If I am very sad, I call Dad and Mom and ask them to pray for me. They do. God delights to allow His children to cooperate in His grace giving. He hears and gives us what is best always. As a good heavenly Father, God also delights in giving us what we wish when that would be best. Since loving others is so good for us, God is especially pleased when we pour out our hearts for other people.
I can talk to God directly in prayer, but family and community are good for me. My place is being a small part of the faithful of all ages. I am never alone. The prayers of the others are not cumulative, as if we are heard by the number of the prayers. Instead, communal prayer is good for all of us: it is blessed to bless others in prayer! Praying for others turns me from myself, making my needs known humbles me, and keeps me honest.
One wonder is how metaphysically full the cosmos is. There is the Omnipotent One, angels, people, other animals, and Heaven knows what other creatures in the vastness. My little office knows the presence of God and at any given moment other possibilities: most good, a few fallen. In the corner of my office are some icons, windows to Reality, of the Theotokos, Mother Mary, Saint Constantine, Saint John of San Francisco, The Royal Martyrs, Saint John the Theologian, and many other holy men and women. When we need help, I can ask for their prayers and the prayers of all the saints, because they are more alive than any of us.
They are a great cloud of witnesses cheering us on from the stands as we run this race. We look to Jesus, always to Jesus, sometimes seeing Jesus manifest in the lives of our parents, our friends, or the witnesses. The prayers of all the living (including those we call “dead”) must not, need not, distract us from the Divine Son of God, instead knitting us to the whole community of those looking Godward.
When I talk to Dad and Mom, they give me wisdom that sends me to Christ. When I ask for their prayers, they join with all the saints in beseeching Christ. When I read Saint Paul, I am pointed to Jesus. When I ask Saint Paul to pray for me, his example and prayers send me toward Jesus.
People do not function well alone. When Adam was with God in the Garden, before there was any sin at all, God saw that it was not good for this man to be alone. God created another human: we thrive in human community. The curse of sin cuts us off from Father Adam and Mother Eve physically. We are chronologically alone, unable to do as we should be able to do, to feast this Christmas with great-grandfathers and mothers. We can, in the spirit, ask God for a peaceful rest for them and for their prayers in our journey.
We are never alone, good men and woman of all ages surround us, in the joyously full space before us on the road to Paradise. May all the saints pray for me.
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