Catholics understand the saints to be full participants in the mediatorship of Jesus. Their participation no more subtracts from his ministry than the glory that shines upon them subtracts from his glory. It is all his, forsooth. there is one fountainhead from which we all have drunk and from which we bear refreshment to parched souls...
To ask one of the saints for his prayers is of one seamless piece with our asking each other to pray for us. The precincts of the Divine mercy cannot be parceled out with addition and subtraction, with my siphoning off this bit of Jesus' priesthood when I venture to pray for you, and you pocketing that much of his merit when you lay your life down for me with such generosity day after day (one is thinking of one's spouse here). There is only gushing superabundance here, immersing us all, filling us all, and sweeping us along in the tide of that amplitude overflowing from the Father himself.
---Thomas Howard, On Being Catholic, (Ignatius Press, 1997).
And then, there are times when we are reminded that there are even saints among us...
And then, there are times when we are reminded that there are even saints among us...
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