Are Mother Mary, Saints and Angels omnipresent like God, to listen to prayer requests of the faithful from different locations on the planet at the same time?
Only God is omnipresent. Mother Mary, the Saints or the Angels are not omnipresent. But, they can and do listen to any prayers addressed to them from anywhere in any language. This is not because they are capable all by themselves, but rather God makes them “accomplish abundantly far more than all we can ask or imagine” (Ephesians 3:20). It is God who empowers them.
Bible says when we are in Christ, we are one body with Him (Romans 12:5), and we are branches of the one true vine (John 15:5) and not even death can separate us from Christ (Romans 8:38). The body of Christ, the Church, is made up of both the living (those on Earth) and the dead (those in Purgatory and Heaven), together forming a spiritual solidarity called the communion of saints. And since those in heaven are in perfect communion with God, they also have communion with us through God. Also those in heaven are not restricted by space and time like us on earth.
Now that we have established that the whole Church is in the mystical body of Christ, let’s look into how the human body functions. Suppose there is a wound in one part of the body the whole body becomes aware of it and prepares to help in the healing process. For example platelets adhere to tissues around a wound, forming a blood clot, sealing damaged blood vessels and the bone marrow starts producing more white blood cells to combat possible infection of the wound. All of this happens because every single organ in the body is joined to the head and receives the required information from it. Similarly, those in heaven, who are in perfect union with God, can hear the prayers of the faithful through Jesus Christ, the head of the body (Colossians 1:18), and obtain for us what is needed as per God’s will.
We do have Scriptural evidence to back up our claims. One such evidence would be Revelations 5:8 where we find the elders in heaven holding “golden bowls full of incense, which are the prayers of the saints”. If they are indeed offering up our prayers, they also must be aware of them.
As I conclude this answer I would like to remind all readers that whatever the saints and angels obtain for us, they obtain them from God as the scripture says “every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights” (James 1:17).
Edin Michael
Disclaimer!
The views, thoughts, opinions presented here belong solely to the author and are not necessarily the official view of the Jesus youth movement.
Absolutely false. Take this down. That is witchcraft to talk to the dead. The Bible says not to do it. Nobody outside of God hears prayers. Omnipresent means they are everywhere and can hear everyone. Not even Satan has that ability.
Thank you Mathew for expressing your concern. “Witchcraft” in this context likely referring to necromancy, would mean seeking to bend or control or alter nature in order to take advantage of the dead through communicating with them. Witchcraft is about control, opposes and mocks the sacramental order, and ultimately contravenes nature. Prayer is far from this reality, since the heart of prayer is humble surrender to the Father and trust in his providential care. We ask the saints for prayers as fellow brothers and sisters in Christ’s Body, the Church. It is precisely the fact that we are united in the one Body of Christ, bound together by the grace of the Holy Spirit, that enables us to share communion with those both living and dead. The saints are physically dead, but their souls are fully alive in heaven. We are not conjuring spirits by asking saints for prayers, like a genie in a bottle. We are asking our community of faith for their prayerful support—in the same way that we go to a friend and ask “can you pray for me?” Although we are separated by living in different times and places, the unity in Christ’s Body, the Church, extends far beyond the limits of space and time. And in heaven, where the saints dwell, there is neither space nor time, as spacetime is another part of the physical/material world. We could call that existence outside of the constraints of spacetime “omnipresence,” but in reality this is somewhat analogical. It is more literal to say that the saints have no location (which requires existing in space), nor temporality (existing in time), and so they can engage freely with those who still dwell in physical reality without being constrained to it. It is also helpful to constantly frame this within the reality of the Body of Christ and our future Resurrection. What we see now as something that is only in the spiritual order—namely, not being bound by time or space—is foreshadowed for the physical order in the risen Body of Jesus after the Resurrection. In the final judgment at the resurrection of the body, we too will not be constrained by these limitations. Wishing you a blessed day.
What a twisting of scripture this is.The only priest I need is Jesus, he is my advocate with the father, and he is able to save to the uttermost those who come to God by him, for he ever lives to make intersession for them. (Heb 7:25)That’s why as far as redemption is concerned he is the only mediator between God and man. Praying to anyone other than God is idolatry.