Here is my issue, and tonight my motive is not to start a war- but this is common to us Prots...
Why should we ask, in prayer, for Mary or any of the deceased saints to “pray for us sinners”?
Christ is the Intercessor, Intermediary, High Priest, etc.
His sacrifice purchased our redemption. I fail to see where prayer and homage to other lesser beings, who may or may not be in a conscious state ; ie.; “those who sleep in Christ” are in a position to help us sinners.
Why would I do that? You are not my enemy, but the Gospel leads me to question such doctrine/tradition.
Because the Catholic belief is that those who have died still love us on earth, still care about us, and are allowed by God to exercise that charity.
I’m not aware that any Christians deny that those on earth can pray for each other. Why is this NOT in conflict with the belief that only Jesus intercedes for us with the Father, while asking those who are in heaven to do the same thing, IS?
Aside from that question, there are, quite simply, countless occasions when the love and care of the blessed in Heaven has been made known.
My aunt Eileen died in 2010. A couple of months after her death, an old beau, and lifelong friend, Johnny C., aged 92, slipped and fell on ice behind his house, taking out the trash. He was unable to get up.
At that moment, he saw Eileen. She said, “Someone will help you.”
His wife, a woman with Alzheimer’s so advanced that she know longer knew who he was, saw him on the ice from the kitchen door. She went to the telephone, dialed 911, and got help.