All Saints Day Talk
Think of your family. You may have one or two siblings, and
definitely all of you have cousins. Think about the family you have that you
know really well. You meet them often for Christmases and Thanksgivings and
Easters…you may get annoyed with them sometimes but at the end of the day, you
really know them. There are probably really annoying people, really quiet
members, members that you get along with really well and others that you think
are weird.
Now think about Christmas, but imagine yourself spending it
alone. The wonderful season looses most of its charm without family to spend it
with, even if you only spend Christmas with your parents and siblings.
This is similar to the family of saints in God’s kingdom of
heaven. Did you know that everyone that died and went to heaven is a saint?
Yes, its true, but why? Aren’t saints people that are canonized by the Pope?
I learned this recently too, that a saint is defined by
anyone who is holy in Christ. Ok, we already know that, nothing new. But this
is what is new: The Youcat (catechism of the catholic church) says this: “The
purpose of our life is to be united with God in love and to correspond entirely
to God’s wishes. We should allow God “to live his life in us” (Mother Teresa).
This is what it means to be holy, or to be a saint.”
All of us have asked the question: Who am i? what is my
purpose in life? Faith answers: only in HOLINESS does man become that for which
God created him. Only in holiness does man find real harmony between himself
and his Creator. God calls us all to be holy, in 1 Peter 1:15-16 it says “As he
who called you is holy, be holy yourselves in all your conduct; since it is
written, “You shall be holy, for I am holy.”
How do we become Holy? We cannot do it alone. Holiness is a
union with the incarnate love that is Christ. Anyone who chooses to let God
into their lives, and the Holy Spirit to enter their lives can become Holy,
because only God can make us holy. Blessed Mother Teresa of Calcutta said
“Holiness is not the luxury of a few people, but a simple duty for you and me”.
So we cannot sit here and say well, I cannot do that. I am not holy enough to
be like Mother Teresa or St. Paul. But what did those saints do?
St. Paul was born a Jew, as Saul of Tarsus, and he didn’t
get to know Jesus and was against the new Christian faith that was developing
in the early years of the church. He was on his way to Damascus to persecute
some Christians, when he received a vision from God and fell off his horse. He
then converted to Christianity and changed his name to Paul, and then travelled
to so many places of the ancient world to meet with people and spread the good
news. He wrote so many beautiful letters that are now in the Bible, and they
guide and encourage us Christians about how God wants us to live. We’ve learned
a lot from St. Paul’s letters, I’d definitely recommend you read them. The book
of Romans explains the reason for our faith and what Jesus’ death actually
means, and the others teach us how to live according to Gods will. The holy
spirit worked through St. Paul and made him holy, but not just because he was
“chosen”, but also because St. Paul prayed and allowed God to work through him.
We are all chosen by God to do his will in some form or
another. Mother Teresa was chosen to help the poor, but her goal in life wasn’t
always to help the poor. She started out a young girl just like some of us, but
she heard God’s call and embraced it. She was travelling in a train once when
she heard Jesus’ voice saying “I thirst”. She knew immediately what God called
her to do- and began hearing these words of Jesus in every suffering person she
met. When we think about what Mother Teresa did, we are in awe sometimes. How
can someone just dedicate their life to sitting with sick and dying poor people
on the streets? When we can easily achieve success? Most of us want to go to
university or college, get a well paying job, have a nice family in a decent
sized house and live a good life. So when we think about Mother Teresa and how
she did so much for God, not for herself, we really feel God’s goodness and his
love. Mother Teresa didn’t want any fame for what she did, even though we
recognize her deeds now. She did it to help other people feel God’s love, and
by allowing God’s spirit to work through her, she was made holy.
So you see, all we really need to do to be holy is to allow
ourselves to make the choice to choose God’s will. That’s why we are all called
to be saints, because we all CAN be.
So back to the everyone’s a saint in heaven thing. So I hope
we now understand why that is? Common sense says that its really because
everyone who reaches heaven is in a union or close relationship with the love
of God. The Catholic church teaches us that we cannot enter heaven unless we
choose to become like Christ, and choose his blood to wash us from our sin.
How do we know all this? The bible tells us, in St. Paul’s letter to the Ephesians 3:14-15
14 For this
reason I kneel before the Father, 15 from whom every family[a] in heaven and on earth derives its name.
And again in Revelation
7:9, 13-17
Then
one of the elders asked me, “These in white robes—who are they, and where did
they come from?”
And he said, “These are they who have come
out of the great tribulation; they have washed their robes and made them
white in the blood of the Lamb. 15 Therefore,
“they are before the throne of God
and serve him day and night in his temple;
and he who sits on the throne
will shelter them with his presence.
16 ‘Never again will they hunger;
never again will they thirst.
The sun will not beat down on them,’[a]
nor any scorching heat.
17 For the Lamb at the center of the throne
will be their shepherd;
‘he will lead them to springs of living water.’[b]
‘And God will wipe away every tear from their eyes.’
and serve him day and night in his temple;
and he who sits on the throne
will shelter them with his presence.
16 ‘Never again will they hunger;
never again will they thirst.
The sun will not beat down on them,’[a]
nor any scorching heat.
