The Communion of Saints

As I mentioned, I have only gradually been learning the subtleties of how different the Catholic faith is from my former Protestantism.

Here's an example. I recently got "Woman After God's Own Heart" by Elizabeth George from the library. I read about it somewhere (probably on someone's blog), and it sounded good. It is, but--my goodness, how different from all the Catholic-mom reading I've been doing of late! One of the great points that Mrs. George strongly makes is about the importance and efficacy of prayer, including lots of amazing examples in which prayers have dramatically influenced people's lives. Here's one:

"The daughter of Bob Pierce, founder of World Vision, said of her grandparents: 'Within two years of Grammy's homegoing, God took both Papa and Grandma Pierce to be with Him also. All three had been powerful prayer warriors on my parents' behalf--praying through the various crises, supporting the ministry, and generally providing a consistent covering of prayer. It's significant to note that once those prayers were silenced all hell broke loose."

I found this idea--that someone's prayers were "silenced" after their death--quite startling, because I don't believe that anymore. I like the Catholic idea of "Communion of Saints"--they're still there, after death, still watching and loving us from Heaven, and their prayers are even more powerful, once they're on the inside! The book that first introduced me to this idea was the fabulous "The Story of a Family: The Home of St. Therese of Lisieux" by Stephane-Joseph Piat. My father-in-law gave the this book shortly after I became a mother (no pressure, right??? ha ha!).

It turns out that Bill Sr. has had a lot to teach me about the doctrine of the Communion of Saints. No kidding--since his death the summer of 2003, our family has been absolutely showered with blessings. And I don't just mean blessings that feel good or result in new cars and healthy babies. Blessings, after all, don't always feel good to us when we're getting them. "God never takes away anything that is good for us," I read recently (can't remember where--Scott Hahn, I think). That has been SO true for my family, but that's a story for another post.

But speaking of blessings that don't feel so good when we're getting them, my three babies who are already in heaven (lost to miscarriage in 1997, 2001, and 2007) have also proven to be incredible, powerful forces in heaven for my family still here on earth. I know this to be true; it really is. When we lost my precious Margaret (2007), who I actually got to hold, the immediate and amazing shower of grace and peace and blessings we received upon her arrival was truly awesome. No kidding--we're still truly feeling the power of her being up there in Heaven. I imagine her smiling down on us with love--along with her siblings and her grandpas and all the rest--and the grace we receive from her is much more than just some kind of warm feeling because of this wonderful mental picture I have of them all together. Saints really can intercede on our behalf, I just know it. This includes "saints" who we assume to be in heaven, as well as real, canonized-by-the-Church "Saints," who are officially decreed to for-sure-with-actual-proof be in Heaven.

It helped me to understand, by the way, that nobody is praying to any of these saints. It's more like just asking them to pray for us, just like we would do with a friend on earth. Their prayers are believed to be extra powerful, even more than our own from here on earth, because they're actually closer to God. (To me, this makes sense, given that I do actually believe that Heaven is real.) And that kinda broadly sums up my understanding of this notion of the "Communion of Saints," something which, though I professed to believe whenever I said the Nicene Creed in church as a Protestant, I never really thought about.