like them, that we may also one day share in their eternal happiness.
38. In what does our praying to God differ from our praying to the Saints?
We pray to God that He may help us by His Omnipotence; but we pray to the Saints that they may help us by interceding with God for us.
39. Is it, then, in the power of the Saints in Heaven to obtain anything from God in our behalf?
It was in their power when they were living on earth; much more must it be so now that they are in Heaven; for death does not dissolve the communion between them and us. (See the Ninth Article of the Creed.)
'Pray one for another, that you may be saved; for the continual prayer of a just man availeth much' (James v. 16). — No one but a most obstinate infidel can deny the miracles which were, and are still, wrought by the intercession of the Saints (Proceedings of the Church at a Beatification or Canonization).
40. Does the Holy Scripture also testify that the Saints in Heaven pray for us?
Yes, the Holy Scripture says, 1. That the Angels pray for man;1 2. That the Prophet Jeremias, long after his death, 'prayeth much for the people, and for all the holy city' (2 Mac. xv. 14); and 3. That the four-and-twenty Ancients incessantly offer up the prayers of the Saints at the throne of the Most High (Apoc. v. 8).
1' And the Angel of the Lord answered, and said: O Lord of Hosts, how long wilt Thou not have mercy on Jerusalem, and on the cities of Juda?' (Zach. i. 12). 'When thou didst pray with tears, I offered thy prayer to the Lord, ' said the Angel Raphael to Tobias (Tob. xii. 12).
41. Do, then, the Saints in Heaven know anything of us?
If they did not know anything of us, the Archangel Raphael could not have offered the prayer of Tobias to God, nor could there be joy before the Angels of God
