Your Thoughts On Praying The Rosary, To Mary, And Other Saints

[LouisvilleFan]

[quote name='GodChaser' post='1281469' date='May 25 2007, 11:44 PM']I would never pray to anybody but God through the name of Jesus Christ.

He is all I need to get through the day.

Catholics overcomplicate things too much.[/quote]

The irony is that Catholicism looks that way at first, but you eventually find it to be very simple. In essence, every sacrament, rite, liturgy, prayer, and any other act of worship is centered on God's glory. The ultimate recipient of all prayers is Christ and God is the one who ultimately answers them. In praying to a saint, we are recognizing the work God did (and continues to do) through those people. It is all due to God's grace, just as much for a saint in Heaven as it is for us on earth.

I respect the strong desire by Evangelicals to remain focused on Christ and I certainly relate to those who look at Catholicism and Orthodoxy and see a lack of such focus. But I don't think prayer to saints is any more a worship of the saint than Baptism is a worship of the water. Once you begin to look beneath the surface, you'll find that Catholicism is not only spiritually centered around Christ, but even physically centered around Him through the Eucharist.

Edited May 27, 2007 by LouisvilleFan