Are they saints?

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Rawb

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I’m not sure where to put this, but my main question is “Is it wrong to believe this?” so I thought I’d put it here.

My Grandma died in 2004, and was a strong German Catholic. I think about her sometimes, off and on, and used to pray the prayer on the back of the card my parents got at her funeral Mass (I was protestant). Recently it hit me that two years after her death was when everything started lining (sp?) up to push me towards the Catholic Church, and this week I wondered if her direct intercession was what might have pushed me (with the Holy Spirit of course). I’m now (or will be after Saturday) her only Catholic grandchild out of 12.

Then I remembered my mom had once told me she’d had four miscarriages, one between each pregnancy, and it hit me that I may have brothers and sisters in Heaven (which hit me very hard because I don’t have any brothers, I’m the only son).

My question is, is it wrong for me to believe my Grandma and siblings are in Heaven? Would it be wrong to ask St. Grandma Clara to interceede for me without formal proof?
 
Rawb said:
My question is, is it wrong for me to believe my Grandma and siblings are in Heaven? Would it be wrong to ask St. Grandma Clara to interceede for me without formal proof?
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No and no. There can be no harm in assuming the best.

JSA
 
The communion of saints includes those saints we know about, and the millions of saints we don’t know, yet. So IMHO…St Grandma Clara…pray for us. 🙂
 
I was wondering a similar thing - so thanks for clearing that up.

Does it matter if the deceased person was not Catholic - she was Christian (Episcopalian).
 
Rawb said:
My question is, is it wrong for me to believe my Grandma and siblings are in Heaven? Would it be wrong to ask St. Grandma Clara to interceede for me without formal proof?
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You shouldn’t pray to anyone who is neither beatified nor canonised.

However there is a contradiction here, because there has to be some sort of cult before the cause can be opened. It is more apparent than real. Prayers to ancestors are discouraged because it can easily turn into a sort of bloodline theology. Prayers to people who are noted for some sort of exceptional life are OK. What if that exceptional person is also an ancestor? Now you’ve got me.
 
Shortly after I became Catholic, I had a vision, only a second long, of all my relatives in heaven, people for many centuries back (mainly Germans) nodding at me because their prayers had been answered and their family was finally returning to the True Church.

After all, before the Reformation, all Christians were Catholic. Those are the relatives I saw in my vision, all those “Catholic” members of my family who have been praying for centuries that their family would return!

So I say, if you are sensing that your grandmother is praying for you, maybe the Holy Spirit is whispering something encouraging to your soul.
 
Malcolm_McLean said:
You shouldn’t pray to anyone who is neither beatified nor canonised.

However there is a contradiction here, because there has to be some sort of cult before the cause can be opened. It is more apparent than real. Prayers to ancestors are discouraged because it can easily turn into a sort of bloodline theology. Prayers to people who are noted for some sort of exceptional life are OK. What if that exceptional person is also an ancestor? Now you’ve got me.
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The first sentence is not correct. Actually, beatification and canonization are only required for public veneration and petition–that is for recognition in the liturgy and the calendar. People are free to ask the intercession of anyone–I hope that helps!
 
Malcolm_McLean said:
You shouldn’t pray to anyone who is neither beatified nor canonised.

However there is a contradiction here, because there has to be some sort of cult before the cause can be opened. It is more apparent than real. Prayers to ancestors are discouraged because it can easily turn into a sort of bloodline theology. Prayers to people who are noted for some sort of exceptional life are OK. What if that exceptional person is also an ancestor? Now you’ve got me.
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I really don’t think this is good advise. I think that you can ask all those who are in heaven for their prayers. Remember that dying in this life is becoming more alive in our next. Just because a saint has not been canonized a Saint does not make them any less of a saint. As catholics we believe in the communion of saints. That is those who are in heave and on earth.

The Holy Spirit only reveals those whom He choose to reveal as Saints to His holy Church.
 
I would say ask your Grandma for her prayers, but also pray **for **her, in case she is in purgatory.

Most of those who reach Heaven will spend a good long time in purgatory first.

God Bless
 
bilop said:
I would say ask your Grandma for her prayers, but also pray **for **her, in case she is in purgatory.

Most of those who reach Heaven will spend a good long time in purgatory first.

God Bless
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Good point! It’s also a good idea to obtain indulgences for deceased loved ones 👍
 
I have a half-brother whom my Mother assured me was baptized upon birth and died moments later. In that case it is reasonable to presume that he is in heaven. As to miscarriages; they are in God’s mercy. The Church says nothing further. As for other ancestors, we are to hope that all are saved. For many years I prayed for certain ancestors from the early 17th century and one day I had a vision of the three of them in glory in a tableaux. So I feel assured that they are in heaven. Only God knows, and the saints in heaven.
 
Souls in Purgatory can pray for us. They are perfectly willing to do so, too. Gives 'em something useful to do. And if we pray for them and they pray for us, we’re helping each other out like brothers and sisters in Christ should do.
 
Souls in Purgatory are not “looking” for something “useful” to do, “…for they are deprived of the power to sin as of the power to merit” (St. Catherine of Genoa). The state of Purgatory is one of passive purgation, at once of great suffering and great joy but not in anyway focused on us or on themselves.
 
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