Editing Intercession (section)

===Theological perspective===
In an article in ''Theological Studies'', Catholic theologian Patricia A. Sullivan warns that saints should not be built up in a way that brings down God. Saint [[Augustine of Hippo|Augustine]] had famously said that we pray not to instruct God but to get our will in line with God's.<ref>{{Cite web|last=Hippo|first=St Augustine of|date=2017-10-17|title=Our Father, the Lord's Prayer – Augustine|url=https://www.crossroadsinitiative.com/media/articles/ourfatheronthelordsprayer/|access-date=2020-09-13|website=Crossroads Initiative|language=en-US}}</ref> Sullivan warns away from the dictionary meanings of "intercession" as “intervention, mediation, arbitration, negotiation”, all of which sound like we are dealing with a hostile or unfriendly God, whom we need to manipulate to get what we need. Such is not the meaning of the ''[[hapax legomenon]]'' in the New Testament of the word for intercession.<ref>Cf. 1Tim 2.1–2: https://biblehub.com/greek/enteuxeis_1783.htm.</ref> Sullivan goes on:<ref>Patricia A. Sullivan, "A Reinterpretation of Invocation and Intercession of the Saints", ''Theological Studies'', 66.2 (2005) 381–400. cdn.theologicalstudies.net/66/66.2/66.2.6.pdf. See also ''[[Lumen gentium]],'' 51.</ref>
<blockquote>When we ask a saint to intercede for us, what is happening at a deeper level is that we are taking refuge in the all-enfolding community of the redeemed, approaching God thru saintly symbols of Christ's victory and of our hope. Saints want always what God wants, what is best for us whether we pray for it or not. They are in a perpetual attitude of praise for God’s love and care, to which we join ourselves, praying, more precisely, ''with'' them rather than to them. The value of our petitions is that they turn us in confidence toward the God who loves us, allowing God’s work to be more effective in us, and thru us in others.</blockquote>
It would be anathema to ask God to try any harder to do good. By invocation of a saint "we take refuge in faith in the all-enfolding community of all the redeemed," where "each is responsible for all". They are "creative models of holiness".<ref>Karl Rahner, "Why and How Can We Venerate the Saints?" Theological Investigations 8, trans. David Bourke (New York, Seabury), 1977, 23.</ref><ref>Karl Rahner, "The Church of the Saints," Theological Investigations 3, trans. Karl-H. and Boniface Kruger (New York, Seabury), 1974. 100.</ref>