the needs of the whole community before the one God who cares for us all.
People Are in Heaven
and they pass our prayers to God
St. James encourages us to use the prayers of the righteous for our gain in faith (James 5:16). The "righteous" can be asked to pray for the rest of us, for their prayers are "powerful and effective." Who could be more righteous than the "Church Triumphant," believers in Heaven who have been perfected in faith by Christ? How their prayers must be powerful and effective!
Christians who have died in the hope of their resurrection in Jesus are with Him now in Heaven. They pray for the people on Earth ("the Church Militant"). John saw "the Church Triumphant" (Christians in Heaven) praying for us on his tour of Heaven:
"The twenty-four elders [the leaders of the people of God in heaven] fell down before the Lamb, each holding a harp, and with golden bowls full of incense, which are the prayers of the saints" (Rev. 5:8).
Angels pray for us too: "The smoke of the incense rose with the prayers of the saints from the hand of the angel before God" (Rev. 8:3–4).
Note also that present with Christ in Heaven and seen by the apostles (Luke 9: 28-36) are two of the biggest Old Testament heroes, Moses and Elijah. They have their wits about them, as they are seen holding a conversation with Jesus.
Mary is One Among the Multitude
In Hebrews 11, the writer goes down the list of many of the great Old Testament faith heroes. This chapter is sometimes called the "Faith Hall of Fame." Referring to the people listed in the Faith Hall of Fame, Paul writes in Hebrews 12:1 that we are surrounded by so great "a cloud of witnesses." We are surrounded (please note the present tense!) by those who have died and gone before us, living their faith in action. We are supposed to fix our eyes on Jesus (Hebrews 12:2), but at the same time remember the examples of the "cloud of witnesses."
So, when Catholics pray the Hail Mary, they're acknowledging her as an incredible witness to the faith in the same way that Paul acknowledged the Old Testament heroes. Here's how:
Greet Mary the same way the angel of God greeted her: "Hail Mary, full of grace, the Lord is with thee" (Luke 1:28)
add what her cousin Elizabeth later said to her: "Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the fruit of your womb," (Luke 1:42)
restate the angel's claim of full of grace: "Holy Mary," (compatible with Luke 1:28)
call her what Elizabeth called her, "Mother of God," (Luke 1:43, "Mother of my Lord," or theotokos as Origen said [d. 250], Dionysius of Alexandria said in 250, Athanasius of Alexandria said in 330, Gregory the Theologian said in 370, John Chrysostom said in 400, declared by the first Council of Ephesus in 431, and claimed by Theodoret in 436 to be an apostolic tradition)
and add something St. Paul would agree with: "Pray for us, sinners, now and at the hour of death. Amen" (Paul writes "pray for us" 2 Thess 3:1, "pray that we" 2 Thess 3:2, and "pray that I" Rom 15:31).
The Way Christians Have Understood It
(All quotations taken from before the first Council of Nicea in 325)
1. Hermas (a fictional character written as a parable to the Christian community in the 1st century AD... The Shepherd of Hermas was considered a canonical book by many early Christians, including Irenaeus. It often appeared after the Book of Acts and before the epistles of Paul--obviously this was before the Bible was officially canonized at the Synod of Hippo in 393.)
"[The Shepherd said:] ‘But those who are weak and slothful in prayer, hesitate to ask anything from the Lord; but the Lord is full of compassion, and gives without fail to all who ask him. But you, [Hermas,] having been strengthened by the holy angel [you saw], and having obtained from him such intercession, and not being slothful, why do not you ask of the Lord understanding, and receive it from him?’" (The Shepherd 3:5:4 [A.D. 80]).
2. Clement of Alexandria (c.150-c.215 AD, Christian theologian and teacher at the Catechetical School of Alexandria, a training ground for theologians and priests. St. Jerome writes that St. Mark himself started this school.)
"In this way is he [the true Christian] always pure for prayer. He also prays in the society of angels, as being already of angelic rank, and he is never out of their holy keeping; and though he pray alone, he has the choir of the saints standing with him [in prayer]" (Miscellanies 7:12 [A.D. 208]).
3. Origen (one of the most important writers of the early Church, a student of Clement of Alexandria)
"But not the high priest [Christ] alone prays for those who pray sincerely, but also the angels . . . as also the souls of the saints who have already fallen asleep" (Prayer 11 [A.D. 233]).
4. Cyprian of Carthage (Bishop of Carthage. Lived from beginning of 3rd century to 258 AD; converted from Paganism and was baptized in 248. Influenced by Tertullian. Guarded against lapsed Christians who fell away from faith during persecutions; insisted upon their honest repentance before being re-admitted to the Church.)
"Let us remember one another in concord and unanimity. Let us on both sides [of death] always pray for one another. Let us relieve burdens and afflictions by mutual love, that if one of us, by the swiftness of divine condescension, shall go hence first, our love may continue in the presence of the Lord, and our prayers for our brethren and sisters not cease in the presence of the Father’s mercy" (Letters 56[60]:5 [A.D. 253]).
5. Methodius (died 311. Bishop and martyr. Big fan of Christian virginity. Didn't always agree with Origen.)
"Therefore, we pray [ask] you, the most excellent among women, who glories in the confidence of your maternal honors, that you would unceasingly keep us in remembrance. O holy Mother of God, remember us, I say, who make our boast in you, and who in august hymns celebrate the memory, which will ever live, and never fade away" (ibid.).
"And you also, O honored and venerable Simeon, you earliest host of our holy religion, and teacher of the resurrection of the faithful, do be our patron and advocate with that Savior God, whom you were deemed worthy to receive into your arms. We, together with you, sing our praises to Christ, who has the power of life and death, saying, ‘You are the true Light, proceeding from the true Light; the true God, begotten of the true God’" (ibid.).
Conclusion
As the Bible demonstrates especially through John's vision of Heaven and Paul's writings to area Christians; as prominent Christian leaders have believed and taught in the New Testament and in the centuries following, so does the Catholic Church continue to teach the power of prayer that the Christian community has available. Christ started one Church, one Body, that remembers each other and prays for each other before the Lord.
Other sources
Why not pray directly to Jesus?
http://www.catholic.com/library/Praying_to_the_Saints.asp
Saint worship? The word "Worship" used to include honor given to people. See Biblical examples: http://www.catholic.com/library/Saint_Worship.asp
More about the "Communion of Saints"
http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/04171a.htm
