Read it from the Original.
Start at the Beginning.
(Page 212)
I. "Pray for one another that you may be saved" (Jas. v. 16). Intercommunion throughout the earth is now so close on account of commercial relations and instant communication, that any great event in one country produces an immediate effect upon thousands in the most remote parts of the world. If it be a calamity, there is an outburst of sympathy and aid in every land. The three portions of the Kingdom of Christ, the Militant, the Triumphant and the Suffering, form one great corporate union in Him. The bond between them is not fanciful or figurative but real; and this consists in actual communication of reciprocal action from each towards the others. That action is a spiritual one, and consists chiefly in interceding for each other or asking intercession, "that you may be saved." No one lives for himself alone in the temporal order except those who are the enemies of their species; and still more in the super natural order is this the case. The bond of union is to be kept up by bearing one another's burdens, and this is done by intercession. The blessed intercede for us, we intercede for the souls in purgatory; and Jesus Christ is the centre where all these influences meet and whence they radiate. Practise regularly this form of the prayer of petition. Exhibit in the spiritual order the same diffusive charity which you have to show in the temporal order. Pray for your brethren that they may be saved; they will pray for you that you may be saved.
II. The duty of intercession for one another is to be learned from Our Blessed Lord. There is not one of His actions or His functions that is not intended as a model for us. He acted not as God alone, not as unapproachable and inimitable, but as Son of Man, so that we can unite in all His actions. We are all sons of God with Him, we are all priests with Him, uniting in the oblation of the same (Page 213) sacrifice, we shall all one day be kings with Him and heirs to heaven. As He is the Mediator and Saviour, we too must forward the salvation of souls and mediate for them by prayer in union with Him. In the Old Testament we find Moses interceding for the people and saving them from the consequences of their sins. The friends of Job were commanded by God to invoke his mediation against the divine wrath. The elders of Israel said to Judith, "Now, therefore, pray for us, for thou art a holy woman and one fearing God" (Jud. viii. 29). The Apostles also carried out the imitation of their Master by recommending, and even themselves asking, the intercession of the faithful. Do not neglect this duty. You will be wanting in humility if you disdain to ask the prayers of others, you will be wanting in charity if you do not intercede for them.
III. We gather from Holy Scripture that the activity of the blessed in heaven and their function of utility in the universe consists, for one thing, in offering prayers for us before the throne. So an angel came with "much incense that he should offer the prayers of all the saints upon the golden altar" (Apoc. viii. 3). The four and twenty ancients also offered "golden vials full of odours which are the prayers of the saints" (Apoc. v. 8). Such, doubtless, will be your office when you have passed into God's kingdom. You will live the same supernatural life as now, you will be interested in the work of God on earth, and will have some useful ministry in the higher sphere in continuation of that which has fallen to you now. The great source of spiritual energy on earth, which is prayer and intercession, is also the source of such spiritual utility as the Angels and Saints, and above all the Blessed Mother of Jesus, now exercise from their thrones in heaven, and which you will exercise in due course. Take care to keep yourself in active communication with every part of God's kingdom by means of intercession, which is the universal net-work that binds it all together.
All for Jesus, all for Mary.
Such shall be our password gentle reader.
Til next time.
