A question for Catholics. Why pray to saints? Wouldn't god hear your prayers? Remember God is Omnipotent.?

Question

I am not trying to offend anyone, I just don't get it.
Thank you for your understanding.
God bless

Answer 1

I grew up Catholic...very Catholic. My uncle is A Jesuit Priest who is also a missionary with a lot of clout in the H.R.C.C. My godmother is a cloistered nun in the Little Sisters Of the Poor Claire monastary. I attended Catholic school until the 8th grade. I even crowned Mary in a May Procession.
The bible states clearly "For there is one God, and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus" I Tim. 2:5
The bible has all the answers. Why waste your time praying to the dead...the Bible does forbid that practice too. (Isa. 8:19), when as a child of God you can go directly to your heavenly Father?
As far as the reference to the prayers of the saint mentioned above in the Book of Revelation...the saints are born again christians, durring the tribulation, not dead ones. Do a study on "saints" the bible will show you the definition. The book of Revelation is for the tribulation saints dispensationally.

Answer 2

The question should be for Orthodox, Anglican, and others as well...

God does, of course hear our prayers. The thing is, He also hears others' prayers. Just as we might ask someone living to pray to God for us, especially if we know that the person who will be praying for us is holy, close to God, and someone who prays "from the heart", so we also ask the prayers of our holy fathers who have departed this life before us. These are men and women who have shown themselves, like Abraham, to be "friends of God".

What allows us to pray to Saints who have departed is that, even though we be separated by death, we are in fact not truly separated, because God is not the God of the dead but of the living. The Saints are alive in Christ and so we are still spiritually united to them as brothers and sisters in love and faith. Whether on earth or in Heaven, the Church remains the Church and takes care of Her own.

Protestants would perhaps find it helpful to reread the Book of Revelation(chapt 5), in which an image is described of the Saints in heaven, offering up incense(prayers) on behalf of the Church militant (the Church still in the world). The intercession of the Saints is a BIBLICAL teaching.

God bless you as well.

Answer 3

Saints are people that we "know" are in Heaven. These people will, as we are told, pray for us to God, so asking a saint to pray for us (which we ask them to do with us, while we still pray to God), is now someone else praying. Just like a democracy, the more people that you have making noise about something, the better chance (hopefully) we have of getting heard and answered.

Answer 4

Those are intercessory prayers...asking for their intercessions as God's Saints. They DO believe in praying directly to Jesus...but they also believe in "calling upon the saints" to intercede...both saints on earth and those that have gone onto heaven..it's never wrong in their opinion to ask others to pray for us...those we trust and respect here on earth..and those that lived ideal lives and they believe to be in the Heavens now. It's how the Catholics see it scriptually (one example of many):

"And when he had taken the scroll, the four living creatures and the twenty-four elders fell down before the Lamb, each holding a harp, and with golden bowls full of incense, which are the prayers of the saints" (Rev. 5:8).

They believe that the verse: Why waste your time praying to the dead... (Isa. 8:19) is referring to the occult ....but many fundamenatlist protesants take it literally. Catholics do not see those in heaven as "dead". They see them as alive and well with Christ. Protesants do as well until you get to that verse...(and I realize I'm generalizing..sorry)

I'm neither a Catholic or a Protesant....(I don't believe in organized religion)...Though I do believe that Christ was the Messiah....but was raised in part in both a Catholic and a Protesant church and have been schooled in both....my own take on all of this is far away from anything posted here.. lol...which is why I do not go to either a Catholic or a Protesant church.

Answer 5

see first answer

And also, we know God is omnipitent. We could just say that, go on with our lives and never pray because God knows what we need. But God allows us to pray or not pray for eachother, and to help others through our prayers. Asking for intercession from saints is just like getting a whole bunch of people together for a prayer group, or vigil. God likes, and wants us to include eachother and Him in our everyday lives, prayers, and conversations. He wants to personally know us, even though he allready knows all about us because he is Omnipitent.

(Oh, and by the way, saints are not God or Goddesses, they are actually real people, who lived and died in the service of Christ, and who showed to be so holy and close to God that we know that they are in heaven due to what they did on earth while they were living and after they died.)

Answer 6

Catholics share the belief in the Communion of Saints with many other Christians, including the Eastern Orthodox, Anglican, and Episcopal Churches.

The Communion of Saints is the belief where all saints are intimately related in the Body of Christ, a family. When you die and go to heaven, you do not leave this family.

Everyone in heaven or on their way to heaven are saints, you, me, my deceased grandmother, Mary the mother of Jesus, and Mother Teresa.

As part of this family, you may ask your family and friends here on earth to pray for you. Or, you may also ask the Blessed Virgin Mary, Saint Andrew, or your deceased grandmother in heaven to pray for you.

With love in Christ.

Answer 7

I am not Catholic, however....although God/Goddess does hear all prayers, they do not necessarily answer to them all when there are others who can well do the job...ie, Angels or your spirit guide...yes, saints included, but sainthood is a human title, and does not exist on the Homefront, since all souls are equal there...praying to saints therefore, gets you an angel or the Goddess who answers.

Answer 8

Catholics do not pray to saints, this is a big mis-conception.

We do at times ask saints to intercede for us to God, just like if I were asking you to pray for me, I am not praying to you, but asking for your help.

We do pray to God in our own words as well, which is another mis-conception.

I take no offense to your question, it is an honest question, thanks for asking!

There is more about the beliefs of Catholics at the Below web-sights.

God Bless you as well!

Answer 9

thanks for this question. I surely couldn't believe that someone stated that throughout their answer. besides i recognize God hears my prayers and that i'm Catholic. What kills me is they (Protestants which contains Fundamentalist/Evangelical, "Born back") sorts ask for human beings to wish for them that is asking intercession yet of guy at the same time as us Catholics do an similar ingredient yet with the saints and the Blessed mom.

Answer 10

First of all - Saints are just Gods and Goddesses that were stolen from Pagan Religions for propaganda in order to get more people to convert to Chrisitanity a long time ago.

Secondly, the reason Catholics pray to Saints is because they are supposedly "closer to God". This is the same reason they pray to Mary.

But don't be confused - Catholics do not worship Mary nor do they worship Saints. They strictly pray to them to ask them for guidence and they ask Mary/Saints to pray for them.

For example, read this Catholic prayer to Mary called the "Hail Mary":

"Hail Mary, full of grace, the lord is with you. Blessed are you among women and blessed is the fruit of thy womb, Jesus.

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

Amen."

If you notice, this prayer does not offer worship to Mary, but it asks her to pray for sinners and honors her as the Mother of God.

It's the same deal with the Saint. Their are patron Saints for different things (much as there were different Gods and Goddesses for different aspects of the world such as earth, wind, water, etc.)

This is a common Catholic prayer to St. Anthony for when you lose something:

"Something is lost and cannot be found, please ask Saint Anthony to bring it around."
This prayer is geared more toward children to ask the Saint(s) for assistance.

They do believe God will hear their prayer, but they think of Saints similar to the way you may think of Angels. They are there for guidence and asssistance.