Thanks for your thoughtful response. While I don't agree that there is any value in praying to saints - regardless of Catholic church teaching or early church quotes - I really wondered why you thought it had value. Thank you for sharing. I too believe we are encouraged to pray for one another... I just don't see any scriptural basis for praying to a dead saint... and I wondered if you knew of any I had overlooked.
And I wondered why you and others believed that saints already in heaven (as opposed to us physically alive saints) could hear you if you talked to them.
I wish you the best, AMPU
AMPU,
At the risk of getting into the whole generic Protestant versus Catholic thing, I need to ask you how you can simply disregard the views of many of the great early and holy Saints from the earliest days of the Church?
I mean, there is quote after quote from some very well known and respected Saints (by both Protestants and Catholics) indicating they believed the Saints in heaven can hear us, can pray for us, and thus can help us. You simply ignore what they say, sweeping away with the "regardless of Catholic church teaching or early church quotes". This is what they BELIEVED. Were they all misled? Were they all wrong and you right? My friend, I have a hard time believing you would take that position.
I am not a great theologian as many of you are on this forum, but I am baffled how one can simply pretend or ignore what was written by those in the earliest years of the Church just because it does not match theology that someone developed 15 or 16 centries later. The people who developed and passed down many of these teachings were people who sat at the feet of Jesus. Who are we to say that they did not know as much as we know?
Thanks for the civil discourse on this. Usually these threads quickly degenerate into uncivil discussion.
P2