SERIOUS ANSWERS ONLY PLEASE. I have been seeing some answers on here that deny the Catholics pray to saints. I was raised a Catholic and I know that in times past it was commmon to pray to Mary. There is a patron saint for lost things, for travel, for animals (pets), etc. You pray with the mention of Peter, "the first apostolic pope". The list could go on.
I want to know when --- by decree -- the Catholic church quit praying to saints. Did this actually happen or is it something that has "gone underground".
Don't give me the answer that you personally do not pray to saints.
That is good if you don't, however we are talking about the "church organization" not the individuals.
2006-09-01 02:34:47 · 10 answers · asked by Anonymous in Society & Culture ➔ Religion & Spirituality
Why do you even try to communicate with them?
They are Dead!
Eccl 9: 5. For the living know that they shall die: but the dead know not any thing, neither have they any more a reward; for the memory of them is forgotten.
6. Also their love, and their hatred, and their envy, is now perished; neither have they any more a portion for ever in any thing that is done under the sun.
2006-09-01 02:45:49 · update #1
angelsgurl ... you jsut typed a prayer to a saint... Don't telll me she is not a saint, because then it would mean you thought she was a god and that is bad.
2006-09-01 02:47:57 · update #2
It would be more accurate to say Catholics offer prayers of "petition" to Mary and the Saints. The phrase "praying to", when taken disingenously, implies a violation of the First Commandment.
The Church has not, in any way, shape, or form, stopped the tradition of praying to Mary and/or the Saints.
2006-09-01 02:40:31 · answer #1 · answered by Daver 7 · 6⤊ 0⤋
To the best of my knowledge (I'm a practicing Catholic) the Church still encourages devotion to saints. It's actually a part of the prayers during the Mass, and there are a number of devotions specific to certain saints (St. Jude being the most obvious one.)
At one time the Church did issue a decree that St. Christopher was no longer considered a valid saint (the reasons escape me) but I've never heard that saints in general were out of favor.
Remember, the Church still sanctions All Saints Day as a holy day of obligation on November 1st, so I guess saints haven't been outlawed.
2006-09-01 02:44:50 · answer #2 · answered by nudie chick 6 · 3⤊ 1⤋
Catholics DO pray to saints. The prayers we pray to saints are prayers that ask them to pray to God on our behalf when we pray to God. One way you can look at it is that we ask saints to pray WITH us whe we pray to God.
There are some people who only see prayer as worship. Others think that if we say we pray to saints, then we are worshipping them. Some Catholics will say that they pray WITH the saints instead of TO saints to avoid this misunderstanding.
No offense, but if you were raised catholic, you did not receive very good instruction. Just because we pray to the saints does not mean that we think of them as gods. The prayers we pray to the saints are not worship or adoration.
As far as saints being dead, are you denying that in Jesus Christ, we have everlasting life? One of the beliefs we profess at every Mass is our belief in teh communion of saints. This belief is that those who have died in a state of grace are still a part of the faith community in Heaven.
It is very sad indeed that you have wandered so far away from teh Catholic faith. Contact me if you wish to discuss the catholic faith.
2006-09-01 02:40:14 · answer #3 · answered by Sldgman 7 · 3⤊ 1⤋
the Catholic Church has never decreed any such thing. We are always allowed to ask our friends in heaven (saints) to pray WITH us TO God, we are asking for their prayers and intercession just as we might ask family or friends here on earth to pray for us. I mean if you would ask a mortal sinner here on earth to pray for you, why not ask someone already in the presence of God?
The bodies are dead but not the spirit which is what draws us to God
2006-09-01 02:53:06 · answer #4 · answered by tecvba 4 · 1⤊ 2⤋
Hail Mary, full of grace.
Our Lord is with thee.
Blessed art thou 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.
im catholic and i dont really know what to think except we (as in the whole church) dont worship saints.....
2006-09-01 02:43:48 · answer #5 · answered by Anonymous · 3⤊ 2⤋
well the only thing i can tell you is that i was raised a catholic, my mother still asks the saints to help her.. you see she told me that it's sort of like when i ask my father here for something and he does not answer,, she said don't it make you feel better that if you ask me (mother) a can get to your father easy-er. i then started to see the light... when dad says no i ask mother,, but i still ask my dad since he's the one with the yes or No's,, but its great that i have mom to intervene and helps out since she's closer to him..
2006-09-01 03:01:34 · answer #6 · answered by quitelovableman 4 · 0⤊ 2⤋
"If you believe in me, you shall live forever" - Jesus
"Whoever believes in me, He shall live even though He die" - Jesus
If Christ said whoever believed in Him shall live forever, certainly the saints are not dead.
Therefore, praying to saints does not mean speaking to the dead. Unless your doubt Christ's words.
Catholics pray to Saints because they are alive. It is just that the way that they are alive are different from those on earth. They are in heaven.
