Through Him, in the Spirit, with All the Saints
To Pray, to Intercede, to Commemorate: The Directions of Prayer in the Orthodox Tradition
Fr. Laurent Cleenewerck
Introduction
When Protestant Christians ask why the Orthodox "pray to the saints," the question usually contains a hidden assumption: that there is only one kind of prayer, and that it can only be addressed to God. Scripture and the Tradition of the Church do not speak this way. The Bible uses a rich vocabulary of asking, entreating, pleading and interceding, and it shows us a whole community engaged in these acts: the Son before the Father, the Spirit within our hearts, angels before the throne, believers on earth for one another, the living for the departed, and the departed for the living.
Our purpose in this study is to set these relationships in order. We will begin with the words themselves, since much of the misunderstanding is linguistic. We will then show that in the ultimate sense all Christian prayer ascends to God the Father, through the Son and in the Holy Spirit, and that every other form of intercession takes place within this one movement. We will then consider, one by one, the directions in which intercession flows: from Christ, from the Spirit, from the angels, from the living for the living, from the living for the departed, and from the departed for the living. We will close with a question that Scripture leaves largely open, namely whether the departed faithful pray for one another, and with the rule of proportion that the Divine Liturgy gives the Church.1
1. The Language of Prayer
"To pray" means "to ask"
In older English, "to pray" simply meant "to ask." The King James Version has Abraham say to Sarah, "Say, I pray thee, thou art my sister" (Gen 12:13), and Paul urge the sailors, "I pray you to take some meat" (Acts 27:34). No one imagines that Abraham worshiped his wife or that Paul worshiped the crew. When older Orthodox and Anglican texts speak of "praying to the saints," they use the word in this ordinary sense. In modern English, "pray" has narrowed to mean addressing God, and the older usage now sounds like a claim that the saints receive divine worship. It is not. The content of the Church's address to the saints shows this at once: "Holy N., pray to God for us." The very formula names God as the One to whom prayer properly goes.
The Hebrew vocabulary
The usual Hebrew verb for prayer, hitpallel, comes from a root that has to do with arbitration and judgment. Its sense appears in Eli's words to his sons: "If a man sins against a man, God will mediate for him; if a man sins against the Lord, who will intercede for him?" (1 Kgdms [1 Sam] 2:25). Prayer in this sense is pleading a case before the Judge, and it is very often a plea on behalf of someone else. A second verb, pagaʿ, "to meet" or "to fall upon," is used for intercession: the Servant "made intercession for the transgressors" (Isa 53:12), and the Lord tells Jeremiah not to intercede for the people (Jer 7:16). A third, ʿatar, "to entreat," appears when Pharaoh asks Moses to entreat the Lord for him (Exod 8:8 [8:4 LXX]). Each of these verbs describes an approach to God; several of them are naturally used of one person approaching God for another.
The Greek vocabulary
The New Testament is even more precise. We may distinguish the following families of words:2
| Greek term | Meaning | Who is addressed in the New Testament | Examples |
|---|---|---|---|
| proseuchomai, proseuchē | To pray, prayer | Almost always God | Matt 6:9; Acts 12:5; Phil 4:6 |
| deomai, deēsis | To ask, beg; petition | God, and also other people | Luke 22:32; 2 Cor 5:20; Gal 4:12 |
| aiteō, erōtaō | To ask, request | God, Christ, and other people | John 16:23; 17:9; 1 John 5:16 |
| parakaleō | To entreat, appeal, comfort | Fellow believers, and the Lord | Rom 12:1; 15:30; 2 Cor 12:8 |
| entynchanō, enteuxis | To approach on behalf of; intercession | God, on behalf of others | Rom 8:27, 34; 11:2; Heb 7:25; 1 Tim 2:1 |
| hyperentynchanō | To intercede on behalf of | The Spirit, for us | Rom 8:26 |
| mesitēs | Mediator, go-between of a covenant | Christ, uniquely | 1 Tim 2:5; Heb 8:6; 9:15; 12:24 |
| presbeia, presbeuō | Embassy; to act as ambassador | Apostles for Christ; in liturgy, the saints | 2 Cor 5:20; Eph 6:20 |
Two observations follow. First, the word Paul uses for his own appeals to the churches, parakaleō, is the same word he uses for his threefold plea to the Lord concerning the thorn in his flesh (2 Cor 12:8). The verb itself does not distinguish divine worship from human request; the person addressed and the content of the request do. Second, the word the Church uses in its liturgy for the intercession of the saints is presbeia, the embassy or representation of an ambassador: "Through the intercessions (presbeiais) of the Theotokos, O Savior, save us." The saints are ambassadors before the King, not the King.
