Three Things You're Probably Getting Wrong about Praying to the Saints

Shameless popery ^ | April 20, 2015

[metmom]

What an awesome concept that Jesus HIMSELF and even the Holy Spirit HIMSELF are interceding for us according to the will of God.

Honestly what more could you want and need?

I can’t help but wonder what Catholics think the saints are going to do for them that God Himself won ‘t. It’s not like I’d expect any saint to answer a prayer contrary to God’s will.

[St_Thomas_Aquinas]

Why would I want to go to an underling?

Because we are all part of the Body of Christ. Our relationship with God is "horizontal" as well as "vertical," so prayers go horizontally and vertically.

1 Tim 2:1

I urge you, first of all, to pray for all people. Ask God to help them; intercede on their behalf, and give thanks for them.

Matthew 5:44

"But I say to you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you,

The Body of Christ on earth, the Church Militant, is united to the Body of Christ in Heaven, the Church Triumphant. Nothing can separate us from the love of God.

Rev. 5:8

And when he had taken it, the four living creatures and the twenty-four elders fell down before the Lamb. Each one had a harp and they were holding golden bowls full of incense, which are the prayers of God's people.

We pray for each other on earth, we ask the saints in heaven to pray for us, and the saints in heaven present our prayers to God.

[Biggirl]

AMEN!

The Bible passages CONFIRM it!

[Iscool]

In that sense, you pray to people here on earth every day.

This was clearer in, say, Shakespeare's day, when "pray" is commonly used by a person making a request:

"I pray you, do not fall in love with me, for I am falser than vows made in wine."

You posted the xtra word that makes all the difference...You or thee...I pray thee, or you...That's a request...Whey you pray (to), it is worship...

[Mrs. Don-o]

You believe in the Communion of Saints, don't you?

2 Corinthians 1:11
"You help us with prayer, so that thanks may be given by many on our behalf for the gift granted us through the prayers of many."

James 5:16
"Therefore, pray for one another, that you may be healed. The fervent prayer of a righteous person is very powerful."

1 Peter 3:12
"For the eyes of the Lord are on the righteous and his ears turned to their prayer, but the face of the Lord is against evildoers."

Scripture itself strongly recommends intercessory prayer. The Lord is our intercessor: that's why all of us, the saints on earth and the saints who have gone on before us, pray for one another. Because we are one in Christ: because we are members of His Body.

If I may ask: will you pray for me, Gamecock?

[Biggirl]

The beautiful thing about it is that it is called the communion of the saints.

[Mrs. Don-o]

Intercessory prayer via the saints is not worship, iscool. You and I both understand that God alone is to be adored.

James 5:16 "Therefore, pray for one another, that you may be healed. The fervent prayer of a righteous person is very powerful."

Do you think prayer gets LESS powerful when the righteous person is in heaven?

[Resettozero]

Because we are all part of the Body of Christ.

Wishful thinking but untrue.

Only born-again-of-the-Spirit believers in Lord Jesus Christ are members of the Body of Christ and are redeemed in Christ Himself.

No other person, no unbeliever that Jesus of Nazareth alone is their Savior, will see the Kingdom of God, as Jesus told Nicodemus.

[Alex Murphy]

I can’t help but wonder what Catholics think the saints are going to do for them that God Himself won‘t. It’s not like I’d expect any saint to answer a prayer contrary to God’s will

Maybe they're the Catholic version of special interest lobbyists.

[ealgeone]

The selected application of Sola Scriptura in your comment exposes its shortcoming. Not having an injunction or example in the Protestant Bible is insufficient to declare something true or false. There are no injunctions or examples of other truths you likely take for granted in the Protestant Bible either, principal among them Sola Scriptura itself, nor the Canon, with the last book in said Bible identifying all the preceding books to be included in said Bible.

I sure hope you're not an attorney in life.

[St_Thomas_Aquinas]

I can’t help but wonder what Catholics think the saints are going to do for them that God Himself won‘t.

This is not what the Church teaches.

This is what you think Catholics believe.

We ask the saints to pray for us because God wills us to pray for each other --to intercede for each other. Because we are all part of the Body of Christ.

Intercessory prayer is mentioned many times in Scripture.

2 Corinthians 1:11

you also joining in helping us through your prayers, so that thanks may be given by many persons on our behalf for the favor bestowed on us through the prayers of many.

