👉🏾👉🏾👉🏾The #Intercession of Our #Holy #Virgin #Mary
(Part 15)
Dear followers of the Orthodox faith we greet you with the peace of God. Today we present to you an important teaching for your spiritual growth on the topic of the intercession of our Holy Virgin Mary. May all who read and learn from it be strengthened in faith and understanding.
✍🏾Meaning of Intercession
The word intercession means supplication or pleading on behalf of another.
It is a prayer offered by one person for the sake of another. In the Orthodox Church, one of the main forms of prayer is intercessory prayer a prayer made for the benefit of another soul.
(Source: Desta Tekle Weld, p. 775)
For example, when a person offends or wrongs a friend, he may be too ashamed or afraid to approach that friend directly. Out of reverence and humility, he sends another someone trusted and loved by the offended person to reconcile him.
In the same way, we sinners, having offended God through our sins, approach Him through the intercession of His beloved saints. We ask them to plead for mercy on our behalf. Above all, we seek the intercession of Our Lady, the Blessed Virgin Mary, the Mother of God, who has the highest favor before Him.
✍🏾The Three Elements of Intercession
There are three parts involved in the mystery of intercession:
1. The Intercessor (The one who prays for another)
2. The Interceded (The one who receives the prayers)
3.The Beneficiary (The sinner who asks for intercession)
✍🏾The Intercessor
Intercession is an act of humility and love. It reflects the compassionate nature of the saints. The righteous stand before God, continually praying for the salvation of the world.
Through their prayers, our Lord Jesus Christ grants mercy and forgiveness to those who repent.
The saints’ intercession often involves a willingness to give their own lives for the sake of sinners:
“And Moses returned to the Lord and said, ‘Alas, this people has sinned a great sin, and have made for themselves gods of gold. Yet now, if You will forgive their sin but if not, blot me, I pray, out of Your book which You have written.’”
(Exodus 32:31–32)
Likewise, King David prayed for his people:
“Did I not command the people to be numbered? I am the one who has sinned and done evil; but what have these sheep done? O Lord my God, let Your hand be on me and my father’s house, but not on Your people.”(1 Chronicles 21:17)
In the New Testament, the Apostle Paul expressed the same deep love:
“For I could wish that I myself were accursed from Christ for my brethren, my kinsmen according to the flesh.”(Romans 9:1–3)
From these examples, we learn that the saints intercede with sacrificial love, standing before God on behalf of humanity.
✍🏾The Interceded
The one who receives intercession is God Himself the Creator of all things, “by whom all things were made.”(John 1:3)
He is one God in three persons: the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit one Lordship, one power, one glory, one divine will.
It is this one God who hears the prayers of His saints and fulfills His will through their intercession.
When we say that the saints intercede, we do not mean that they are more merciful than God or that He is unwilling to forgive.
God’s mercy is infinite, and the intercession of the saints is a revelation of that very mercy. Their prayers manifest the depth of God’s compassion toward creation.
✍🏾The Beneficiary of Intercession
Those who benefit from intercession are we sinners, living on earth, confessing our sins and seeking forgiveness.
However, to receive the fruit of intercession, repentance is necessary.
The Israelites, when they were in Babylonian captivity, said to the prophet Jeremiah:
“May the Lord be a true and faithful witness between us if we do not do all that the Lord your God sends you to tell us. Whether it is good or bad, we will obey the voice of the Lord our God.”(Jeremiah 42:2–6)
This shows that repentance and obedience are required for intercession to bear fruit.
Continues 👇🏾