So, to those in Heaven, to communicate with them, we say we pray to them. Pray=Communicate.
So, angels are in heaven, therefore we "pray" to them.
Mary, the mother of Jesus is in Heaven, therefore we "pray" to her to ask her to intercede for us.
Pray as in the sense of speaking to them, to those who are living.
As for those alive on earth, we talk to them. We don't pray to them because they are not in Heaven.
Next why do we talk to those in Heaven instead of talking directly to God? Why is there a need?
Good question. So, by the understanding that speaking to GOD alone is sufficient, then why is there a need to communicate with our fellow people on earth? Why not only speak to God and no one else?
You see, you must not confused between worship and speaking (praying) to God.
We speak so that we get things done. So that we get our message across to get something. It is the same as praying to those other living people in heaven.
For example, for us to feel understood, we speak to express ourselves in our everyday lives. (to get something)
I think that's why people pray to Saints.
These are my reasonings of why I pray to Saints as a Catholic. :)
2006-09-01 09:45:38 · answer #7 · answered by frankenstein3000 3 · 0⤊ 2⤋
--Is Catholic--
Catholics DO pray to saints. The Church, at daily mass, prays to saints.
From a treatise against Faustus by Saint Augustine (Book 20 Ch 21), this text is the reading for the Office of the Readings for the feast of Pope St. Damasus, Dec. 11. The text below is taken from the Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers.
It is true that Christians pay religious honor to the memory of the martyrs, both to excite us to imitate them and to obtain a share in their merits, and the assistance of their prayers. But we build altars not to any martyr, but to the God of martyrs, although it is to the memory of the martyrs.
No Bishop officiating at the altar in the saints' burying-place ever says, "We bring an offering to thee, O Peter! or O Paul! or O Cyprian!" The offering is made to God, who gave the crown of martyrdom, while it is in memory of those thus crowned. The emotion is increased by the associations of the place, and love is excited both towards those who are our examples, and towards Him by whose help we may follow such examples. We regard the martyrs with the same affectionate intimacy that we feel towards holy men of God in this life, when we know that their hearts are prepared to endure the same suffering for the truth of the Gospel. There is more devotion in our feeling towards the martyrs, because we know that their conflict is over; and we can speak with greater confidence in praise of those already victors in heaven, than of those still combating here.
What is properly divine worship, which the Greeks call latria, and for which there is no word in Latin, both in doctrine and in practice, we give only to God. To this worship belongs the offering of sacrifices; as we see in the word idolatry, which means the giving of this worship to idols. Accordingly we never offer, or require any one to offer, sacrifice to a martyr, or to a holy soul, or to any angel. Any one falling into this error is instructed by doctrine, either in the way of correction or of caution. For holy beings themselves, whether saints or angels, refuse to accept what they know to be due to God alone.
We see this in Paul and Barnabas, when the men of Lycaonia wished to sacrifice to them as gods, on account of the miracles they performed. They rent their clothes, and restrained the people, crying out to them, and persuading them that they were not gods. We see it also in the angels, as we read in the Apocalypse that an angel would not allow himself to be worshiped, and said to his worshiper, "I am thy fellow-servant, and of thy brethren."
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Additionally, saints are not dead. If you have died in Christ, you are quite alive and well for Christ is the source of all life. When you talk about the dead and heaven, the way many Protestants talk about such things, is the descriptions of the ancient pagan depictions of the afterlife. You either consider the dead to be in dark abodes, blind and in darkness, soul sleep as some call it, which is ancient Mesopotamian, or you speak of an earthly paradise the Elysian Fields, late Greco-Roman thought. Neither of these is what is found in scripture or in the thoughts of early Christianity.
We are surrounded by a cloud of witnesses who are alive and well. The barrier of death has been breached and death has lost its sting for Christ has conquered. Every time you deny that we can pray to the saints, or say that they are dead and blind you deny that Christ has conquered. You say that Christ is not victorious and has not destroyed the hold of the devil and of death. Let me say to you, that Christ has conquered and has thrown down the dividing wall and has lead his people into his Father's house where there is life.
2006-09-01 08:03:54 · answer #8 · answered by Liet Kynes 5 · 0⤊ 2⤋
They still do especially in Mexico..
2006-09-01 02:38:20 · answer #9 · answered by Anonymous · 2⤊ 1⤋
.I WAS RAISED A CATHOLIC AND AS FAR AS I AM CONCERNED THEY ARE THE BIGGEST HYPOCRITES I EVER CAME ACROSS IN MY ENTIRE LIVE. SO NEEDLESS TO SAY I DO NOT BELIEVE ANYTHING THAT IS WRITTEN IN THE BIBLE
2006-09-01 02:39:21 · answer #10 · answered by Anonymous · 1⤊ 4⤋