I am pleased to find a full-throated explanation of the Ascension:
However, the physical nature of mankind, which in Christ had resurrected, could not be wholly given over to death and corruption in the one from whom the Lord had received that nature.
Here is that often ignored verse that explains the communion of saints plainly:
we are made "fellow citizens with the saints and those who are of God" (Eph. 2:19).
The glory of the saints:
Some "fathers, teachers and leaders" (Matt. 23:5-10) act for their own glory, for human glory, and in their own name (John 7:18; 12:43; 5:43); and there are others—fathers, teachers, and leaders—who act to the glory of God and in the name of Christ (1 Cor. 4:15; 12:28). These last do not do damage to the glory of God, but they serve only that glory and not themselves, and they are glorified by God Himself with His glory. "Them that glorify Me, I will glorify," (1 Kings [Samuel] 2:30). "Father, the glory which Thou gavest Me, I have given them" (John 17:22).Wherefore, "we bless them which endure" and have them "for an example" for ourselves (James 5:10-11). We must "remember them which have the rule" over us and "follow their faith" (Hebrews 13:7). Such are those holy people who are not on earth but who live in the memory of the members of the Church and never will be forgotten because of their service for the salvation of the people.
Why not pray directly to Christ?
The Christian can pray, "My God, save me." But in the prayer, "My God, for the sake of the prayers of Thy saints, save me," there is more sincerity, more humility, a depth of feeling and a complete defence against pride creeping in if the prayer is successful, a firm foundation for spiritual advancement. In this way, prayer to God, addressed via the holy God-pleasers, stands nearer, closer, to God, and it throws a bridge over the abyss that exists between God and sinners, it humbles the soul of the sinner himself and invokes upon him the good pleasure of God. In their humility, true Christians do not hope on their own prayers, but on the prayers of the saints, and thus they do not think anything of themselves, and they do not glory in the strength of their own prayers hut in those of the saints, they account themselves nothing, they flee from conceit, and thus they are saved. For this reason the prayer of the true Christian is always seasoned with hoping on the concurrent intercession before God of the saints, especially of those to whom he turns to underpin and support his prayers.
Finally,
she is actually the Theotokos, as until that time the whole Church had believed, except for the heretics who attempted to name her "Christotokos."Ha.
lol. Where in God's creation does this foolishness come from?
In this way, prayer to God, addressed via the holy God-pleasers, stands nearer, closer, to God, and it throws a bridge over the abyss that exists between God and sinners, it humbles the soul of the sinner himself and invokes upon him the good pleasure of God.
This is so unScriptural as to be blasphemous. "The holy God-pleasers"???
What is difficult to understand about the fact...
"For there is one God, and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus" -- 1 Timothy 2:5