“THROUGH THE PRAYERS OF OUR HOLY FATHERS, LORD JESUS CHRIST. OUR GOD, HAVE MERCY ON US AND SAVE US.”

My beloved brothers and sisters in Christ Our Only True Lord, God and Savior,

CHRIST IS IN OUR MIDST! HE WAS, IS, AND EVER SHALL BE.

“Through the prayers of our Holy Fathers, Lord Jesus Christ,
have mercy on us and save us.”

Unlike the prayers of Christians of heterodox traditions, the Orthodox Christians conclude their prayers by saying, “Through the prayers of our Holy Fathers, Lord Jesus Christ, Our God, have mercy on us and save us.” This prayer is a way of asking for our Lord Christ, our God, to have mercy on us and save us. Salvation is a gift from Him Who is merciful, and not something that is acquired by us. Furthermore, we approach Him with genuine humility knowing that we are sinful and unworthy and, therefore, we seek the intercessions of the Saints and holy Fathers acknowledging their holiness and close relationship with our Savior Jesus Christ. The Saint’s prayers are most powerful and can assist the believer in receiving God’s mercy.

In our Holy Orthodox Faith we believe that Saints are living in heaven with our Lord Christ and are very much aware of the spiritual struggles and warfare of us on earth, so they constantly pray as our friends and intercessors. This is not understood as praying to the Saints for worship, but rather as requesting of them to pray for us, just as one might ask a fellow Christian, a friend or relative to pray for us at times of danger or illness. For the Orthodox Christian God is not the God of the dead, but of the living, and that those who have died in Christ are alive with Him.

Should we pray to the Saints? Absolutely! Shall we not call blessed and holy those who are “the glory and the honor of the nations”? [Revelation 21:26] We call the Holy Virgin and all of God’s friends (Psalm 138 (139), the Saints, blessed. We ask incessantly for their intercessory prayers–not in order to be saved by them, because ONLY JESUS CHRIST SAVES, but in order to be saved through their intercessory prayers to Christ.

“The Saints who inhabit God’s Kingdom live in active fulfillment of His eternal plan.” In the Kingdom, humanity becomes all it is meant to be. There is nothing at all in Holy Scripture to suggest that Eternal Life means people strumming on harps or passively afloat on huge white clouds unto the ages of ages.

How can the Saints be “the glory and honor of the nations”? Do we not sing to the Triune God, for You belong glory, honor, and worship and for Yours is the Kingdom and the power and the glory…” How can we attribute glory to human beings? Saint Paul says that the afflictions in life prepare “for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison” (2 Corinthians 4:17). Human being can thus become sharers of God’s Eternal Glory.

Therefore we are all called to honor the Saints. They are “the general assembly and Church of the first born” (Hebrews 12:23), “the righteous people (who ended their course and were) perfected” (ibid). The Saints are “those who will inherit salvation” (Hebrews 1:14), through whom God is “bearing witness, both with signs and wonders, with various miracles, and gifts of the Holy Spirit, according to His own will” (Hebrews 2:4).

The Saints intercede for us before the Throne of God. Here are a few Biblical examples:

1) The Holy Apostle Paul says, “We are ambassadors for Christ, God making His appeal through us” (2 Corinthians 5:20).
2) Elsewhere he says, “I know that through your prayers and the help of the Spirit of Jesus Christ this will turn out for my deliverance” (Philippians 1:19).
3) The Holy Apostle James (Iakovos) writes: “The prayer of a righteous man avails much” (James 5:16).
4) In the book of Job we read: “My servant Job shall pray for you; for him will I accept” (Job 42:8).
5) God said to king Abimelech about Abraham: “He (Abraham) will pray for you and you shall live” (Genesis 20:7).
6) Again we read: :Moses supplicated the Lord God…and the Lord relented from the harm which He said He would do to His people” (Exodus 32:11-14). Moses interceded with God for the impious Jewish nation and they were saved from His wrath. For other instances of intercession see 1 Thessalonians 5:25; 2 Thes. 1:11 and 3:1; Colossians 4:2 and Hebrews 13:18.

We invoke [the Saints] to help us, since they too were of our same nature, taking thought for us and having power with God because they struggled for His glorification. (Saint Symeon of Thessaloniki) The Saints have dedicated themselves to God, even offering their very lives to Him. We too are called to be vessels of sanctification, dedicated exclusively to God’s service. We too pledged to do precisely that at our baptism. During the Divine Liturgy we renew this pledge and commitment to live consciously for Christ our God.

So by the testimony of God’s word, we are saved through the prayers of the Saints to Christ. Let us repeat: There is only One Who saves: CHRIST THE SAVIOR.

Originally created to inhabit Paradise, our first parents chose to sin against God and were expelled from the Garden. The Kingdom of God was closed to mankind (Genesis 3:24). But God in His agape called His creation back to Himself, speaking to us through the Law and the Prophets and ultimately through His Incarnate Son. Through NEW LIFE in Jesus Christ, we are brought back by God’s mercy into THE NEW CREATION, HIS EVERLASTING KINGDOM. As kings and priests we will reign with Him forever (Revelation 1:6).

“We experience a foretaste of the Kingdom in the Church.” The very first words of the Divine Liturgy spoken by the priest are: “Blessed is the Kingdom of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit now and ever and unto ages of ages.” The Church at worship enters or ascends to the Heavenly Kingdom. For it is in the Church that we are seated “together in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus” (Ephesians 2:6) and are raised to “where Christ is, sitting at the Right Hand of God” (Colosssians 3:1).

In worship we join the Heavenly Hosts–the Saints and the Angels–in giving praise to our God. As the body of Christ we participate with that “great cloud of witnesses” (Hebrews 12:1) surrounding us as we come to “the throne of God” (Hebrews 12:2). We come liturgically “to the city of the Living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, to an innumerable company of Angels, to the general assembly and church of the firstborn who are registered in heaven, to God the Judge of all” (Hebrews 12:22-23). With this heavenly vision, the Orthodox Church each Sunday remembers not only those in the parish but “ALL THOSE WHO IN FAITH HAVE GONE BEFORE US TO THEIR REST.”

The Holy Apostle John writes: “Beloved, now we are children of God and it has not yet been revealed what we shall be, but we know that when He is revealed we shall be like Him, for we shall see Him as He is. And everyone who has this hope in Him purifies himself, just as He is pure” (1 John 3:2-3). [Resources: The Heavenly Banquet and Orthodox Study Bible)

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“Glory Be To GOD
For
All Things!”
– Saint John Chrysostomos
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With sincere agape in His Divine and Glorious Diakonia (Ministry),
The sinner and unworthy servant of God
+ Father George