Praying to the Saints

Anthony_Joseph · Newbie Joined: Dec 21, 2005 Posts: 11 Status: **Offline**

First, it is necessary to understand the purpose of praying to the saints. Simply put, Catholics and Orthodox pray to the saints to ask them to pray to God for us, just as I would ask any of my friends to pray for me. When Catholics speak of Mary or the saints as mediators, they do not mean that they are mediators in the same sense that Jesus Christ is a mediator. Jesus Christ is the bridge between God and sinful man by virtue of His passion and death on the cross, and His resurrection and ascension into Heaven. No one comes to the Father but by Him. By His perfect merits, He draws the faithful into his mediation by having us pray for one another (cf. 1 Tim 2:1-4). The faithful become mediators in a lesser, secondary sense. There is no basis to assume that this mediation ceases once a person has entered Heaven. Revelation 5:8 describes in Heaven "twenty-four elders [who] fell before the Lamb...with golden bowls of incense, which are the prayers of the saints". We also read in Hebrews 12:1 that "we are surrounded by a great cloud of witnesses".

Non-Catholics raise a few objections against praying to the saints. The first is that God forbids communication with the dead. In reality what God forbade was divination or necromancy: the practice of conjuring up the dead in order to gain secret knowledge, knowledge of the future, or unnatural powers (Deut 18:10-12). That is obviously quite different from asking St. Francis to pray for you.

If communication with those who have died is completely forbidden, what does one make of Christ speaking with Moses and Elijah during his Transfiguration (Matt 17:1-3)? (Technically, Elijah was assumed into Heaven and did not die (2 Kings 2:11), but Moses certainly did.) We may also take into account Christ's words in Mark 12:26-27: "And as for the dead being raised, have you not read in the book of Moses, in the passage about the bush, how God said to him, 'I am the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob'? He is not the God of the dead, but of the living; you are quite wrong." We see that the objection against praying to the saints because they are dead falls flat, because according to Christ they are not dead, but alive. But can they even hear us? If Revelation 5:8 describes the saints offering our prayers to Jesus like incense, they obviously must be able to hear us somehow if they offer our prayers up.

One may also ask, why not just pray to God? Well, if everyone consistently followed that principle, we would not be asking our friends and family to pray for us, because we could "just pray to God." Of course, that is ridiculous. Therefore, we are not prevented from praying to the saints to ask for their prayers. James 5:16 says "the prayers of a righteous man are powerful and effective." If that applies on earth, certainly it applies in Heaven, where the most righteous men in existence live. It makes perfect sense to ask for their prayers.

-Anthony_Joseph

Anonymous · Guest

Hi Anthony,
So you say it is OK to pray to saints. What about ordinary people? Is there a distinction between saints and ordinary people?

On the subject of prayers.....is there some special formula to use when asking people we believe to be in Heaven for help? I mean, some people say spontaneous prayers and are quite eloquent in doing so, and then there are people who recite memorized prayer. What is better?

Have a nice day. Cheryl Very Happy