Have you ever wanted something from your dad and you thought that maybe if you tell your mom to ask your dad for you he will say yes, well this is like intercession. When we are asking for something from our Lord Jesus Christ, if we ask the saints to pray for us and they ask our Lord Jesus Christ for us, He may say yes. “Pray for one another” James 5:16 This is called intercession, intercession means that the saints who are in Heaven with our Lord Jesus Christ are praying for us and they are asking our Lord Jesus Christ to hear our prayers. Did you know the Saints also want us to pray for them too? In the Holy Bible, it says that the Saints ask us to pray for them even though they are in Heaven. These saints were once living on Earth and they prayed for people and asked people to pray for them just like we do. Now that they are in heaven the prayers are more special because they can just go and ask our Lord Jesus Christ for whatever we are praying for. When we pray for one another it shows the love that we have for one another.
The Orthodox Christians believe that there is only one Mediator between God and man, Jesus. “For there is one God and one mediator between God and man, the man Jesus Christ” (1 Timothy 2:5). We do not say to the saint redeem us or save us because the only one who can redeem and save us is Our Lord Jesus Christ. We ask the Saints that they intercede to God for us and beseech Him for all things useful to us. The saints in heaven are the triumphant church. We, the believers on earth, are the Militant church. The two churches remain connected through the bond of love which is expressed through prayer. In The book of Hebrews, St. Paul spoke about the saints saying; “We are surrounded by a cloud of witnesses” (Hebrews 12:1). So he called the saints “cloud of witnesses” that are surrounding us. In other words, they are living among us with their spirits, and supporting us by their prayers. At the Yankee Stadium, the home of the New York Yankees, there is a “Yankee Hall of Fame” One can spend a number of hours reading about all the great Yankee stars of the past. By putting on ear phones one can hear their voices on recordings. God has a “Hall of Fame”. In Hebrews Chapter 11, He has listed some of the heroes and heroines of faith – men and women who trusted in God for their salvation. It’s a thrilling chapter to read. The Saints are in God’s Hall of Fame, They are the heroes of our faith. It was once said “show me the man you honor, and I will show you the kind of man you are.” ++ The saints who departed are still living:
God gave them this ability to know our conditions on earth.
We, the Orthodox Christians: ++ do not pray to the saints; rather we ask them to pray for us. ++ do not worship the saints. ++ venerate and honor the saints. We do that by remembering their names in the Liturgy, celebrating the day on which they went to heaven, and by honoring their relics (bodily remains). ++ Venerating the saints is a command from the Lord Jesus Christ. “As this O Lord is the command of your only Begotten Son to remember all the saints who have pleased you since the beginning -----“(St. Basil Liturgy) Relics (Bodily remain) of the saints Orthodox Christians venerate the relics of the saints which date back to the early church. St Cyril of Jerusalem (4th century) writes: “Though the soul is not present, a power resides in the bodies of the saints because of the righteous soul which has for so many years dwelt in it or used it as its minister” (Catechetical Lecturesxviii, 16) We should pray for people in our family, our friends and even the saints, because we love them! ++ God is praised in and through His saints++
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