praying to saints

[infinitelord1]

why do catholics do this?

[philothea]

Because sometimes it helps.

[cmotherofpirl]

Since the saints are our family in heaven, why wouldn't we ask for a bit of help from time to time?

don't you ask relatives for assistance???

[phatcatholic]

[quote name='infinitelord1' date='Dec 6 2005, 07:07 PM']why do catholics do this?
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why do you ask anyone to pray for you? well, i think you do it b/c you believe that prayer is effective and so the more people you have praying for you, the better. catholics pray to saints b/c we believe that they are just as much a part of the body--and in many ways, MORESO a part of the body--then your neighbor here on earth. plus, we know that the prayers of the righteous availeth much, and the saints in heaven are perfectly righteous. knowing all this, why would we NOT pray to them?

note that as catholics, we should not be afraid to actually [i]pray to[/i] the saints. alot of times protestants get us all paranoid and so we feel like when we turn to St. Joseph or St. Michael we have to always make sure our prayers are theologicall precise: "Please St. Joseph, pray to the Lord for me." if you pray to saints like that, that's fine, but do not feel like you have to.

go ahead, ask them for things!! "St. Joseph, help me to be chaste," or "St. Michael, protect me from temptation." as long as you know that their power comes from their intercession to the Lord and that anything they are able to do for you comes from Him, you are perfectly allowed to pray in this way.

i hope that helps

pax christi,
phatcatholic

[jezic]

We pray to them because the whole Church prays.

The Church Militant
The Church Triumphant
The Church Suffering

We all constantly pray.

[dspen2005]

doesn't paul admonish the faithful to pray for the dead, as for intercessions? yes. and this can apply to and lead in the practice of praying through the Intercession of the saints to Christ. We always pray to Christ. The Saints are intercessors for us to HIm.

[franciscanheart]

well really praying to the saints wouldnt be such a good idea would it? i mean... we pray to them in the terms we know that as.... not worshiping them or being convinced that is their work alone that answers our prayers... but in speaking especially with other denominations would it not be necessary to make clear the distinction. i think if one were to say we prayed to the saints it would cause false conclusions in the minds of some of our protestant brothers and sisters.

[qfnol31]

With the Saints we have a connection that we really can't find anywhere else, and in a way even with Jesus.

The Saints (minus one) all sinned and picked themselves back up. This is something we can, we want, to relate to. We want the aid of people who fell and rose again, who have made it to our final goal, and it's reassuring to know they're behind us.

We like to pray to the Saints not only because we want their help, but because we trust them...we know they will not allow us to go astray when they're with us.

We believe in a Communion of Saints, and this allows us to interact with the Saints in Heaven. They look out for us, we turn to them. We talk to them as friends connected through something great.

The best friends are those whose roots are deep, and the Catholic Faith has the deepest roots - Truth - and this allows us to have a marvelous relationship with the Saints.

[Jake Huether]

Saint Paul tells us:

1 Corinthians 14:15
[quote]So what shall I do? [b]I will pray with my spirit, but I will also pray with my mind[/b]; I will sing with my spirit, but I will also sing with my mind.[/quote]

and

Ephesians 6:18
[quote][b]And pray in the Spirit on all occasions [/b]with all kinds of prayers and requests. With this in mind, be alert and [b]always keep on praying for all the saints[/b].[/quote]

And we know from Sacred Scripture that neither our spirit nor our mind dies if we are in Christ.

Romans 8:10
[quote]But if Christ is in you, your body is dead because of sin, yet your spirit is alive because of righteousness.[/quote]

Therefore, if we pray in spirit and in mind, and these two have nothing to do with the mortality of our body... Then the real question isn't why do Catholic pray to and for all saints (living and dead). The real question must be, why is it that non-Catholics do NOT pray to and for all saints?

It is easier to explain the Catholic position with Scripture, than to attempt to explain the non-Catholic position - how all of a sudden when we die, we are cut off from the body of Christ on eath.

This position also seems to conflict with the Resurrection of the body. Because then when we are given a new body we will be able to pray and converse with eachother once again... So the idea that when we die we cannot pray or recieve prayer, places a discontinuity in the Body.

I think there is a real problem with "out of sight, out of mind" for non-Catholics. This does't fit very well with a Christian's spiritual life though -since spirit's are immaterial and can never be seen anyway.

Maybe it's a "Catholics do it, so we shouldn't" issue...???

Who knows.

Hope this helps.

In Christ -

[Timothy]

I like to relate it to my indusrty. Since I'm in the service indusrty when I do a good job for someone I ask them to refer me their friends and family members. Same principal, it's kind of like asking them to refer your prayers to Christ.

Holy Mary, mother of God,
pray for us sinners
now and at the hour of our death.

[jezic]

Another example is like this.

Think of a wall that divides two rooms. There is one door in in. When one passes through the door they die.

God is on the other side and you can't hear him speaking very well. So you talk to the people on the other side of the wall because they are still close to it, and they relay your message with their own.

(not sure if this is the best example but it works)