Evidence in Scripture of the fact and command of intercessory prayer within the Church on earth
4 min • Digitized on May 7, 2023
From A Defense of the Teachings of Mary, page 72
By St. John Henry Newman
I must not close my review of the Catholic doctrine concerning the Blessed Virgin, without directly speaking of her intercessory power, though I have incidentally made mention of it already. It is the immediate result of two truths, neither of which you dispute;—first, that “it is good and useful,” as the Council of Trent says, “suppliantly to invoke the saints and to have recourse to their prayers;” and secondly, that the Blessed Mary is singularly dear to her Son and singularly exalted in sanctity and glory.
However, at the risk of becoming didactic, I will state somewhat more fully the grounds on which it rests.
To a candid pagan, it must have been one of the most remarkable points of Christianity, on its first appearance, that the observance of prayer formed so vital a part of its organization; and that, though its members were scattered all over the world, and its rulers and subjects had so little opportunity of correlative action, yet they, one and all, found the solace of a spiritual intercourse and a real bond of union, in the practice of mutual intercession. Prayer indeed is the very essence of religion; but in the heathen religions it was either public or personal; it was a state ordinance, or a selfish expedient, for the attainment of certain tangible, temporal goods.
Very different from this was its exercise among Christians, who were thereby knit together in one body, different, as they were, in races, ranks, and habits, distant from each other in country, and helpless amid hostile populations. Yet it proved sufficient for its purpose. Christians could not correspond; they could not combine; but they could pray one for another. Even their public prayers partook of this character of intercession; for to pray for the welfare of the whole Church was in fact a prayer for all the classes of men, and all the individuals of which it was composed.
It was in prayer that the Church was founded. For ten days all the Apostles “persevered with one mind in prayer and supplication, with the women, and Mary the Mother of Jesus, and with His brethren.” Then again at Pentecost “they were all with one mind in one place;” and the converts then made are said to have “persevered in prayer.” And when, after a while, St. Peter was seized and put in prison with a view to his being put to death, “prayer was made without ceasing” by the Church of God for him; and, when the angel released him, he took refuge in a house “where many were gathered together in prayer.”
We are so accustomed to these passages, as hardly to be able to do justice to their singular significance; and they are followed up by various passages of the Apostolic Epistles. St. Paul enjoins his brethren to “pray with all prayer and supplication at all times in the Spirit, with all instance and supplication for all saints,” to “pray in every place,” “to make supplication, prayers, intercessions, giving of thanks, for all men.” And in his own person he “ceases not to give thanks for them, commemorating them in his prayers,” and “always in all his prayers making supplication for them all with joy.”