Does Mary Really Hear And Intercede For Us

A viewer commented on my Discovering Healing Through Praying The Rosary video with this question: “How does one conclude from Scripture, Mary hears our prayers?”

Thanks for asking. This is a really good question. It’s one that deserves a video response, as well as something written, so the question and the answer reach the largest number possible. After all, others may be asking the same question.

There are a number of Scripture passages which directly or indirectly relate to this question:

Hebrews 11:1-12:1 finishes with "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." These heroes and martyrs of the faith are a good example for us. They surround us like spectators at a running race. They, according to the Scriptures, 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?

One of our professions in the Apostle’s Creed is … I believe in the communion of saints. Our relationships with those who have died are not severed by death. No. These relationships are enlivened and enhanced by their intercessions for us.

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. 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 Scripture passages together, and they certainly inform us 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 where the priest prays: "Now with angels and archangels, and the whole company of heaven, we sing the unending hymn of your praise ..."

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 within 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).

Is it idolatry to ask Mary, the angels, and the Saints to pray for us? This idea of it being idolatry is one of the heresies floating around in the realm of Protestantism.

It is hard to see how asking the angels and saints to pray for us can be misconstrued as "idolatry" 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!

Catholic defenders of prayers that invoke the intercession of the angels and saints insist 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.

The Holy Scriptures support this doctrine.

Sacred Tradition supports this doctrine.

The Magisterium [the Teaching Authority of the Church] insists upon its doctrinal correctness.

This makes it "morally certain" (i.e., true beyond a reasonable doubt) that we can indeed ask Mary, the angels, and saints for their prayers, and that they can hear us and respond to us by praying for us.

Add to this the fact that the Ecumenical Councils and Popes throughout the history of the Church 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.

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