In heaven how much knowledge will we have of our relatives and friends here on earth? Will we be able to follow their lives? Are we able to intercede before the throne of God for them and their needs?
What I wonder is, when you enter heaven you enter eternity so things are no longer ordered in space and time the way they are in our earthly life. So if we enter heaven, and thus eternity, will all those who are destined to get to heaven not already be there as well, since it is eternal and outside of time? And if not, surely the waiting period from when we enter heaven to the time our loved ones get there would be infinitesimally short, in the grand scheme of things?
I read somewhere that a person in purgatory can “see” us when we pray for them. They know it. Really, the Communion of Saints is a mystery to me.
heaven is outside Time so I think they can even gaze upon relatives which will exist many generations from now
This is such an interesting question and heaven is such a mystery. One person's opinion on this is I suppose as good as another's, but my own answer would be , it depends. If a person who dies and is raised to the Altars of the Church as a saint then yes of course they can intercede. Some saints more than others and each saints appears to have a particular domain they are very good at. That they have been given a particular job or power to help out on. Other saints are so powerful they appear good for just about anything. Some saints like, say St Philomena appear to me to have a real hunger to help out. As for those who are not declared saints but we have good reason to expect to be in heaven. My own guess would be that for a fixed period after their death they are permitted to help out. Maybe a year or so after their deaths. But souls in heaven aren't like flowers siting in the sun, they have their own Eternal tasks and vocations to be getting on with. If the Church opens the doors through declaring them saints it is different they get on with it. But there is no harm in asking ,I suppose. But as a general rule I would stick with the saints.
We keep thinking we choose the saints, but usually I think it is the saints who choose us. A for instance what part did we play in choosing our Patron Saint at our baptism? None. I recall a few years back my schedule had me heading down to St Patrick's in the city centre for 1 pm mass. I did not know it but the parish had a great devotion to St Anthony of Padua and had a first class relic and shrine. They used to pull the relic out on Tuesdays, St Anthony's day and bless with the relic after mass. This drew my curiousity and one day, passing the little side shrine I stopped to pray. There was the most immediate overwhelming beautiful aroma of flowers. No flowers at the shrine, no ladies near. The fragrance went on for a a month or two every time at mass and often at the shrine. Naturally I was an addict. Every since every time I see a statue of St Anthony I am like an addict,a fan and I can't get enough. But this was St Anthony's doing, not mine.
I had a cousin with cerebral palsy (who died in 2015 aged 14) who lost his father in 2007 due to a heart attack. I remember that months after his father's death, sometimes he would look at the wall and smile the same way he did when my late uncle talked and played with him. I think it was a spiritual visit, a kind of "window into eternity".
