Part 2, lesson 2. Of the intercession of Saints, who pray for us in Christ and by Christ

Q. Teach me yet something more upon this subject, to aug ment my confidence in our Lord Jesus Christ.

A. All that our Lord asks of his Father, the saints also ask with him, as is shown in the Apocalypse by these words: I heard a voice from heaven as a voice of many waters; and the voice which I heard was as the voice of harpers, harping on their harps. *

• Audivi vocera de coelo tanquam voeem aquarum inultarum ; et vo-

Q. Tell me, if you please, what this means ?

A. You must know that the people, in the holy Scripture, are signified by the waters,* and that the Saints, in their celestial harmonies, are compared to har pers. Now, the Saints and the just are like echoes, which carry to God the voice of Christ living in them, so that what ever Christ asks, the whole church of heaven and earth asks cem quam audivi sicut citharcedorum citharizantium in citharis suis. Apoc. xiv, 2.

• Cum Aquae in Apocalypsi beati Joannis, xvii. 15, populi dicantur, ipsius populi fidelis cum capite Christo unio reprsesentatur. Cone.; Trid. sess. xxii ; de Sacrif. cap. vii.

with him. Is not this a great subject of confidence for us, and with what faith should we not pray?

Q. But, since the Saints are only the echoes of the prayer of our Lord, it seems that we need not address ourselves to them, and that it is sufficient to address our Lord himself.

A. The intention of the church is that we should seek Jesus Christ in his Saints, as we are surer of finding him in them, for example, in the Blessed Virgin, St. Joseph, St. John, St. Pe ter, than when we seek him im mediately and by ourselves.

When we seek our Lord in the blessed Virgin, whom the church calls our advocate with Jesus Christ, we are sure, ac cording to St. Bernard,* that she begins immediately to pray for us to her Son; and this divine Son is thus reminded of the power which he gave her over himself, in quality of his mother, never to take it from her, because grace and glory perfect nature,

• Ad patrem verebaris accedere, Jesum tibi dedit mediatorem ; sed forsitan et in ipso majestatem vereare divinam. . . .Advocatum habere vis et ad ipsum? ad Mariam recurre. . . Nee dubius dixerim exaudietur et ipse pro reverentia sua. Exaudiet utique Matrem Filius, et exaudiet Filium Pater; filioli, haec peccatoium scala, hsec mea maxima fiducia est, hsec tota ratio spei meae. Serm. in Nativit. B. Mar. N. 7.

without making it lose any of its rights. The blessed Virgin immediately prevails upon her divine Son to pray for us, and she thus obtains what we are not sure of obtaining by ourselves; for we are most unworthy of ap proaching our Lord, and he has a right by his justice to reject us, since having entered into all the sentiments of his Father, after his resurrection,* he is in the same disposition towards sinners, as his Father; so that the difficulty consists in making him change his quality of judge into that of advocate and sup pliant. Now, this is what the

• Nunc per omnia Deus. S. Ambr. de fide. Resurrect, m. 90.

Saints do, and particularly the Blessed Virgin.

Have you not frequently heard these words of St. Paul: "He who eateth and drinketh un worthily, eateth and drinketh judgment to himself."* Christ is in the blessed Sacrament, risen and full of glory; and. although he is in a Sacrament of goodness and mercy, he however exercises in it his judgment by very com mon condemnations.*

We must then go to a sa crament of pure mercy, in which our Lord sets altogether

• Qui manducat et bibit indigne, judicium sibi manducat et bibit. I Cor. xi, 29.

• Movs ost malis. Prose of the mass of the blessed Sacrament.

aside his quality of judge. This sacrament we find in the Blessed Virgin, his most beloved Mo ther. It is by her that we have access to Jesus Christ in all confidence. If heretics had understood in this way the prayer of the Saints, they would never have dared condemn it. Let us go then to our Lord, wherever he is, in the Blessed Virgin, and in the Saints; let us go with faith to them, as we know it to be perfectly agreeable to Christ; let us beg them to obtain for us access to him, and to conjure him to intercede for us with his Father. Thus each Saint will even make the whole church and all the Saints pray through our Lord, who, being moved by their solicitations, will fill the whole church with his spirit and his prayer.