Are Catholics required to pray to the saints?

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dje101 said:
First of all, a mistake on my part was that I thought that the Communion of the Saints was another name for the Eucharist (since protestants call their Eucharist the Communion).

I DO believe that the deceased souls of Christians are alive and well in Heaven. But I just have a hard time with the idea that we should pray to them. I have no doubt that they are near God, probably watching over us and asking Him to do things for us (so yes, I guess I do believe in their intercessory), but I have a hard time directing my prayers to anyone but God. Does that make a little bit of sense?:o
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That’s Fine. My wife is a convert and she is not comfortable with saying the rosary and praying to the Saints for intercession. As I said we are not required to do so. having said that I believe that those who do not pray to the Saints for intercession are missing out on a marvelous opportunity.
 
But then I really started looking at the scriptures that I was reading and realized that God sent angels for all kinds of things, so why not some of our departed brothers and sisters.
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Yes, we all should be God’s hands and feet 🙂 Love God and love our neighbor as ourselves.
 
estesbob said:
That’s Fine. My wife is a convert and she is not comfortable with saying the rosary and praying to the Saints for intercession. As I said we are not required to do so. having said that I believe that those who do not pray to the Saints for intercession are missing out on a marvelous opportunity.
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thanks for that estesbob. its nice to know that, though i’m not a convert, i’m not the only one that has trouble with the idea.
 
DJE,

A few quick points.
  1. No knowledgable Catholic would ever say that you should not pray directly to Jesus.
  2. James 5 says that the prayers of the faithful availeth much. This statement is not limited to the living faithful. The saints in heaven are every but as much part of the “Body of Christ” as you or I. In fact, they are MORE righteous, as they have been made pure to be in God’s presence (Heb 12:22-23). It is completely a manmade phenomenon to say that the faithful have to be living. be careful not to add to the Bible.
  3. Read Revelation 5:8. This a clear case of saints bringing our prayers to God as “golden bowls full of incense.” Revelation 8 also has something to say about this.
God Bless!
 
Is it really true that Catholics don’t have to ever pray to the saints (And pray as in ask for intersession)? After all we often say the confiteor at Mass, “…I ask the blessed virgin Mary, all the angels and saints, and you my brothers and sisters to pray for me to the Lord our God.” And the Eucharistic prayers are riddled with references to the Saints and even particular Saints, at Easter and other times there is the Litany of the Saints, all these occur during our public worship and prayer, Mass, baptism, funerals, benediction, etc.
 
dje101 said:
Hello everyone,

I come from a protestant background and am having trouble with the idea of praying to the saints. I was wondering if the Catholic Church requires its members to pray to the saints? Also, I heard something about selecting a saint or two to model after the RCIA is over. Can you please explain this? Thanks very much. God Bless!
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There maybe a couple of things not obvious as Catholics have types of prayer as intercession verses adoration. Many Protestants do not follow prayers of intercession. Also intercession prayers become more obvious once one understands purgatory, and the apocryphal or deuterocanonical books both maybe missing to you. For example would you be willing to try to prayer your grandmother into heaven? If you could offer up some part of you to help her after her death would you? That is similar to what happens in Maccabees (not available in KJV) .

Hope that helps a little
 
I feel sorry for protestants that do not ask the Saints or Mary to pray for them.

They are missing out on a beautiful gift.
 
Texas_Roofer said:
For example would you be willing to try to prayer your grandmother into heaven? If you could offer up some part of you to help her after her death would you? That is similar to what happens in Maccabees (not available in KJV) .

Hope that helps a little
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I believe that you are talking about purgatory here. I would offer up some part of me to help my grandmother through purgatory if I believed that they (my prayers) might help. This doesn’t mean I’m not open to the idea. What does it really help though? Doesn’t everyone who goes to purgatory go to Heaven anyways?
 
jilly4ski said:
Is it really true that Catholics don’t have to ever pray to the saints (And pray as in ask for intersession)? After all we often say the ***confiteor ***at Mass, “…I ask the blessed virgin Mary, all the angels and saints, and you my brothers and sisters to pray for me to the Lord our God.” And the Eucharistic prayers are riddled with references to the Saints and even particular Saints, at Easter and other times there is the Litany of the Saints, all these occur during our public worship and prayer, Mass, baptism, funerals, benediction, etc.
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what is the confiteor?
 
dje101 said:
what is the confiteor?
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It is a general confession of sin and asking for forgiveness at the start of Mass, if used the congregation prays it right before the Kyrie.
Here is the current text.
Code: 
I confess to almighty God,
and to you, my brothers and sisters,
that I have sinned through my own fault,
in my thoughts and in my words,
in what I have done, and in what I have failed to do;
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Code: 
and I ask Blessed Mary, ever virgin,
all the angels and saints,
and you, my brothers and sisters, to pray for me
to the Lord our God.
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jilly4ski said:
It is a general confession of sin and asking for forgiveness at the start of Mass, if used the congregation prays it right before the Kyrie.
Here is the current text.
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thanks…whats the Kyrie?