Worship and veneration
Alongside the vocabulary of asking stands the vocabulary of worship. The Seventh Ecumenical Council (Nicaea, 787) distinguished latreia, the adoring service that belongs to God alone, from honorable veneration (timētikē proskynēsis), which may be shown to the saints, to holy images and to holy things.3 The distinction is biblical. Proskynēsis, bowing down, is given in Scripture to God, and also to human persons without any suggestion of idolatry: Abraham bows to the Hittites (Gen 23:7), Abigail to David (1 Kgdms 25:23), and the Lord promises that the false brethren will come and bow before the feet of the faithful in Philadelphia (Rev 3:9). Latreia is never given to anyone but God (Matt 4:10). Asking a saint for prayer belongs to the order of honor and fellowship, not to the order of latreia.
2. In the Ultimate Sense, Prayer Is Addressed to the Father
The Lord taught His disciples to pray, "Our Father, who art in the heavens" (Matt 6:9). On the night before His Passion, He told them, "Whatever you ask the Father in My name, He will give it to you" (John 16:23). The apostolic writings consistently describe prayer in the same direction: "Through Him we both have access in one Spirit to the Father" (Eph 2:18); "I bow my knees before the Father" (Eph 3:14); "giving thanks always for all things to God the Father, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ" (Eph 5:20; cf. Col 3:17; Rom 1:8). The Father is the source and cause of the Son and of the Spirit, and all prayer returns to Him as its final term.
The Divine Liturgy follows this order exactly. The great eucharistic prayers of St John Chrysostom and St Basil the Great are addressed to the Father, offered through the Son and completed by the invocation of the Holy Spirit. The African councils of the late fourth century made this a canonical rule: when the priest stands at the altar, the prayer is always to be directed to the Father.4 This is what we mean when we say, with the catechism, that the Eucharistic sacrifice and latreia are offered to the Father, through the Son who intercedes, in the Spirit who intercedes.
Two qualifications keep this principle from being misunderstood. First, the Son and the Spirit are not excluded from receiving worship. The Creed confesses that the Holy Spirit "with the Father and the Son together is worshiped and glorified," and the Council of Constantinople of 1156-57 affirmed that the sacrifice is offered to the whole Trinity, and also by the incarnate Son, as the priest prays during the Cherubic Hymn: "Thou art the One who offers and is offered, who receives and is distributed." Origen had argued that prayer in the strict sense should be made to the Father alone;5 the Church did not follow him on this point. Second, Scripture itself shows prayer addressed to Christ: Stephen's "Lord Jesus, receive my spirit" (Acts 7:59), Paul's plea concerning the thorn (2 Cor 12:8), and the cry of the Church, "Maranatha," "Our Lord, come!" (1 Cor 16:22; Rev 22:20). The Church also invokes the Spirit directly: "O Heavenly King, Comforter, Spirit of truth, come and abide in us."
We may therefore state the principle precisely. All prayer ascends to the Father as source, through the Son and in the Holy Spirit, and the one God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit, receives it, since the Three share one Name (Matt 28:19). Every other form of intercession we will discuss happens inside this movement and never alongside it or in competition with it.
3. Christ Intercedes for Us
The Epistle to the Hebrews presents the risen and ascended Christ as our High Priest, who "always lives to make intercession (entynchanein) for them" (Heb 7:25), and who has entered heaven itself "to appear in the presence of God on our behalf" (Heb 9:24). Paul writes in the same sense: "Christ Jesus is the One who died, more than that, who was raised, who is at the right hand of God, who indeed intercedes for us" (Rom 8:34). John calls Him our Advocate (paraklētos) with the Father (1 John 2:1).
This heavenly intercession continues what Christ did on earth. He prayed for Peter, that his faith would not fail (Luke 22:32); He prayed for His disciples and for all who would believe through their word (John 17:9, 20); on the cross, He prayed for those who crucified Him (Luke 23:34). St Gregory the Theologian explains that the Son's intercession does not mean that He falls at the Father's feet as a suppliant, which would be unworthy of the Spirit and of the Son alike. It means that by His very humanity, which He has taken up and which He presents to the Father, He pleads for our salvation.6 Christ's intercession is His priesthood: the eternal presentation of our humanity, healed and glorified, before the Father.
Here we must address the verse most often cited against the intercession of the saints: "There is one God, and one Mediator (mesitēs) between God and men, the man Christ Jesus" (1 Tim 2:5). We should notice its context. Only four verses earlier, Paul commands that "petitions, prayers, intercessions (enteuxeis) and thanksgivings be made for all people" (1 Tim 2:1). The uniqueness of Christ's mediation does not exclude intercession by others; it is the very reason Christians can intercede at all. Christ is the one Mediator of the covenant, the one in whom God and humanity are united. Christians intercede as members of His Body, and their prayers are heard only because they are offered in Him.
