perfection of their beatitude, as we
have said above.

5. Lastly, God alone is the Searcher of hearts. But prayer is
essentially an affair of the heart. Consequently God alone knows our
prayers.

But God alone knows of Himself the thoughts of the heart; others
know them according as they are revealed to them either in their
vision of the Word or in any other way.

II

Ought we to appeal to the Saints to intercede for us?

In the Book of Job,[277] it is said: _Call now, if there be any that
will answer thee; and turn to some of the Saints_. And on this S.
Gregory says: "It is our business to call, and to beseech God in humble
prayer."[278] When, then, we desire to pray to God, we ought to turn to
the Saints that they may pray for us.

Further, the Saints who are in the Fatherland are more acceptable in the
sight of God than they were when upon earth. But we ought to ask the
Saints even when on earth to be our intercessors with God, as the
Apostle shows us by his example when he says: _I beseech you, therefore,
brethren, through our Lord Jesus Christ, and by the charity of the Holy
Ghost, that you help me in your prayers for me to God_.[279] Much more,
then, should we ask the Saints who are in our Fatherland to help us by
their prayers to God.

Moreover, the common custom of the Church confirms this, since in her
Litanies she asks the prayers of the Saints.

* * * * *

In the words of Denis,[280] "there is this Divinely established harmony
in things--that they which hold the lowest place should be brought to
God through them that come between them and God." Since, then, the
Saints who are in our Fatherland are most nigh to God, the harmony of
the Divine Government demands that we who, abiding in the body, are
"absent from the Lord," should be led to Him by the Saints who stand
midway; and this is secured when through their means the Divine Goodness
pours out Its effects upon us. And since our return to God ought to
correspond to the orderly way in which His goodnesses flow upon us--for
His benefits flow out upon us through the intervention of the Saints'
suffrages for us--so also ought we to be brought back to God through the
intervention of the Saints, and thus once more receive His benefits.
Whence it is that we make them our intercessors for us with God--and, as
it were, mediators--by begging them to pray for us.

* * * * *