The Canaanite woman came to Jesus to intercede for her daughter. The daughter did not go to Jesus, but the mother went on behalf of her daughter. We do the same sometimes in our spiritual lives. We pray directly to Jesus, to the Father, and to the Holy Spirit, but we also ask Our Lady and other saints to pray for our intentions. We are fortunate to have the faith to invoke the help of Our Lady and the saints on our behalf before God because most Protestant churches do not believe in the intercession of the saints on our behalf. They pray to God with the saints as brothers and sisters but would not pray to them. Catholics, the Orthodox churches, and some others pray to Our Lady and to the saints to ask them to intercede before God for us, but the majority of the other Christian denominations do not nor do they even allow it. That is because of one sentence in the first letter of Paul to Timothy which says there is one mediator between God and the human race, Christ Jesus (1 Tim 2:5). While Jesus is the mediator between the Father and us, and his passion and death on our behalf made atonement for our sins, Our Lady and the saints in heaven can bring our needs before God and so share in Jesus’ mediation before the Father on our behalf.
When Paul wrote to the Philippians, he assured them that he prayed for them. (Phil 1:3-4) We could say he interceded before God for the Philippians. In his letter to the Colossians, Paul wrote that he prayed for them. (Col 1:9) However it is Paul while he is alive praying for others who are living. Catholics, Orthodox and some others also pray to the saints in heaven for assistance.
Above all, we pray to Our Lady to intercede before God for us. In every Hail Mary, we ask Our Lady to pray for us: “pray for us sinners now and at the hour of our death.” In the Hail Holy Queen prayer, we pray:
To you do we cry,
poor banished
children of Eve.
To you do we send up our sighs,
mourning and
weeping in this valley of tears
Turn then, most gracious
advocate,
your eyes of mercy toward us
and after this exile
show unto us the blessed fruit of thy womb,
Jesus.
It is good to pray to Our Lady for our needs. People go on pilgrimages to her shrines in Knock and elsewhere throughout Europe asking her assistance before God for their spiritual and other needs. It is precisely because of her care for us that she came to us in Knock, Fatima, Lourdes and other places.
It is a healthy spirituality to pray to Our Lady because she is our spiritual mother and wants to help us like the Canaanite woman wanted to help her daughter. When Jesus was dying on the cross, he gave his mother to us as our spiritual mother when he said to John, “Behold your Mother” and he said to Mary, “Behold your son.” (John 19:26-27) Jesus was not just asking John to look after Our Lady after he was gone; Jesus was giving his mother to us as our spiritual mother. She is our spiritual mother watching over us from heaven, protecting us, caring for us, loving us, interceding for us like the Canaanite woman for her daughter.
Pope John Paul II’s mother died when he was young, and he then took Our Lady as his spiritual mother in a special way. These are the words of Cardinal Ratzinger during the funeral homily for Pope John Paul II:
the Holy Father found the purest
reflection of God’s mercy in the Mother of God. He, who at an early
age had lost his own mother, loved his divine Mother all the more.
He heard the words of the crucified Lord as addressed personally to
him: “Behold your Mother.” And so he did as the beloved disciple
did: he took her into his own home.
(Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger
The Legacy of John Paul II: Images and Memories p114)
All during his life, Pope John Paul II felt the guidance of Our Lady as his mother, especially on May 13, 1981, when he was shot in St. Peter’s Square. He said later that one hand fired the shot, but a motherly hand guided the bullet’s path—meaning Our Lady guided the bullet away from killing him. In thanksgiving, Pope John Paul II made a pilgrimage to Fatima the following year, and that bullet is now in the crown of the statue of Our Lady in Fatima.
In her role as our spiritual Mother, as our intercessor, Our Lady has one task—to bring us all closer to Jesus to get us to heaven. The Canaanite woman interceded before Jesus for her daughter, and Our Lady intercedes for you and wants you close to Jesus so you can get to heaven.
© Fr. Tommy Lane 2026
This homily was delivered in a parish in Ireland.
More Homilies for the Twentieth Sunday Year A
Persisting in prayer like the Canaanite woman and Saint Monica
Related: Homilies on faith during suffering
Homilies on prayer Homilies on healing
Second Reading: Homilies on Jesus the fulfillment of Judaism
stories about persistence
Scripture commentary: Jesus’ ministry to those on the margins