Another question........sorry

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zach_dunn

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Hello,

My non-Catholic friend just got their head wrapped around the idea of praying to saints, but they’re still having trouble with praying to saints like St. Anthony to help us find stuff. I tried to explain it but I’m afraid my explanation might have made them more wary about the subject. They kind of think that we think that the saints have special powers, could someone explain this to me so I could explain this to them?

Thank you!

P.S. This is probably in the wrong place, I wasn’t paying attention to where I was posting it.
 
zach_dunn said:
They kind of think that we think that the saints have special powers, could someone explain this to me so I could explain this to them?
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The idea is not that a particular Saint has any powers at all (special or otherwise), but that a particular Saint may have a greater empathy for certain petitions. We believe that no Saint will refuse to pray on behalf of someone who asks, but Saints are created beings who possess free-will and their lives in heaven are influenced by their life on earth. Thus, a Saint who died of cancer (for example) may be inclined to pray more feverently on behalf of an earthly cancer vicitm.

This concept has not been dogmatically defined, but it is generally acknowledged in the ordinary belief of the Church.
 
God was pleased to work miracles through his saints while they were living on the earth. The Bible is full of examples. There’s no reason to believe that, just because those same saints are now with Him in heaven, God would no longer be pleased to work similar miracles through them still. The prophet Samuel prophesied after death (1 Samuel 28:19; Sirach 46:20) and the prophet Elisha raised the dead after death. (2 Kings 13:21; Sirach 48:14)
 
We don’t pray to saints, we ask for their intercession. The patronage of saints (for example, St. Anthony being the patron of finding lost objects) is based on the individual and the events in their life.
 
Hi Zach,

Saints don’t have any power except through God. We pray certain saints for specific things because, during their life, they were associated with these things. This helps us pray with more concentration and confidence and may make our prayer more efficacious.

Verbum
 
zach_dunn said:
Hello,

My non-Catholic friend just got their head wrapped around the idea of praying to saints, but they’re still having trouble with praying to saints like St. Anthony to help us find stuff. I tried to explain it but I’m afraid my explanation might have made them more wary about the subject. They kind of think that we think that the saints have special powers, could someone explain this to me so I could explain this to them?

Thank you!

P.S. This is probably in the wrong place, I wasn’t paying attention to where I was posting it.
Click to expand...
Heaven is a better place than the earth; not a worse place.

What you can do on the earth, you will still be able to do in Heaven, and you’ll do it even better than you did it on earth. We aren’t going to be bound and gagged, unable to do anything, when we get to Heaven. I think maybe that’s what happens in Hell, but certainly not in Heaven.

St. Anthony found what was thought could not be found, when he was on the earth (he found Jesus in the Old Testament) - if he could do that while in the imperfections of life on earth, then how much more adept must he be, now that he is in the perfection of Heaven, to be able to find any lost thing, no matter how difficult it is to find. That’s why he can find lost objects - because it’s something he’s always been good at. 🙂
 
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