4. The Holy Spirit Intercedes for Us
Paul writes that "the Spirit helps us in our weakness; for we do not know what to pray for as we ought, but the Spirit Himself intercedes for us (hyperentynchanei) with groanings too deep for words. He who searches the hearts knows what is the mind of the Spirit, because He intercedes for the saints according to God" (Rom 8:26-27). The same Spirit cries "Abba, Father" in our hearts (Gal 4:6), and the apostles exhort us to pray "in the Holy Spirit" (Jude 20; Eph 6:18).
The Fathers understood this intercession in a way that guards the Spirit's divinity. The Spirit does not stand before the Father as a petitioner distinct from us; the Spirit intercedes by moving our own hearts to pray, by teaching us to groan and to ask rightly. St Augustine puts it simply: the Spirit is said to intercede because He makes us intercede.7 We therefore have two Paracletes, as the Lord Himself promised (John 14:16): the Son, who intercedes for us at the right hand of the Father, and the Spirit, who intercedes within us. Our prayer is caught up between them, and in this way it reaches the Father.
5. The Angels Intercede
Scripture shows the Lord surrounded by His heavenly council (3 Kgdms [1 Kgs] 22:19-22; Job 1:6; Ps 81 [82]:1), and the members of this council are not idle. In Zechariah's vision, the angel of the Lord pleads, "O Lord of hosts, how long wilt Thou have no mercy on Jerusalem and the cities of Judah?" (Zech 1:12). Raphael tells Tobit that when he and Sarah prayed, he brought the remembrance of their prayer before the Holy One, and that he is one of the seven holy angels who present the prayers of the saints (Tob 12:12-15). In the Apocalypse, an angel offers incense with the prayers of all the saints on the golden altar before the throne (Rev 8:3-4). Eliphaz's question to Job, "To which of the holy ones will you turn?" (Job 5:1), assumes that turning to the holy ones for help was a recognized practice.
The early Church knew this ministry. In the Shepherd of Hermas, the angel who guides Hermas promises to stay with him and to ask the angel of punishment to afflict him more lightly.8 The Orthodox Church therefore asks the angels, and especially our guardian angel, to pray for us, within the same order of honor that governs our address to the saints.
6. The Living Intercede for the Living
No Christian disputes this direction of intercession, and it provides the pattern for the others. In the Old Testament, God Himself appoints intercessors. He tells Abimelech that Abraham "is a prophet, and he will pray for you, and you shall live" (Gen 20:7), and He tells Job's friends to go to Job, "and My servant Job shall pray for you, for I will accept him" (Job 42:8). Abraham pleads for Sodom (Gen 18:22-33); Moses stands in the breach for Israel after the golden calf (Exod 32:11-14, 30-32; Ps 105 [106]:23); Samuel tells the people, "Far be it from me that I should sin against the Lord by ceasing to pray for you" (1 Kgdms 12:23); the remnant asks Jeremiah, "Pray for us to the Lord your God" (Jer 42:2 [49:2 LXX]).
The New Testament commands intercession for all people, including rulers (1 Tim 2:1-4), for our enemies and persecutors (Matt 5:44), for the sick (Jas 5:14-16), and "for all the saints" (Eph 6:18). The church in Jerusalem prays without ceasing for Peter in prison (Acts 12:5). Paul constantly asks the churches to pray for him (Rom 15:30; Eph 6:19; Col 4:3; 1 Thess 5:25; 2 Thess 3:1), and he commends Epaphras as one who is "always struggling on your behalf in his prayers" (Col 4:12). James gives the principle: "The prayer of a righteous person has great power" (Jas 5:16), and he immediately cites Elijah, a man of like nature with us, whose prayer shut and opened the heavens (Jas 5:17-18). John adds that if anyone sees a brother committing a sin not leading to death, "he shall ask, and God will give him life" (1 John 5:16).
These texts establish three points that will matter for everything that follows. Asking another believer for prayer is apostolic practice. The prayer of the righteous carries particular weight before God. Intercession by members of the Body does not detract from the mediation of Christ; it is one of the ways His mediation is lived in His Body.
7. The Living Intercede for the Departed
The clearest Old Testament witness is 2 Maccabees. After a battle, Judas Maccabeus finds that some of his fallen soldiers had worn idolatrous amulets. He and his men pray that the sin be wholly blotted out, and Judas sends money to Jerusalem for a sin offering, "acting very well and honorably, taking account of the resurrection. For if he were not expecting that those who had fallen would rise again, it would have been superfluous and foolish to pray for the dead" (2 Macc 12:39-45). The deuterocanonical books belong to the Old Testament received by the Church, and the Epistle to the Hebrews itself counts the martyrs of 2 Maccabees among the heroes of faith: "Others were tortured, refusing to accept release, so that they might obtain a better resurrection" (Heb 11:35; cf. 2 Macc 7).