Philippians 1:19

for I know that this will turn out for my deliverance through your prayers and the provision of the Spirit of Jesus Christ,

Psalms 122:6

Pray for the peace of Jerusalem: "May they prosper who love you.

Isaiah 62:6-7

On your walls, O Jerusalem, I have appointed watchmen; All day and all night they will never keep silent You who remind the LORD, take no rest for yourselves; And give Him no rest until He establishes And makes Jerusalem a praise in the earth.

Ephesians 6:18

With all prayer and petition pray at all times in the Spirit, and with this in view, be on the alert with all perseverance and petition for all the saints,

1 Timothy 2:1

First of all, then, I urge that entreaties and prayers, petitions and thanksgivings, be made on behalf of all men,

Nothing can separate us from the love of God or divide the Body of Christ. And so the saints in heaven offer our prayers to God.

Rev. 5:8

And when he had taken it, the four living creatures and the twenty-four elders fell down before the Lamb. Each one had a harp and they were holding golden bowls full of incense, which are the prayers of God’s people.

[taxcontrol]

How did Jesus teach us to pray? Was it to a statue? or an icon? or at a particular time? Was it to the local priest, or past relatives or even the Saints?

No, Jesus told us to pray to God the father.

Given the option of how and to whom to pray, I will follow Jesus’ teachings.

[Iscool]

In Catholicism, Scripture is there for meditation, prayer and inspiration, not for individual interpretation to formulate doctrine or dogma.

HaHaHa...Catholicism throws away bible doctrine and invents its own...

[Alex Murphy]

I sure hope you're not an attorney in life.

I'm beginning to think he didn't even sleep at a Holiday Inn last night.

[Resettozero]

We pray for each other on earth, we ask the saints in heaven to pray for us, and the saints in heaven present our prayers to God.

That is quite the personal extrapolation of Rev 5:8. Your personal understanding conflicts with the very words of Rev 5:8 and with what other RCs, including popes, have said regarding this verse of Scripture. Need to revisit this in your studies.

[Resettozero]

This is not what the Church teaches.

This is what you think Catholics believe.

Where's the pea now, metmom?

(I wanna mindread FReepers, just like some RCs can.)

[conservativesister]

” Jesus Christ is the judge of the living and the dead, and He alone decides who receives salvation.”
Would you give me the scriptures on this?
Are you referring to predestination/Calvinism?

[Iscool]

Intercessory prayer via the saints is not worship, iscool. You and I both understand that God alone is to be adored.

There have been countless prayers to Saints and Jesus' mother posted over the years with Catholics praying NOT for intercession but directly TO these people for salvation, peace, help, health, selling houses, miracles...Many of these prayers come from former popes, and many publications with the Nihil Obstat declaration...

And YET, you guys deny praying TO these Saints and Mary...

And praying TO these entities without the purpose of intercession IS worship...

[ealgeone]

The Church! According to the Bible Itself, the Church is the "pillar of truth" (1 Timothy 3:15), not the Bible.

Again, keep things in context. Read all of 1 Timothy 3 so you will understand why Paul is writing to the church.

Is private interpretation of the Bible condoned in the Bible Itself? No, it is not (2 Peter 1:20).

Read on to the next verse for a complete understanding of this. You might also want to check with the Bereans on this issue..."Now these were more noble-minded than those in Thessalonica, for they received the word with great eagerness, examining the Scriptures daily to see whether these things were so." Acts 17:11 NASB

Peter also had this to say about the word....

2like newborn babies, long for the pure milk of the word, so that by it you may grow in respect to salvation 1 Peter 2:2 NASB

Was individual interpretation of Scripture practiced by the early Christians or the Jews? Again, "NO" (Acts 8:29-35).

We will note the Ethiopian was not Jew or Christian. However, Philip was and he was moved by the Spirit to explain Isaiah to the man. He used, gasp, the scriptures, the written word, to explain how the man could have salvation through Christ.

This is not a case of forbidding someone to read the word to try and understand it. It is an example of helping someone come to Christ using the word.

The assertion that individuals can correctly interpret Scripture is false.

Guess that part about the Holy Spirit being our Helper doesn't apply in reading the word......

I understand why the rcc doesn't want their members to read the text if your understanding of the text is an example of the level of understanding of a catholic.

If you read the Bible, how do you know what it means unless there is a priest or bishop there to explain it to you?

BTW....you're making your own interpretation of Scripture, weak as it is, just by posting these verses.

[ealgeone]

LOL!!