Catholics?

Question

Now I went to Catholic school from 1st-6th grade. I went to mass (as was manditory) and was even an alter boy. Don't really remember much about the faith/teaching, I was raised in a Pentecostal church. So needles to say BIG difference LOL! But my question is, why do you all pray to Mary and other dead people/Saints? Take no offense please...Just wondering.

Thank you Father K for responding. And I kina see what you mean but then again not. I understand asking our brothers and sisters in christ to pray for us. But asking a dead person to pray for me kinda makes no sense...Again, please take no offense. Mary, as wonderful as she was can't do anything for me, she's dead. And so are those Saints. I kinda feel we should just go right to the source, Jesus. I do want to get a better understanding of this though.

Spiritro...
I will read this. Thank You!

DoudLawr...
I am just asking a question, after all this is Y!A. And it wasn't that I wasn't paying attention, I just really never understood it. Like I said I really went cause it was manditory. And what does my Pentecostal upbringing have to do with me asking a question about another denomination? I don't have to ask the Holy Spirit...I had a question for those that are Catholic which I thought would be better asked of Catholics. So if you weren't going to answer the question, you should have just kept going to the next question. JMO

I just want to thank you all for your wonderful responses. I really enjoyed reading them. And I do have a better understanding now of why Catholics pray/communicate to the Saints. From what you all have said, it does make sense. I will share your veiws with friends that I have been talking to this about. Again, Thanks.

Answer 1

You are right. It is better to ask a Catholic about Catholicism. But there are many people here who pose questions with the main intention of insulting Catholics. So it is difficult to differentiate a genuine curiosity from the usual prove-the-Catholic- wrong questions that come up all the time. Thats why Doug may have sounded a little edgy.

When Catholics pray to Mary and the other saints in Heaven they are not bypassing Christ, whom they acknowledge as the sole Mediator between God and man. They are going to Christ through Mary and the other saints. They are asking Mary and other saints to intercede for them before the throne of Christ in Heaven. "For the continual prayer of a just man availeth much." (James 5:16). How much more availing is the unceasing prayer of the sinless Mother of Our Lord Jesus Christ! St. Paul asked his fellow Christians to intercede for him: "Brethren, pray for us." (2 Thess. 3:1). And again: "I beseech you therefore, brethren, through our Lord Jesus Christ, and by the charity of the Holy Ghost, that you help me in your prayers for me to God . . ." (Rom. 15:30). Christ must particularly approve of our going to Him through Mary, His Blessed Mother, because He chose to come to us through her. And at Cana, He performed His first miracle after a word from His Mother. (John 2:2-11).

It is clear in Sacred Scripture that the saints in Heaven will intercede for us before the throne of Christ if they are petitioned in prayer (Apoc. or Rev. 8:3-4), and it is clear in the records of primitive Christianity that the first Christians eagerly sought their intercession. Wrote St. John Chrysostom in the fourth century: "When thou perceivest that God is chastening thee, fly not to His enemies, but to His friends, the martyrs, the saints, and those who were pleasing to Him, and who have great power." If the saints have such power with God, how much more His own Mother.

Hope you understand better. These saints are not dead for Catholics but alive and well before the throne of God, glad to be of assistance to their friends on earth by their prayers and intercession.

Answer 2

Before Jesus Christ died for our sins and opened the gates of heaven there were no saints in heaven. Therefore there are no Old Testament writings that would mention them.

Very few of the new Christians died before most of the New Testament was written. Therefore there is little in the Bible about asking saints to pray for us.

However the last book of the Bible does talk about the saints in heaven praying.

Revelation 5:8: Each of the elders held a harp and gold bowls filled with incense, which are the prayers of the holy ones.

Revelation 8:3-4: He was given a great quantity of incense to offer, along with the prayers of all the holy ones, on the gold altar that was before the throne. The smoke of the incense along with the prayers of the holy ones went up before God from the hand of the angel.

The Holy Spirit guided the early Church in many things not explained in the Bible including how does the Body of Christ (believers) living on Earth relate to the Body of Christ (saints) living in heaven. We are still one Body.

Catholics share the belief in the Communion of Saints with many other Christians, including the Eastern Orthodox, Anglican, Episcopal, and Methodist 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 living here on earth to pray for you. Or, you may also ask the Blessed Virgin Mary, Saint Andrew, or your deceased grandmother living in heaven to pray for you.

Prayer to saints in heaven is simple communication, not worship.

And prayer to the saints is optional not required.

With love in Christ.

Answer 3

We don't. We ask them (Mary, Saints, all brothers and sisters in Christ) to pray for us.

Just like I might ask you to pray for me.

St. Paul put "death" on the list of things that does not separate us from the love of Christ. What better people to ask to pray with us and for us than Jesus' own Holy Mother and His Friends?

Answer 4

Thanks for your question.

We believe that the saints are not dead, but alive in heaven with God. This is why we pray to them for help, asking them to pray for us. They are our family, just like our family here on earth; they just happen to be in heaven. And just like my family here, I can pray to those in heaven and ask them to pray for me.

God bless.

Answer 5

You obviously weren't paying attention for all those years. Pity!

You claim to be Pentecostal.

Why not ask the Holy Spirit to suitably enlighten you on the matter?

And please tell him that I sent you.

Answer 6

http://www.catholic.com/library/Praying_to_the_Saints.asp

Please read this link - people who make the charge that you are making very often have no idea what we really believe.

Peace.

Answer 7

I thought they were suppose to pray to God!!!