17 For the Lamb at the center of the throne
will be their shepherd;
‘he will lead them to springs of living water.’[b]
‘And God will wipe away every tear from their eyes.’
So the bible tells us that there IS a family of God in both
heaven and on earth (In Ephesians), and the book of Revelations tells us that
the family of saints serve God night and day, and they live at peace in eternal
life in communion with God.
Communion of saints..we say I believe in the holy spirit,
the holy catholic church, the communion of saints…what does that mean?? The
communion of saints is made up of all men and women who have placed their hope
in Christ and belong to him, through Baptism, whether they have already died or
are still alive. Because we are one body in Christ, we live in communion that
encompasses heaven and earth.
Being one body with Christ is kinda like being married. Two
become one? It means you are one with God. So when there are so many of us striving
to be one with God, it makes us all one big family. The saints in heaven, God’s
angels, warriors for Christ on earth, and even you and me. All who except Jesus
as Lord and strive to be one with him, and be holy, are in communion with one
another. And we all try to help each other, the saints want to help us get to
heaven.
Alright, last topic. What about praying to saints? If saints are just people like us, why do
we pray to them? Prayer isn’t always worship to God. Our prayers to the saints
and even to mary are prayers for intercession. When we ask a saint to pray for
us, they pray so fervently to ask God to help us. They pray on our behalf and
have a role as a best friend we relate to and confide in because they are there
to listen to our problems and pray for us and they serve as good role models so
that we can mould our lives like how they lived their lives. So we can be in
communion with these great men and women through our own prayers; most
especially the Mass. The Mass is a visible celebration of the unity of heaven
and earth. When we celebrate the feast days of saints or All Saints’ Day during
the year, we are reminded of this link.
There are saints that are patrons for so many different
things, and we can pray to them because they can help us get closer to God,
whom they know so well. We do not worship them, but can call on them to help us
in times of trouble. The saints in heaven can be our best friends
We know we are all called to be saints, but do we really
want to be saints? Sometimes we feel like the lives saints led were restricting
and boring. Is that true? Yes, it looks that way to us and to the world, but in
reality, the saints lived lives that pleased God so much that it made them so
happy themselves. The saints were able to find a sense of inner peace with God,
something that money, cars and degrees cannot bring. It was a different sense
of genuine love and happiness that they felt in their lives, it was special and
it’s the kind of love God wants to share with us. So why would we reject it? IF
we are all called to be like saints, I think we should all start now J
For more information on how saints can hear us and other questions, see this website: http://thedivinemercy.org/news/story.php?NID=2859
I have pasted the contents of this page here incase the website dies.
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Photo: Marian Archives
Do angels and saints in heaven — like St. Faustina — really hear our prayers?
By Dr. Robert Stackpole, STD (Oct 29, 2014)
In honor of All Saints' Day on Saturday, Nov. 2, let's take a look at the wonderful gift God gives us in the form of the saints.
One of the blessings in life that God has given me is that I get to teach theology to undergraduates. A few weeks ago, one of our readers sent me a question on the saints that made me head straight for my undergrad class lecture notes. A man named Peter wrote:
I have a question about intercessory prayer. I can understand how God can hear and respond to millions of prayers said at the exact same time, because He is omniscient. But how can the Blessed Mother and the Saints, like St. Faustina, deal with it? They are human, like us, but in heaven rather than on earth. The blessed Mother especially, because she is in heaven body and soul. It just seems impossible to me for the saints to be able to hear and respond to every single intercessory prayer.
To answer your good question, Peter, we need to divide it into two parts: (1) Can the saints in heaven actually hear and respond to our prayers — that is, what has God revealed about this in Scripture and Sacred Tradition? And (2) How can they manage it, since they are only human, even in heaven?
1) There are a number of Scripture passages which directly or indirectly relate to our first question:
In honor of All Saints' Day on Saturday, Nov. 2, let's take a look at the wonderful gift God gives us in the form of the saints.
One of the blessings in life that God has given me is that I get to teach theology to undergraduates. A few weeks ago, one of our readers sent me a question on the saints that made me head straight for my undergrad class lecture notes. A man named Peter wrote:
I have a question about intercessory prayer. I can understand how God can hear and respond to millions of prayers said at the exact same time, because He is omniscient. But how can the Blessed Mother and the Saints, like St. Faustina, deal with it? They are human, like us, but in heaven rather than on earth. The blessed Mother especially, because she is in heaven body and soul. It just seems impossible to me for the saints to be able to hear and respond to every single intercessory prayer.
To answer your good question, Peter, we need to divide it into two parts: (1) Can the saints in heaven actually hear and respond to our prayers — that is, what has God revealed about this in Scripture and Sacred Tradition? And (2) How can they manage it, since they are only human, even in heaven?
1) There are a number of Scripture passages which directly or indirectly relate to our first question:
• Hebrews 11:1-12:1 finishes "Seeing we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses [in other words, the heroes and martyrs of the faith from ages past], let us run with perseverance the race that is set before us." Thus, the heroes and martyrs are a good example for us, and surround us like spectators at a running race — therefore, obviously, they know about us and can see our struggles from heaven.