In the New Testament, Paul writes of Onesiphorus: "May the Lord grant mercy to the household of Onesiphorus, for he often refreshed me.... May the Lord grant him to find mercy from the Lord on that Day" (2 Tim 1:16-18). Paul speaks of Onesiphorus only in the past tense, prays for his household separately, greets that household without greeting Onesiphorus himself (2 Tim 4:19), and asks mercy for him at the Last Judgment. Many commentators, including some with no interest in defending Orthodox practice, have concluded that Onesiphorus had died and that this is a prayer for the departed.9
The witness of the early Church is abundant and unanimous. The epitaph of Abercius of Hierapolis, from the late second century, asks every fellow believer who reads it to pray for him.10 Tertullian describes offerings for the dead on the anniversary of their death, and a widow praying for the soul of her husband and offering on the anniversary of his falling asleep.11 In the Passion of Perpetua and Felicity, the martyr Perpetua prays in prison for her young brother Dinocrates, who had died unbaptized, and sees him refreshed in a vision.12 St Cyril of Jerusalem explains to the newly baptized that at the Eucharist we remember those who have fallen asleep, believing that their souls are greatly helped by the prayers offered while the holy and awesome Sacrifice lies before us.13 St John Chrysostom affirms that it was not without reason that the apostles ordained the remembrance of the departed in the awesome mysteries,14 and St Epiphanius counts the rejection of prayer for the dead among the errors of Aerius.15 St Monica, dying, asked Augustine for only one thing: that he remember her at the altar of the Lord.16
The Orthodox Church continues this practice in every Divine Liturgy, in the memorial services (panikhida, trisagion), on the third, ninth and fortieth days, on the anniversary of death, on the Saturdays of the Souls, and in the kneeling prayers of Pentecost, which pray even for those held in Hades. The Church does not understand these prayers in terms of satisfaction or a purifying fire; St Mark of Ephesus rejected that teaching at the Council of Florence while firmly defending prayer for the departed.17 Prayer for the departed is an act of love within the one Body, which death does not divide (Rom 8:38-39; 14:8-9). We entrust the outcome entirely to the mercy of God, and we do not claim to know how He applies our prayers.
One nuance is worth noting. Augustine taught that it would be an insult to pray for a martyr, since we ought rather to be commended to the martyr's prayers.18 The Byzantine anaphoras nevertheless offer the Eucharist "for" the forefathers, patriarchs, prophets, apostles, martyrs and all the saints, "especially for our most holy, most pure... Lady, Theotokos and ever-virgin Mary." This offering "for" the saints is not a petition for their forgiveness; it is thanksgiving for them and communion with them, since every gift of grace they have received comes from the one Sacrifice of Christ.
8. The Departed Intercede for the Living
Scripture gives us several witnesses to the prayer of the departed for the living. In the vision of Judas Maccabeus, the late high priest Onias appears with outstretched hands, praying for the whole people of the Jews, and with him appears the prophet Jeremiah, described as "a lover of the brethren, who prays much for the people and for the holy city" (2 Macc 15:12-14). When the Lord tells Jeremiah, "Even if Moses and Samuel stood before Me, My heart would not turn toward this people" (Jer 15:1), He assumes that the great intercessors of the past, long dead, could still stand before Him on behalf of Israel. At the Transfiguration, Moses and Elijah converse with Christ about His "exodus" which He was about to accomplish in Jerusalem (Luke 9:30-31), so the righteous dead are aware of the work of salvation. In the Apocalypse, the souls of the martyrs under the altar cry out to God about events on earth (Rev 6:9-10), and the elders offer golden bowls of incense, "which are the prayers of the saints" (Rev 5:8).
The parable of the rich man and Lazarus (Luke 16:19-31) offers an unexpected confirmation. The rich man, though in torment, retains memory, knowledge and concern for the living. He pleads with Abraham on behalf of his five brothers, asking that someone be sent to warn them (Luke 16:27-28). The request is refused, since the brothers "have Moses and the prophets," yet the Lord does not present the very idea of a departed person interceding for the living as absurd or forbidden. If even a man in Hades cares for his brothers, how much more do the righteous, who are with Christ and whose love has been made perfect? Love "never fails" (1 Cor 13:8).
The Epistle to the Hebrews describes the Church as surrounded by "so great a cloud of witnesses" (Heb 12:1) and as having come to "the spirits of the righteous made perfect" (Heb 12:23). The Lord teaches that God "is not the God of the dead but of the living, for all live to Him" (Luke 20:38). If the prayer of a righteous person on earth has great power (Jas 5:16), the prayer of the righteous made perfect cannot have less.
