The Saints: our friends and supporters

When you are playing in an away match against another school or club – it might be hockey or football – it’s a great encouragement if you have a crowd of supporters on the touch-line to cheer you on.  Indeed, if the sides were pretty even, it might make all the difference between victory and defeat.

Now, although our life at the moment is lived here on this earth, our true home is in Heaven.  So we can think of this life as a kind of away match against the temptations of the world, the flesh and the Devil.  And we have our crowd of supporters from our true home to cheer us on and keep us going – I mean the Blessed Saints (cf Hebrews 12:1-2, 22-24; Philippians 3:20).

We must always remember that Heaven is not far away.  Heaven is where God is seen (the Beatific Vision) and so, if we could see God now, this building would be Heaven.  If you went in a space ship into the outer regions of the Universe, you would be no nearer to God and no farther from him, and so you would also be no nearer to and no farther from Heaven.  Heaven is another life which exists quite near us but on a different level, and therefore the Saints are not far away. And they can help us by praying to God for us.

Asking the Saints to pray for us

On earth the prayers of holy people, who live close to God, are more effective than the prayers of other people because holy people know him and what he wants so much better.  As St James tells us in the New Testament, “The prayer of the righteous is powerful and effective” (NRSV, James 5:16).  That is why, if we were in some trouble, we would rather have a holy person to pray for us than someone who had little to do with God.  Now, the most holy of all are the Saints in Heaven, and so their prayers are the most effective.  They know God better than anyone here on earth, because they see him face to face and live with him all the time.  There is no risk that they will ask for wrong things because God and themselves are of one mind.

The early Christians

The early Christians began to pray to the Saints during the persecutions of the 3rd century.  It was then that so many of them showed their love for Jesus by joyfully suffering and dying as martyrs for his sake.  And the Christians had no doubt at all that, when their martyrdom was over, these heroic and saintly souls had gone at once to live with Jesus in Heaven.  And they also had no doubt that the martyrs prayed in Heaven for those whom they had left behind on earth to carry on the struggle (cf 2 Maccabees 15:12-16, written in the 2nd century BC).  So the Christians turned to them with confidence and asked them for their prayers.  When the persecutions were over in the 4th century, they prayed to other saints besides the martyrs.  Thus by prayer the Church on earth was kept in close fellowship with the Church in Heaven.

Our Lady

As, therefore, we ask our friends on earth to pray for us or for others, so we should ask our friends in Heaven, the Blessed Saints, to pray for us.  First of all the Saints is Our Lady, St Mary, the Mother of Jesus.  She is nearer to him than any other human being because she is the only one whom he can call ‘Mother’.  And since she, like Jesus, looks on us as his brothers and sisters (Hebrews 2:11,12), we also can look on her as our Mother.  So, because we know Our Lady cares for us, we can confidently ask her to pray for us.

We can do this when we say the Hail Mary.  The first three lines of this prayer come from the greeting of the Archangel Gabriel himself when he announced to Mary that she was to be the Mother of Jesus (Luke 1: 28), and from the greeting of Mary’s cousin, Elizabeth (Luke 1:42).  The fourth line reminds us that Jesus is God the Son and that therefore, as Mother of Jesus, Mary is also Mother of God.

Hail Mary, full of grace, the Lord is with thee;
blessed art thou among women,
and blessed is the Fruit of thy womb, Jesus.
Holy Mary, Mother of God, pray for us sinners,
now and at the hour of our death.  Amen.

We should also ask Mary to pray for us when we are in trouble, and we may be sure that she will do so

Our patron saint

You should also have a patron saint of your own.  If your name is also the name of a saint, you can choose him or her.  Otherwise you could choose a saint, perhaps St Peter, or St Catherine or St Francis.  And in your morning and evening prayers ask your patron saint to pray for you: “St Catherine, pray for me”.  “St Francis, pray for me”.

Our Guardian Angel

You should also in your morning and evening prayers ask your Guardian Angel to look after you.  Just as God uses our friends here to help us, so he takes care of us by means of our Guardian Angels.  Each of you has a Guardian Angel whose duty is to keep you safe.  This doesn’t mean that nothing unpleasant will ever happen to us, but it does mean that our Guardian Angel saves us from many more dangers than we realise.  Our Guardian Angel is a good and faithful friend to us, and should be treated as a friend and not a stranger.  We can do this by thanking our Guardian Angel in our prayers for looking after us, and you can say this prayer: “Dear Guardian Angel, thank you for looking after me.  Please keep watch over me this day”, or “this night” if it is the evening.

SUMMARY

1. The prayers of holy people have more effect than those of others.  The prayers of the Saints in Heaven, therefore, have the greatest effect because they are the holiest of all.  They see God face to face and so know him better than any others.

2. That is why in our prayers we should ask them to pray for us, and especially should we ask Our Lady and our patron Saint.  We should also every morning and evening ask our Guardian Angel to look after us.