Posted on 01/23/2010 2:03:42 PM PST by La Enchiladita
And the floor of hell is paved with the skulls of Bishops.
No, Catholics don’t worship saints. To pray to God is worship, because by doing so you are placing your will in the service of God. (That’s what it means to worship.)
To “pray” is old English for “request.” You’ll recall how Brits are always saying, “Prithee?” Prithee is a contraction of “Pray, thee.” Also, (at least in Virginia; perhaps some courts have modernized their language) a request to a court is referred to as a prayer! (An “appeal” is a “prayer” to a higher court.)
At issue, then, whether a prayer is idolatrous, is the content. Because Protestants pray only to God, “pray,” to a modern Protestant, means a form of worship. But what are Catholics doing when they “pray” to a saint?
The most common prayer to a saint is the “Hail Mary.” It has two parts: a biblical citation, offering a basis why Mary is “safe” to pray to. And then the prayer part: “Pray for us now, and at the hour of our death.”
That’s right! The “Hail Mary” is a request that Mary join us in our subsequent prayers to God.
“But can’t we pray ourselves?” object many. The bible says that prayers are answered, “when two or more are gathered in my name.” The Church commends many prayers for its members when they can be gathered in the Lord’s name: The Sacred Mass, the Liturgy of the Hours, and the Stations of the Cross are the most favored. You’ll notice that the prayers in these are made directly to God... they are worship in and of themselves.
So what do we do when we’re alone, then? The Christian is never alone. He is accompanied at all time by the Church Triumphant, that portion of the Communion of the Saints consisting of those who have already passed (as opposed to the Church Militant, which are those on Earth.) So when he wants to join his prayer to another, he needs only to invoke the fellowship of the Church Triumphant, to join him in prayer.
But we don’t just seek out the prayers of anyone who has died. Those who are not in Heaven are either in purgatory, where they are insensate to our prayers and in need to be prayed for, not to, or in Hell, where there will is in opposition to God.
Precisely because Catholics wish to avoid the sins of idolatry or blasphemy, then, they request the prayers only of those they can have certitude are in Heaven. For this reason, the church maintains a canon of those it can be certain are in Heaven. Through these “Saints,” who number a small fraction of total saints, God has worked miracles which have been affirmed by the Church, so that we may know their will is joined with God’s.
So, no, using a Protestant’s understanding of the word, “pray,” Catholics do not pray to saints. But you will see reference in Catholic literature of praying to someone, which is why Catholics need to be very clear when they deny worshiping saints.
>> Saints aren’t perfect. <<
Just to clarify: While they walk the Earth, saints aren’t perfect. They are safe to invoke in our prayers because while they are in Heaven, they are perfected, having been washed pure in the blood of the lamb.
Ever work in a deli? At the end of the day, there is some nasty meat gunk which gets stuck inside the slicer which the quick washes of the blade doesn’t get each time, but which is also harmless because it comes in contact with neither the blade, the meat, or anything which touches the meat. Just at the end of the day, it’s hard and nasty.
That’s Bolognite.
I’m going to try to pull up that mental image any time I think I might want to eat anything. Then, when I get to Weight Watchers on Thursday, I will find myself *much* thinner.
*Shudder*
Is Bolognite a sacramental?
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