The early Church drew this conclusion explicitly. Origen teaches that the saints who have fallen asleep pray together with those who pray on earth.19 St Cyprian of Carthage, writing to Pope Cornelius during persecution, asks that they remember one another in prayer, and that whichever of them departs first should continue to pray for the brethren in the presence of the Lord.20 The Christian inscriptions in the Roman catacombs ask the departed to pray for the living, and the hymn Sub tuum praesidium, preserved on an Egyptian papyrus of the third or fourth century, already seeks refuge under the intercession of the Theotokos. St Jerome replies to Vigilantius that if the apostles and martyrs could pray for others while still in the body, they can do so much more after their victory.21 When the Lutheran theologians of Tübingen questioned the invocation of the saints, Patriarch Jeremiah II of Constantinople answered by appealing to this same continuous witness of Scripture and the Fathers.22
9. Do the Departed Pray for the Departed?
Here we must be honest about the limits of what has been revealed. Scripture does not tell us directly whether the faithful departed pray for others who have died, and the Church has never defined the matter. We can, however, gather several indications.
First, the parable of the rich man shows that communication among the departed is possible. The rich man addresses Abraham as "Father Abraham" and begs him to send Lazarus to cool his tongue (Luke 16:24). This is a petition from one departed soul to a departed saint, and Abraham answers him as "child." The request is refused, not because such a request is meaningless, but because "a great chasm has been fixed" (Luke 16:26). Second, Christ Himself, having died, went and preached to the spirits in prison (1 Pet 3:19; 4:6). The descent into Hades is the supreme act of the Righteous One on behalf of the departed, and the icon of the Resurrection shows Him raising Adam and Eve with the righteous of the Old Covenant gathered around Him. Third, the liturgical practice of the Church implies an answer. In the memorial services, after praying that God give rest to the departed "with the saints," the Church turns to the Theotokos, who has herself passed through death in her Dormition, and asks her to pray to her Son for the salvation of the soul of the departed. The Church thus asks one who has died to intercede for another who has died.
We may therefore say, with appropriate humility, that the departed saints very probably pray for the departed, since love does not cease and the saints share the love of Christ, who descended into Hades for the sake of the dead. We do not know how this prayer operates, nor what limits the "great chasm" may set, and we should not speculate beyond what the Church's worship expresses.
10. A Summary of the Directions of Intercession
| Who intercedes | For whom | Principal witnesses | Status in Orthodox teaching |
|---|---|---|---|
| Christ, our High Priest | All who draw near to God through Him | Heb 7:25; 9:24; Rom 8:34; 1 John 2:1; John 17 | Revealed and certain; unique as Mediator of the covenant |
| The Holy Spirit | The faithful, from within | Rom 8:26-27; Gal 4:6; Jude 20 | Revealed and certain |
| The angels | The faithful and the nations | Zech 1:12; Tob 12:12-15; Rev 8:3-4; Hermas | Revealed; part of the Church's daily prayer |
| The living | The living, all people, rulers, enemies | 1 Tim 2:1-4; Matt 5:44; Jas 5:14-18; Job 42:8 | Revealed and certain; commanded |
| The living | The departed | 2 Macc 12:39-45; 2 Tim 1:16-18; Abercius; Tertullian; Cyril | Apostolic and universal practice of the Church |
| The departed | The living | 2 Macc 15:12-14; Jer 15:1; Luke 16:27-28; Rev 5:8; 6:9-10; Origen; Cyprian | Apostolic and universal belief and practice of the Church |
| The departed | The departed | Luke 16:24-26; 1 Pet 3:19; memorial services | Implied by the liturgy; not defined; probable |
11. How Prayer to the Father, Prayer to Christ and the Intercession of the Saints Relate
We have considered each direction of prayer and intercession in turn. We must now show how they fit together, so that prayer to the Father, prayer to Christ and the intercession of the saints and angels are seen as one ordered whole rather than as rival channels. Five principles govern this order.
The Father is always the ultimate receiver of prayer
Every prayer of the Church, whether or not it names the Father, comes to rest in Him. The Father is the source (archē) of the Godhead, and the movement of grace from God to us and the movement of prayer from us to God follow the same path in opposite directions. St Basil the Great states the principle: the way to the knowledge of God runs from the one Spirit, through the one Son, to the one Father; and conversely, natural goodness, holiness and royal dignity come from the Father, through the Only-begotten, to the Spirit.23 St Gregory of Nyssa adds that every divine action begins from the Father, proceeds through the Son and is perfected in the Holy Spirit.24
When we pray to Christ, therefore, we do not bypass the Father, since the Son is in the Father and the Father in the Son (John 14:10-11), and "whoever has seen Me has seen the Father" (John 14:9). When we invoke the Holy Spirit, we invoke the Spirit of adoption, who cries "Abba, Father" within us (Gal 4:6). When we ask a saint to pray, we ask that saint to pray to God, and that prayer too is offered through Christ and in the Spirit. Every road in the Church's prayer leads to the Father, to the Father through the Son in the Holy Spirit.
