their intercession they obtain for us from Him the grace to lead
a virtuous life and to gain heaven.

However, is there any reasonable doubt that the saints are able to
render us such a service? In virtue of the communion of saints, which
comprises the Church militant on earth, the Church suffering in
purgatory, and the Church triumphant in heaven, all members of the
Church are members of one body, whose head is Christ. Hence the saints
are united with us in spirit, though separated from us in body. United
with Christ, they are imbued with a superior knowledge, and through Him,
the All-Knowing, they know everything that concerns us, and for which we
have recourse to them in prayer.

Our confidence in the intercessory power of the saints is founded on
their relation to God and to us. As friends of God they have influence
with Him now, even more than during their sojourn on earth, because
their intercessory power is one of their glorious prerogatives in
heaven. Their love of God and their charity for their fellow-men, and
the zeal for the salvation of souls resulting therefrom, together with
their conformity with Christ, induces them to use their influence
readily in our favor. Because God dispenses His gifts according to His
own adorable will, it may please Him to grant a certain favor at the
particular intercession of a certain saint; hence it is not superstition
to invoke His aid in such cases. Moreover, we justly place our
confidence in saints whom we have selected to be our special patrons, or
who were given us as such by ecclesiastical authority.

By the intercession of the saints the mediatorship of Christ is not set
aside or restricted. The power of intercession, the intercession itself,
and its invocation are an effect of the grace of Christ; therefore He
remains our only mediator. God remains Our Lord and Father, although men
share in His lordship and paternity; for all power and authority comes
from God, who is pleased to operate in His creatures through other
creatures. Hence, only a dependent mediatorship can be ascribed to the
saints. Whoever admits that the living can pray for each other can not
denounce the intercession of the saints as an usurpation of the
mediatorship of Christ. The saints are not the authors and dispensers of
grace and heavenly gifts, but they are able to obtain them for us from
God.

The saints, moreover, do not only pray for mankind in general, but for
their clients in particular