For Further Study
The Early Church Fathers on Intercession of Saints in heaven (Free)
Books - Any Friend of God's Is a Friend of Mine by Patrick Madrid.
CD - Friends in High Places by Tim Staples
No confusion at all...
To pray means to ask, not to worship. We do not pray to the saints instead of God. We pray to God and ask that the saints pray for and with us
Problem is, we know that your statement is not true...We have posted numerous Catholic repetitious prayers from Catholic sites on the internet that show the prayers...And some of them are from your popes...
You ask saints to perform miracles...Without the aid of God...You guys even plant graven images of the saints in the ground to help with your real estate sales...You carry them dangling off your car mirrors for the same reasons others use talismen...
Many of you plant graven images of Mary in bathtubs and put those altars in your front yards...
Why would you deny it??? The proof is everywhere...
Mary receives special honor because she, who once cared for the physical body of Christ, now cares, through her intercession, for the mystical body of Christ (the Church). Devotion to Mary differs, just as devotion to family differs, from devotion to God. In no way does it imply equality with God. Even the Protestant reformers saw this as being consistent with Scripture.
Oh c'mon...There aren't any Reformers who thought your religion's view of Jesus' mother was consistent with scripture...It's nowhere to be found in scripture...
Hebrews 4:14 Seeing then that we have a great high priest, that is passed into the heavens, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold fast [our] profession.
Hebrews 4:15 For we have not an high priest which cannot be touched with the feeling of our infirmities; but was in all points tempted like as [we are, yet] without sin.
Hebrews 4:16 Let us therefore come boldly unto the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy, and find grace to help in time of need.
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Even if saints did hear and respond to prayers, which they do not, there is absolutely no need to come to The Father by any means but directly through The Son. God is not too busy, nor limited in any way as to hearing or being able to respond to our prayers. Nor is He lacking in any way in compassion towards us. It is He who gave up His own life for us, dying a tortuous death on the cross because of His vast and immeasurable love and compassion for us poor, lost humans. He is fully able to relate to us as humans. He understands what it is like to be tempted.
Since we can go to The King directly it would not be wise to go to an underling, especially when He has let us know that there is no other mediator but Himself, who is both man and God, so thereby He is our one and only and perfect mediator. I cannot imagine attempting to pray to a saint when I have Almighty God's full and loving ear at any given time.
Prayer is God's way of having loving communion with us. He wants us to call out to Him. Prayer builds our relationship with Him and build our faith in Him. He is the one with whom we have to do.
To pray means to ask, not to worship.
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My artificial knee became infected and had to be removed. After many weeks of IV antibiotics I had a new one placed three weeks ago. I asked my friends and family ( some of them Catholic) to pray for me. I did this by asking them once in a simple straight forward manner using one sentence only.
Please, very respectfully, can you see why Protestants would confuse Catholic practices regarding saints and Mary with worship?