• James 5:16-18: 'The prayer of the good man has powerful effect." In other words, the most powerful intercessors in the Church are those most advanced in holiness. And who is more advanced in holiness than a soul who is already fully sanctified and in heaven?
• Revelation 5:8; 8:3-4: "In heaven the elders and angels offer up the prayers of the saints [on earth] as incense before the throne of God." In this passage it is important to note that the New Testament uses the word "saint" of every baptized Christian, not because we are all perfectly holy, but because we have all at least received the gift of the Holy Spirit. So this passage implies that the angels and elders (holy Christian leaders now in heaven) hear the prayers of every Christian on earth, and join their prayer now with ours.
In short, put these passages together, and they certainly imply that the saints in heaven know of our struggles on earth and of our prayers, and join their powerful intercessory prayers with ours.
In the early tradition of the Church, the early liturgies almost all have passages which imply that the saints join their prayers with ours, and that ours are joined with theirs. Some examples of these early liturgical prayers are included in the modern rite of the Eucharist: "Now with angels and archangels, and the whole company of heaven, we sing the unending hymn of your praise ..." (Preface of the Baptism of the Lord). There are invocations of the martyrs inscribed in the catacombs from the time of the late 2nd century onward, and the first prayer directly addressed to the Blessed Virgin Mary, of which we have record, was written in the early 3rd century. By the 4th century the invocation of the angels and saints is universally practiced in the Church, and there is no evidence of any significant division or dispute about it at any stage of this development. Catholic theologians see this consensus as a sign of the work of the Holy Spirit in the Church, guiding the Christian people to perceive ever more clearly their relationship in the Body of Christ with the saints who have gone before us into heaven.
The doctrine of the invocation of the angels and saints also fits well with the wider pattern of the Christian Faith. Our growth in faith and holiness is aided by the intercession of other members of the Body of Christ (Eph 6:18; 1 Thess 3:11-13; 1 Tim 2:1-4), and the Church on earth and in heaven are evidently united in some way in Christ (Heb 12:22-24). It is hard to see how asking the angels and saints to pray for us can be misconstrued as "idolatry" (the accusation made by some Evangelicals), while asking one's Christian family members and friends for their prayers is not. Both acts seem to be based on similar principles of charity and intercessory prayer. Idolatry would only occur if one believed that a saint or angel would give you something that our Lord would not (as if praying to an alternate God); but authentic prayers to the angels and saints are no more than requests made to them to pray for us to Him! The final address is still the same, as in the "Hail Mary": "Holy Mary, Mother of God, pray for us sinners, now and at the hour of our death."
Catholic defenders of the invocation of the angels and saints, therefore, would argue that there is a cumulative case for this doctrine, which combines the implications of Scripture, the early Tradition of the Church, and how it all fits into the wider pattern of the Catholic Faith. This makes it "morally certain" (i.e., true beyond a reasonable doubt) that we can indeed ask the angels and saints for their prayers, and that they can hear us and respond to us by praying for us. Add to that the fact that the Ecumenical Councils and Popes have always strongly endorsed this doctrine, and we can go beyond mere moral certainty: we can have "the certainty of faith" that this truth has been revealed to us by God.
2) The second part of your question is more difficult, Peter, only because it is an attempt to delve into mysteries of heaven which God has not fully revealed to the Church. But that does not mean we can't get at least close to an answer. Catechism entry 1028 tells us some important things about the souls in heaven:
Because of his transcendence, God cannot be seen as he is, unless he himself opens up his mystery to man's immediate contemplation and gives him the capacity for it. The Church calls this contemplation of God in his heavenly glory "the beatific vision."
Indeed, the Scriptures tell us over and over that in heaven we shall "see" God with our mind and heart, and contemplate God with the eyes of the soul (so to speak) in a new and glorious way: "Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God" (Mt 5:8); "Now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face" (1 Cor 13:12); "We shall be like Him, for we shall see Him as he is" (1 Jn 3:2).
Think of it this way: to see God "as He is," "face to face," and to "contemplate" God in all his heavenly glory must be an indescribable experience, but it is the wonderful destiny He has in store for all of us who love and trust Him. We cannot fully understand what that means, from this side of heaven. But we know one thing for sure: to see and know and contemplate God in heaven must include to see and know and contemplate all that God loves — for how could you really see and know God "as He is" without seeing everything He loves, and without seeing how He loves everything? For "God is love" (1 Jn 4:8). And one of the things God loves best of all is human beings, the creatures He made in his own image, and for whom He gave His life on the Cross. The saints in heaven, therefore, must surely see and know all about us on earth, because they see us reflected in the mind and heart of the God who loves us, whom they behold face to face. The saints in heaven know us because they know all about God's love for us, and — being filled with His love for us — they love us too.
So, the next time you feel like asking Our Blessed Mother, or St. Faustina to pray for you, go right ahead! They are already overflowing with God's love for you, and they just cannot wait to be asked to help you with their prayers.
Robert Stackpole, STD, is director of the John Paul II Institute of Divine Mercy. His latest book is Divine Mercy: A Guide from Genesis to Benedict XVI (Marian Press).
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