The Father forgives through the blood and intercession of Christ
Sin is first of all against God (Ps 50:6 [51:4]), and it is God who forgives. Scripture is clear that He forgives on the ground of the self-offering of His Son. "In Him we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of trespasses" (Eph 1:7; Col 1:14). The Epistle to the Hebrews presents this offering through the figure of the Day of Atonement. As the high priest entered the Holy of Holies with blood, which is life (Lev 17:11), so Christ "entered once for all into the holy places, not by means of the blood of goats and calves, but by means of His own blood, thus securing an eternal redemption" (Heb 9:12). He now appears "in the presence of God on our behalf" (Heb 9:24), and "always lives to make intercession" for those who draw near to God through Him (Heb 7:25). John joins the two in one sentence: "If anyone sins, we have an Advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous; He is the propitiation (hilasmos) for our sins" (1 John 2:1-2; cf. 1:7-9).
The blood of Christ, in this reading, is not a payment extracted from the Son to appease the Father. It is the life of the incarnate Son, offered in perfect love and obedience, raised from the dead and presented in the heavenly sanctuary, where it cleanses and reconciles.25 The Father, who "so loved the world that He gave His only-begotten Son" (John 3:16), is the source of this reconciliation and not its obstacle: "God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself, not counting their trespasses against them" (2 Cor 5:19). For this reason, the Church's prayers for forgiveness are usually addressed to the Father "through the mercies of Thine only-begotten Son," and the absolution itself invokes the Lord who forgives through His priest.
Christ has all authority, and we may ask Him for all things
During His earthly ministry, Christ claimed and exercised the authority to forgive sins: "that you may know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins" (Mark 2:10; cf. Luke 7:48). The scribes were right to say that only God can forgive sins (Mark 2:7); they were wrong only in failing to recognize who stood before them. We may be fully assured that Christ, now risen and glorified, has not lost in heaven the power He exercised on earth. On the contrary, He declares, "All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to Me" (Matt 28:18). The Father "has given all judgment to the Son, that all may honor the Son just as they honor the Father" (John 5:22-23), and Christ promises, "If you ask Me anything in My name, I will do it" (John 14:14).
We may therefore ask Christ directly for anything that falls under His authority, which is everything. We may ask Him for the forgiveness of our sins, as the Church does in the Jesus Prayer: "Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me, a sinner." We may ask Him for the forgiveness of the sins of others, as Stephen did while dying: "Lord, do not hold this sin against them" (Acts 7:60), a prayer addressed to the "Lord Jesus" he had just invoked (Acts 7:59). We may ask Him for healing, as the blind men cried, "Have mercy on us, Son of David" (Matt 9:27), and as Peter declared, "Aeneas, Jesus Christ heals you" (Acts 9:34). We may ask Him for strength in trial, as Paul pleaded three times concerning the thorn in his flesh (2 Cor 12:8-9).
All of this takes place within a larger context. We pray to Christ as those whom the Father has adopted in Him: "God sent forth His Son... that we might receive adoption as sons. Because you are sons, God has sent forth the Spirit of His Son into our hearts, crying, Abba, Father" (Gal 4:4-6; cf. Rom 8:14-17). Christ is the Son by nature; we become sons and daughters by grace, united to Him. Our prayer to Christ is therefore never a detour around the Father. It is the prayer of brothers and sisters to the Firstborn among many brethren (Rom 8:29), who brings us to the Father (1 Pet 3:18), while the Holy Spirit, who also intercedes for us, forms that prayer within our hearts (Rom 8:26-27).
The saints are in Christ, and we ask their prayers as members of His Body
The saints who have departed this life have not left the Body of Christ. To depart is "to be with Christ" (Phil 1:23), "away from the body and at home with the Lord" (2 Cor 5:8). Neither death nor life can separate them from the love of God in Christ (Rom 8:38-39), and since they remain in Christ, they remain members of His Body with us (1 Cor 12:12-27). Hebrews describes them as "the spirits of the righteous made perfect" (Heb 12:23). The same epistle explains that the righteous of old, though "commended through their faith," were not to be made perfect apart from us (Heb 11:39-40); their perfection is the fruit of faith completed in Christ.
