From Intercession to Grace

Human beings like to intercede for others and also, especially, to be interceded for.

As children, we often asked another sibling to intercede for us with our parents, to obtain a favor or permission.

There are many kinds of prayers. The prayer of adoration, praise, thanksgiving, request, thanksgiving and of course the prayer of intercession.

This prayer of intercession is a very important form of prayer.

We intercede with Jesus to reach God our Father. We intercede with the Virgin Mary, with Saint Joseph, with Saint André, with Saint Jude, patron saint of desperate causes, because we are sure that God also intervenes through events and people.

We like to pray for our deceased relatives and friends, as we like to believe that they intercede for us with God, having loved us on earth.

It is certainly the specific mission of the saints to intercede for us before God.

Pope Francis in his apostolic letter With a Father’s Heart tells us: “God’s will, his history, his plan, also pass through the concern of Joseph. Joseph teaches us that having faith in God also includes believing that he can act through our fears, our fragility, our weakness. And he teaches us that we should not be afraid to let God steer our ship. Sometimes we would like to control everything, but he always looks further.

There is a mystical reality of the Church that we know is often forgotten. Together with the saints, we are one fundamental reality, albeit a diverse one. The triumphant Church, the suffering Church and the militant Church constitute the great Church of the Lord; it is a community of intercession.

Bernard East, o.p.