Part 2:
so if praying to the saints is biblical, then why didn’t the apostles pray to God alone in the NT. The same can also be said about everyone in the OT. they all prayed to God alone.
This is a very protestant thing to say. I understand. I said the exact same thing.
Firstly, Consider 2 Peter 1: 13,14, &15. Is he referring to the “tent” of where he currently is, or is he referring to the “tent” of his body? Jesus showed him that he must soon depart it.
“I shall also make every effort to enable you always to remember these things after my departure.” St. Alphonsus teaches this as a clear belief that St. Peter knows that he will intercede for them after he dies and “make every effort to enable” them to remember.
That’s a very interesting point. I never thought that St. Peter meant anything other than what the natural mind understands by reading that verse, but Christianity is nothing less than supernatural. Sacred Scripture always seems to have two interpretations: the natural and easy to see…and the supernatural and impossible to see (on your own).
Before you or anyone else jumps up and down on this interpretation given by a Doctor of the Church, consider what St. Peter says a bit later in verse 20 and 21: “Know this first of all, that there is no prophecy of scripture that is a matter of personal interpretation”.
The entire Bible is prophecy. It is breathed by God. Every word. It is not subject to private interpretation. Ever. Thank God for that. I drove myself nuts trying to interpret it. You always end up disregarding something in favor of something else when it comes to personal interpretation.
Secondly, consider these things:
What is the pillar and foundation of Truth? (1 Timothy 3:15) So then, let her truly be your pillar and foundation. Trust her more than yourself.
The reality is this: God did not leave you a book in order to save your soul from hell. No, He left you His own spotless bride. She is the only trustworthy Church out of all those organizations which claim to be churches. Trust her. She belongs to Him. And you belong to Him through Her. Period. No one can have God as his Father without having the Church as his Mother.
The new testament is God Breathed, but it does not contain all things pertaining to Christianity. Even St. Paul warns them to hold on to the traditions which he taught them. Why weren’t these traditions written down in Sacred Scripture if they were so important that St. Paul should tell them to “hold on” to them? Not everything which you need is contained in the Bible, though everything which the Bible contains is truly beneficial.
One example is the Marian Dogmas. They gave me fits for quite a long time. Now, thanks be to God, they are among the most glorious things I could ever have known. One Saint (St. Alphonsus, I think) wrote all that ever need to be said about the Virgin Mary in Sacred Scripture was that Jesus was “born of the Virgin Mary”. Nothing else needed to be said. Those five words contain all the glories of Mary, Ever-Virgin. Once you see it, you can’t not see it for what it is. But She too is a gift to you from God. You can’t really believe until you are able to receive Her as a gift from Jesus.
but I have a hard time directing my prayers to anyone but God. Does that make a little bit of sense?
It is very good that you bring this point up. Protestantism has only one form of prayer: Prayer to God. You were never taught that there was any other type of prayer. Neither was I.
The reality is that God ALONE receives our prayers of adoration. The Catholic Church teaches that it is a mortal sin to offer a prayer of adoration to anyone but God. If you offer adoration to a Saint, you have sinned greviously. You do not ever adore a creature in the place of God.
Now that we know for certain that there is a line which you must never cross, we can examine other types of prayer. Historically, the word “pary” wasn’t relegated only to religion. We know that a few centuries ago in England that it wasn’t uncommong to ask a favor of someone by using the words, “I pray thee”. The Church is very, very old. She is not limited to modern understanding of the limits of the word “pray”. When used in this manner, the word “pray” simply means “to ask”. This is not adoration.
When a Catholic says, “I prayed to God this morning, and then I prayed to St. Gemma,” the protestant hears “I prayed to God, and then I worshipped a creature in His place thus committing a grevious sin.” However, what this Catholic means is “I adored my God this morning as is right and good for me, His creature, to do, and then I asked one of His children, my sister, St. Gemma (who was saved from hell by God and is alive forever in His presence) to pray for me too (because I know that as a redeemed child of God she loves me like Christ loves me). I need all the help I can get.” The words used are “prayed” and “prayed”. Or to make it more clear “Prayed”(capital ‘P’ to emphasize adoration) and “prayed” (small ‘p’ to show it as a simple request from one sibling to another).
But protestants do not have the theological categories with which to recognize all of this, so all that is left is for them to condemn that which has been ordained by God for the helpl of His children simply because it is fitting for one sibling to help another.