It follows that the same reasons that lead us to ask the prayers of righteous Christians on earth apply, with greater force, to the righteous who are with the Lord. We do not ask them to forgive our sins by their own authority, nor to replace the intercession of Christ. We ask them, as we ask one another, to pray for us to Christ and to the Father. "The prayer of a righteous person has great power" (Jas 5:16), and death has not made the saints less righteous, less loving or less near to God. St Augustine explains that the souls of the faithful departed are not separated from the Church, which even now is the kingdom of Christ, and that for this reason they are remembered at the altar.26
Some receive greater trust: Moses, Elijah, Jeremiah and the Theotokos
Christ teaches that faithfulness in this life is rewarded with greater trust. In the parable of the minas, the servant whose mina gained ten more hears, "Well done, good servant! Because you were faithful in a very little, you shall have authority over ten cities," and the second is set over five cities (Luke 19:17-19). In the parable of the talents, the faithful servants hear, "You have been faithful over a little; I will set you over much. Enter into the joy of your master" (Matt 25:21, 23). The Lord promises the apostles that they will sit on twelve thrones (Matt 19:28; Luke 22:29-30), and the Apocalypse promises those who overcome a share in His authority and His throne (Rev 2:26-27; 3:21). These promises point above all to the age to come, yet the Apocalypse already shows the souls of the martyrs clothed in white and reigning with Christ (Rev 6:9-11; 20:4), and the Church has always read them as beginning now for those who are with the Lord.
Scripture names certain departed intercessors whose power in prayer it treats as continuing. Moses turned back the wrath of God from Israel (Exod 32:11-14; Num 14:13-20), so that the Psalmist says he "stood in the breach before Him" (Ps 105 [106]:23). Elijah shut and opened the heavens by prayer (Jas 5:17-18), and the bystanders at the cross assumed that the dying Jesus was calling on Elijah to come and save Him (Matt 27:47-49), which shows that the people expected the prophet to come to the aid of the afflicted. Moses and Elijah appear together at the Transfiguration, conversing with Christ about His exodus (Luke 9:30-31). Jeremiah, who interceded for Judah until God forbade him (Jer 7:16; 14:11), is seen after his death as "the one who prays much for the people and the holy city" (2 Macc 15:14). The Lord Himself names Moses and Samuel as the great intercessors whose plea would carry weight before Him (Jer 15:1). These men were mighty intercessors on earth, and Scripture shows them remaining so in the presence of God.
This principle helps us understand the place of the Theotokos in the prayer of the Church. In the kingdom of Judah, the mother of the reigning king held the official dignity of gebirah, "the great lady" or queen mother. The Books of Kingdoms record the name of the mother of nearly every king of Judah (for example, 3 Kgdms [1 Kgs] 14:21; 15:2; 22:42), Jeremiah addresses "the king and the queen mother" together (Jer 13:18), and King Asa removes Maacah from the office of gebirah (3 Kgdms 15:13).27 When Bathsheba comes to King Solomon to make a request, "the king rose to meet her and bowed down to her, and sat on his throne, and had a throne brought for the king's mother, and she sat at his right hand," and the king says to her, "Ask, my mother, for I will not refuse you" (3 Kgdms 2:19-20). The Church sings of the Theotokos in the words of the royal Psalm, "At Thy right hand stood the queen" (Ps 44:10 [45:9]), whose verses supply the prokeimenon of her feasts.
We should read this type with care. Solomon in fact refused Bathsheba's request, since it was unwise (3 Kgdms 2:21-24). The type shows the dignity and nearness of the queen mother, not an automatic power to obtain whatever she asks. The Theotokos, unlike Bathsheba, asks only according to the will of her Son. At Cana, she brings the need to Him, "They have no wine," and then turns to the servants: "Do whatever He tells you" (John 2:3-5). Her intercession always points away from herself to Christ.
Within these limits, the Church confesses that the Theotokos, who was faithful in all things and who is the nearest of all creatures to the King, has received the greatest trust. The "cities" of the parable have, in the life of the Church, become quite literal. Constantinople sang to her as its "Champion Leader" in the Akathist Hymn, the feast of the Protection (Pokrov) commemorates the vision at the Blachernae church in which she spread her veil over the people of the City,28 and cities from Kiev to Mount Athos have entrusted themselves to her protection. She is the first among the intercessors, not because she rivals her Son, but because she is closest to Him, and because her love, like His, embraces all for whom He died.
We may now gather the five principles into a single statement. We pray to the Father, who forgives us through the blood and intercession of His Son. We pray to the Son, to whom all authority has been given, as adopted children of the Father, in the Spirit who prays within us. We ask the saints and angels, and above all the Theotokos, to pray for us, because they are in Christ, because the prayer of the righteous is powerful, and because the Lord has entrusted to the faithful a share in His reign. None of these acts competes with another. They are concentric circles of one communion, whose center is the Father, approached through the Son, in the Holy Spirit.