(Remember I’m a protestant, hahaha…don’t know some of these terms :o )
 
There is the required Confiteor and invocation of the Saints during the celebration of Mass. Not sure if that counts though.
dje101 said:
But why would I WANT to pray to a saint. If God is omniscient, omnipotent, and omnipresent, why would I want to go through a saint when scripture makes it clear that I can just pray to God?
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I will quote this paragraph from Saint Louis de Montfort’s True Devotion to the Blessed Virgin:
  1. (2) She enriches our good works by adorning them with her own merits and virtues. It is as if a poor peasant, wishing to win the friendship and favour of the king, were to go the queen and give her an apple - his only possession - for her to offer it to the king. The queen, accepting the peasant’s humble gift, puts it on a beautiful golden dish and presents it to the king on behalf of the peasant. The apple in itself would not be a gift worthy of a king, but presented by the queen in person on a dish of gold, it becomes fit for any king.
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147. (2) She enriches our good works by adorning them with her own merits and virtues. It is as if a poor peasant, wishing to win the friendship and favour of the king, were to go the queen and give her an apple - his only possession - for her to offer it to the king. The queen, accepting the peasant’s humble gift, puts it on a beautiful golden dish and presents it to the king on behalf of the peasant. The apple in itself would not be a gift worthy of a king, but presented by the queen in person on a dish of gold, it becomes fit for any king.

So he is saying that the gift is now worth enough for the king because it is being presented to the king by the queen. But just like the lady that gave her two coins in the temple that Jesus pointed out to his disciples, if the king knew that the peasant was willing to give up everything, wouldn’t the peasant then find favor with the king?
 
dje101 said:
147. (2) She enriches our good works by adorning them with her own merits and virtues. It is as if a poor peasant, wishing to win the friendship and favour of the king, were to go the queen and give her an apple - his only possession - for her to offer it to the king. The queen, accepting the peasant’s humble gift, puts it on a beautiful golden dish and presents it to the king on behalf of the peasant. The apple in itself would not be a gift worthy of a king, but presented by the queen in person on a dish of gold, it becomes fit for any king.

So he is saying that the gift is now worth enough for the king because it is being presented to the king by the queen. But just like the lady that gave her two coins in the temple, if the king knew that the peasant was willing to give up everything, wouldn’t the peasant then find favor with the king?
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The peasnt is twice bleesed if they entreat the King while the queen does the same on their behalf.
 
dje101 said:
Hello everyone,

I come from a protestant background and am having trouble with the idea of praying to the saints. I was wondering if the Catholic Church requires its members to pray to the saints? Also, I heard something about selecting a saint or two to model after the RCIA is over. Can you please explain this? Thanks very much. God Bless!
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I agree with the excellent advice and comments provided by estesbob and some others - there is no requirement that one ask the Saints for intercession. It is important to note, however, that Saints are useful as more than just prayer-conduits. Learning about the lives of the Saints and meditating on how they experienced and served God can be an excellent way to improve your own faith. The many different experiences of the Saints give us a multitude of role models, and one is bound to be helpful no matter what you have going on. So if you are feeling apart from God, you can learn about a Saint that was especially close with God and meditate on how to emulate that closeness. If you having trouble with charity, read up on a particularly charitable Saint and pray to be given the same strength of spirit and love. In other words, you shouldn’t feel obliged to ask for intercessions, but that does not mean that the Saints can’t enrich your faith in other ways.
 
dje101 said:
So he is saying that the gift is now worth enough for the king because it is being presented to the king by the queen. But just like the lady that gave her two coins in the temple that Jesus pointed out to his disciples, if the king knew that the peasant was willing to give up everything, wouldn’t the peasant then find favor with the king?
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Saint Louis is not saying that God would not accept our prayers and good works offered on their own. Simply that we can make them more pleasant and favourable for the King by imploring the intercession of his Queen. Which is exactly the position Our Blessed Lady holds in Heaven and in her relation to God.

God ordained that He should come to us through Mary. Why not follow the example He set for us?

There is no conflict between imploring the intercession of the Virgin Mary and imploring God directly. It’s not as if our prayers end with the saint in question. They go diretly to God and are the better for it. Again I will quote from The True Devotion:
  1. (3) Mary presents our good works to Jesus. She does not keep anything we offer for herself, as if she were our last end, but unfailingly gives everything to Jesus. So by the very fact we give anything to her, we are giving it to Jesus. Whenever we praise and glorify her, she sings today as she did on the day Elizabeth praised her, “My soul glorifies the Lord.”
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When we ask the help of saints we glorify God because He wishes us to do so. It’s why the Communion of Saints exists.
 
TMC said:
I agree with the excellent advice and comments provided by estesbob and some others - there is no requirement that one ask the Saints for intercession. It is important to note, however, that Saints are useful as more than just prayer-conduits. Learning about the lives of the Saints and meditating on how they experienced and served God can be an excellent way to improve your own faith. The many different experiences of the Saints give us a multitude of role models, and one is bound to be helpful no matter what you have going on. So if you are feeling apart from God, you can learn about a Saint that was especially close with God and meditate on how to emulate that closeness. If you having trouble with charity, read up on a particularly charitable Saint and pray to be given the same strength of spirit and love. In other words, you shouldn’t feel obliged to ask for intercessions, but that does not mean that the Saints can’t enrich your faith in other ways.
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so are saints able to communicate back to us or is it always God that does the talking?
 
Dreadnought said:
Saint Louis is not saying that God would not accept our prayers and good works offered on their own. Simply that we can make them more pleasant and favourable for the King by imploring the intercession of his Queen. Which is exactly the position Our Blessed Lady holds in Heaven and in her relation to God.

God ordained that He should come to us through Mary. Why not follow the example He set for us?
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but how do we know that this is what God wants for us to do? i know that the church isn’t built on the solo scriptura (hope i spelled that right) idea and uses traditions as well, but there must be something that can prove this. i believe what is in the bible because of all of the documentation it provides, the consistency, and the years that it has lasted. where are any documents biblical or extra-biblical, that point to anything saying that Mary is the queen of Heaven, that she ascended into Heaven, that God comes to us through her? is there any documentation that survived the early church that is consistent with this theology of Mary?
 
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