314. Why it is good to pray to saints
314. WHY IT IS GOOD TO PRAY TO SAINTS
Protestants protest against the Catholic practice of praying to saints. What justifies it?
Whether we ought to call upon the saints to pray for us?
The saints who are in heaven are more acceptable to God than those who are on the way. Now we should make the saints who are on the way our intercessors with God . . . Much more, therefore, should we ask the saints who are in heaven to help us by their prayers to God (S72,2).
If it is good to ask each other to pray for us here, and better to ask the most saintly friends to do so, it is best of all to ask the perfected saints in Heaven to do so. If it is not right to ask the saints in Heaven to pray for us, then it is even less right to ask the less saintly on earth to do so.
According to Dionysius, the order established by God among things is that the last should be led to God by those that are midway between. Wherefore since the saints who are in heaven are nearest to God, the order of the divine law requires that we, who while we remain in the body are pilgrims from the Lord, should be brought back to God by the saints, who are between us and Him. . . .
God’s order is not to micromanage everything Himself but to establish subordinate sovereignties, a hierarchy of helpers. He exalts them by having them exalt us. For “grace perfects nature”.
It is not on account of any defect in God’s power that He works by means of second causes, but it is for the perfection of the order of the universe, and the more manifold outpouring of His goodness on things, through His bestowing on them not only the goodness which is proper to them, but also the faculty of causing goodness in others. Even so, it is not through any defect in His mercy that we need to bespeak His clemency through the prayers of the saints, but to the end that the aforesaid order in things be observed (S72,2).
Pascal says that “God established prayer in order to communicate to His creatures the dignity of being causes.” He established prayer for the same reason He established work: to mature our muscles.
This principle of hierarchy means that we should use and be used by every level of it, not just the highest:
Although the greater saints are more acceptable to God than the lesser, it is sometimes profitable to pray to the lesser, and this for five reasons. First, because sometimes one has greater devotion for a lesser saints than for a greater, and the effect of prayer depends very much on one’s devotion. Secondly, in order to avoid tediousness, for continual attention to one thing makes a person weary, whereas by praying to different saints, the fervor of our devotion is aroused anew as it were. Thirdly, because it is granted to some saints to exercise their patronage in certain special cases. . . . Fourthly, that due honor be given by us to all. Fifthly, because the prayers of several sometimes obtain that which would not have been obtained by the prayers of one (S72,2).
Try imagining a world order where any one of these five reasons is not true, and you find that that would be an inferior, flawed order. God knew what He was doing when He set this system up!
Insofar as they pray for us by asking something for us in their prayers, their prayers are always granted, since they will only what God wills . . . and what God wills is always fulfilled (S72,3).
The best reason for praying to saints in Heaven is that they, unlike friends on earth, never pray for anything outside God’s will, which is always the best thing for us; and since their prayers are thus more conformed to God’s will than ours are, they are (1) wiser than ours, (2) more powerful than ours, and (3) always effective, since they are one with God’s will, which is omnipotent.