12. The Rule of Proportion
How then should we address the saints and angels? The Divine Liturgy provides the model and the measure. The great prayers of the Liturgy are addressed to the Father; the Son and the Spirit are glorified with Him; the Theotokos and the saints are commemorated within the offering and asked to pray with us and for us. We find three forms of address to the saints in the Church's worship, each with roots in Scripture.
The first is rhetorical address, as in the laments of David over Jonathan and Abner (2 Kgdms [2 Sam] 1:26; 3:33-34) and in the Psalms that call on the angels to bless the Lord (Ps 102 [103]:20-21; 148:2). The second is the optative form, in which we pray to God that we may be helped "through the prayers" of the saints, as Paul prays, "May our God and Father Himself, and our Lord Jesus, direct our way to you" (1 Thess 3:11; cf. 2 Thess 2:16-17). The dismissal of every service takes this form: "May Christ our true God, through the prayers of His most pure Mother and of all the saints, have mercy on us and save us." The third is direct address, measured by its content: "Holy N., pray to God for us."
Some hymns go further and ask the Theotokos or a saint to "save us." These must be read in the same light. Paul did not hesitate to say that he became all things to all people "that I might by all means save some" (1 Cor 9:22; cf. Rom 11:14; 1 Tim 4:16), and James writes that whoever turns a sinner from error "will save a soul from death" (Jas 5:20). No one supposes that Paul or James claimed to be the Savior. The saints save by intercession and example, as instruments and friends of the one Savior.
The honor shown to the saints, as St Basil teaches regarding the image, passes over to the prototype.29 To ask the saints for their prayers is to glorify God, who is "wonderful in His saints" (Ps 67:36 [68:35]) and who comes "to be glorified in His saints" (2 Thess 1:10).
Conclusion
We may now see the whole pattern. Prayer is one great movement of the Church toward the Father, through the Son who intercedes at His right hand, in the Spirit who intercedes within our hearts. Within this movement, every member of the Body prays for every other: angels for the faithful, the living for the living, the living for the departed, the departed for the living, and, as the Church's worship suggests, the saints for the departed as well. None of this competes with the mediation of Christ, since all of it takes place in Him. None of it is necromancy, since none of it consults the dead for knowledge or power; it simply asks fellow members of the one Body to pray to God with us.
We may now return the question to our Protestant brothers and sisters. The Orthodox are usually asked to justify their prayers for the departed and their requests for the prayers of the saints. Yet the pattern we have traced is not an Orthodox invention. It runs through the laments of David, the statutory commemoration of Josiah, the annual fast for Gedaliah, the prayer and sacrifice of Judas Maccabeus, Paul's prayer for Onesiphorus, and the vision of the saints and martyrs before the throne in Hebrews and the Apocalypse. It was the practice of the synagogue, which still prays the Kaddish and keeps the anniversary of the dead. It was the practice of every Christian community of the first fifteen centuries, East and West, of which we have any record; the one early voice raised against prayer for the dead, that of Aerius, was rejected as an innovator. By the old rule of St Vincent of Lérins, what has been believed everywhere, always and by all is the measure of the catholic faith.30
The burden of proof, then, does not rest on those who have kept this pattern. It rests on those who abandoned it. We may fairly ask what text of Scripture forbids us to pray for the departed, or to ask the righteous who are with the Lord to pray for us, and where Scripture teaches that death severs the members of Christ from His Body, or that the love of the saints falls silent when they enter His presence. Deuteronomy forbids consulting the dead; it does not forbid remembering them, commending them to God, or asking their prayers, and David, Jeremiah and the Maccabees did all three. The Reformers themselves were less certain than many of their heirs. Luther wrote that, since Scripture gives us no information on the subject, he saw no sin in praying for the dead with free devotion,31 and the Apology of the Augsburg Confession acknowledges that the ancients spoke of prayer for the dead, which it does not prohibit.32 If the practice is biblical, apostolic and universal, it is not the Orthodox who must explain why they keep it. It is our Protestant friends who must explain why they set it aside, and why they decline to honor the departed saints in the very manner that Scripture itself displays. We raise these questions not to win an argument, but as an invitation to rediscover a communion that belongs to all who are in Christ.
Death does not end this communion, because Christ has destroyed death. "Whether we live or whether we die, we are the Lord's. For to this end Christ died and lived again, that He might be Lord both of the dead and of the living" (Rom 14:8-9). This is why the Church on earth can pray for its departed members and ask the prayers of its glorified members without fear: in Christ, we are all still one family, gathered around one Father, in one Spirit.
