"Wherefore seeing we also are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which doth so easily beset us, and let us run with patience the race that is set before us."
Hebrews 12:1 (KJV)What is the Communion of Saints?
The Communion of Saints is the belief that all Christians, living and dead, are united in one body in Christ. Those who have died in faith are not simply gone. They are alive in God, more present to him than we are, and they are part of the same family.
The Apostles' Creed, which most Protestant denominations affirm, includes the phrase "I believe in the communion of saints." This is not a Catholic addition. It is the ancient faith of the Church, stated in one of the oldest Christian creeds.
The Catechism of the Catholic Church describes three states of the Church: the Church Militant (those still on earth), the Church Suffering (those being purified), and the Church Triumphant (those in heaven). All three are one Church, one Body of Christ.
Why does this matter for Mary?
If the saints in heaven are alive, and if they are part of the same body as we are, then asking them to pray for us is not strange. It is natural. It is what members of a family do.
Mary holds a unique place in this communion. She is not merely a member of the Church. She is, in the words of the Second Vatican Council, its preeminent and altogether singular member. She is the first and greatest of the redeemed. She is the mother of the head of the body, and therefore the mother of the whole body.
When Catholics ask Mary to pray for them, they are not going around Christ. They are asking the greatest member of his body to join her prayers to theirs. All of those prayers flow through Christ to the Father. She is not a shortcut. She is a companion on the way.
"For he is not a God of the dead, but of the living: for all live unto him."
Luke 20:38 (KJV)The Great Cloud of Witnesses
Hebrews 12:1 speaks of a "great cloud of witnesses" surrounding us as we run the race. These are not spectators. They are participants. They have run the race before us, and they are cheering us on.
The saints are not silent. They are praying. Revelation 5:8 describes the elders in heaven holding "golden vials full of odours, which are the prayers of saints." The prayers of those on earth are being offered before the throne of God by those already in heaven.
This is the Communion of Saints in action. It is not a Catholic invention. It is the vision of heaven given to us in the Book of Revelation.
"And when he had taken the book, the four beasts and four and twenty elders fell down before the Lamb, having every one of them harps, and golden vials full of odours, which are the prayers of saints."
Revelation 5:8 (KJV)