what is the reason and why do catholics pray to saints?

Question

ok, so i'm catholic but i don't really know why we do the things we do. my friend asked me the other day why we pray to saints. i told her that we don't actually pray to saints, but with them. we ask them for help. each saint has their own specialty (in a way) that we can pray for. my friend understood that, but than asked why. because once your in heaven, you don't care about earth anymore. you don't remember it nor can you have a connection from heaven-to-earth. only God and Jesus can do that. so how can we pray to/with the saints if they can't even hear us?

Answer 1

Whoever you pray to is dead. The bible says they are unconscious and do nothing. They cannot listen, see, or do anything. They are dead. Lifeless. The ONLY one who hears prayers is Jehovah God. Jesus says he is like the secretary or the door to God...it has to go through him but he does not hear or answer prayer.
Catholics who pray to statues or saints are breaking the first commandment that says have no other gods before me nor bow down to them nor be induced to serve them.
Idolaters worship other things instead of God.
God condemns idol worship.
But you can quit...get away from false religion. The scriptures say an elder should be the husband of one wife...yet the priests and nuns are forbidden to marry...opening them up to all sorts of immorality.
Catholics are forbidden certain foods on certain days. But God says all food is good when you give thanks.
Also to repeat prayers like hail Mary over and over does not please God...he wants your heartfelt feelings shared with him as often as you can.

Answer 2

Saint's help or Mary's help is only a man-made doctrine of the Catholic Church and nowhere in the Bible is it founded. When someone in the New Testament was out of wine at a wedding, Mary said, "whatever He (Jesus) tells you, do it." It's still true. She was the Mother of Jesus the man, Christ's body on the earth, but she IS nor ever has been the "Mother of God". She has NO position in the God-head and the ONLY way to the Father is by Jesus.., not His earthly mother. She is and was blessed among women and deserves the honor due her, but she is NOT supernatural anymore than WE. She also did not STAY a virgin since she and Joseph had children from their marriage.
No saint has "pull" with God and especially AFTER death. Get a living godly person to pray in agreement with you for your needs to be met, "where two of you ON EARTH..,etc." Matthew 18:19. To be absent from the body is to be present with the Lord. Upon death, our spirit, (if born-again) goes to be where Jesus is and our body stays in the grave until Jesus shouts from "the air" and our bodies are changed into a "glorified body" and we re-claim it resurrected and remain with Jesus, just as He IS.., a glorified body person.

Answer 3

The Catholic Church has removed many lines from the Bible. One of them is the Second Commandment that requires us to pray to ONLY GOD and nobody else. Not to pray to anyone in the sky, on land, or in the water. They then took the tenth Commandment and split it into two Commandments.
If you have read the Bible you would know that a lot of people want to pray to something they can see, against God's orders. So the Catholic church may have done this to give them an "image" or several.
I have had local Catholics tell me they even pray to their dead parents. Yet the Bible says we will stay in the ground until Jesus returns.

Answer 4

I agree completely with Imacatholic, however, to respond to what you state, "once your in heaven, you don't care about earth anymore" seems very mistaken. The book of revelations shows that there is a great multitude of holy ones in heaven interceding for us. Also, there is the matter of the resurrection of the body. If we have a body, we will have to have an earth. Some protestants mistakingly believe that those who die are "asleep" as in not aware. I suggest you go to a good catholic aplogetics website to at least get the catholic position on these things.

www.catholic.com

Answer 5

Ok, here goes...

First, Saints are not dead spiritually (granted their earthly bodies have died)

Mar 12:26 "But regarding the fact that the dead rise again, have you not read in the book of Moses, in the passage about the burning bush, how God spoke to him, saying, 'I AM THE GOD OF ABRAHAM, AND THE GOD OF ISAAC, and the God of Jacob'?
Mar 12:27 "He is not the God of the dead, but of the living; you are greatly mistaken."

Second...

When Christians ask each other to pray for them are we not doing the same thing?

Jas 5:16 Therefore, confess your sins to one another, and pray for one another so that you may be healed. The effective prayer of a righteous man can accomplish much. (prayers of a righteous man can accompplish much)

Just a couple of thoughts...

Answer 6

*Is Catholic*

You know the line in the Apostles Creed..

I believe in the communon of saints.

That is the reason why we pray to the saints, because it is in the creed and the creed is the basic understanding of what Christianity is.

Check it out in the Catechism.

But let me quote from the wonderful Fr. Hardon:
Communion of Saints. The Church founded by Christ has three levels of existence. She is the Church Militant on earth, the Church Suffering in purgatory, and the Church Triumphant in heaven. After the last day, there will be only the Church Triumphant in heavenly glory.

It is understood that there is communication among these three levels of the Mystical Body. Those on earth invoke the saints in heaven and pray for the souls in purgatory. Those in heaven pray for the Church Militant and the Church Suffering; they obtain graces for us on earth and an alleviation of suffering for the poor souls. Those in purgatory can invoke the saints on high and pray for us struggling with the world, the flesh, and the evil spirit.

We might, then, describe the Communion of Saints as the unity and cooperation of the whole Church. Together, we all form one Mystical Body. We share our merits and prayers with one another for the greater glory of God and the upbuilding of Christ’s Body which is His Church.

Answer 7

I don't know where your friend got that balderdash about saints in heaven not caring about us anymore.

Remember, Jesus said, "I am the vine. You are the branches." The baptized are ALL part of Christ, wherever situate, on earth, in heaven or in purgatory.

The old style was to call them, the Church Militant (that's us), the Church Suffering (that's the souls being purified for heaven) and the Church Triumphant (the saints).

We're all one family in Christ. Families help one another; no matter what those idiot sitcoms try to convince you. It AIN'T so for loving families and the family of God's beloved children is a loving family.

The saints are human beings, they care about us. St. Therese of Lisieux even said, "I will spend my heaven doing good on earth."

We talk to them. We ask their help, presumably because we recognize that they know what's to be done better than we do and we want to take advantage of their greater insight and wisdom.

They bend God's ear for us out of love for the still incarnate members of their family.

And what kind of loving Father would deliberately cut off communications between parts of His family just because they were no longer in the same place?

Tell your friend that saints are our friends (in high places, no less) and we like to stay in touch with our friends and they like to stay in touch with us.

Answer 8

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, Mother Teresa and Pope John Paul II.

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.

Asking others to pray for you whether your loved ones on Earth or your loved ones in heaven is always optional.

For more information, see the Catechism of the Catholic Church, section 946 and following: http://www.usccb.org/catechism/text/pt1sect2chpt3art9p5.htm#946

With love in Christ.

Answer 9

Just Catholic traditions carried over from the Romans who prayed to many different Gods. The Catholics merely modified the system to theirs when they started declaring Sainthood on those who they considered Godly.

Answer 10

Talk to your priest.

If you want a ton of misinformation. Keep the rudder of your religious journey steered on Yahoo.

If you want real answers. Ask your priest. I have never asked a priest a question without getting a reasonable, intelligent and acceptable answer.

And I've asked some pretty pointed questions too.