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Intercessions St. John Chrysostom said “We should seek intercessions and the fervent prayers of the saints because they have special boldness (parresia) before God.” The Church is a great big community. There are two distinctions of our Church—the Church Militant –we are the church militant because we are still a part of this world and strive to live our lives according to what God taught us and commanded us to do. The other is the Church Triumphant-those who have been called by God to be with them in paradise and who also continue to pray for us. We as Orthodox Christians ask the Saints to pray for us. The fact that Christians ask the prayers of saints and their intercession is prefigured in the New Testament. St. Paul asks the Christian Ephesians, Thessalonians, Colossians and Romans to pray for him (Ephes. 6:19, 1 Thesal. 5:25; Colos. 4:3, and Rom. 15:30-31). In every Liturgy, we ask God the Father to accept, on our behalf, "the prayers and intercession of all the saints who now live in heaven. The Fathers also accept as a matter the prayers and intercessions of all of the Saints St. Basil explicitly writes that he accepts the intercession of the apostles, prophets and martyrs, and he seeks their prayers to God (Letter 360). Then, speaking about the Forty Martyrs, who suffered martyrdom for Christ, he emphasizes that "they are common friends of the human race, strong ambassadors and collaborators in fervent prayers". Saints we pray to for help with special things: More on Prayer with Saints See also this page from our website
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