How do you pray to Saints?

[FaithBuild18]

Are you only allowed to ask for them to pray for you?

Or can you ask them directly for their assistance? For example, asking St. Anthony to help you find your missing watch, or asking the patron Saint of X disease to heal you of X.

Many times I’ve done the latter, but now I worry that I was doing something terrible.

 

[CountrySteve]

You can do both, i do both all the time, as long as you don’t worship(give them Adoration) then your fine, God bless

 

[Regina_Love]

Praying to Saints is just talking to them. You may ask anything you wish. Some other religions think we worship Saints. When they say “lets pray”, that’s their cue to start praising & worshiping God. When Catholics say “Let’s pray”, We mean “let’s talk”

 

[presidentjlh]

Are you only allowed to ask for them to pray for you?

Or can you ask them directly for their assistance? For example, asking St. Anthony to help you find your missing watch, or asking the patron Saint of X disease to heal you of X.

Many times I’ve done the latter, but now I worry that I was doing something terrible.

Did you worship them, did you consider them to be like God? If no, (and it sounds like “no”) then it was perfectly fine.

Heck, I’m pretty sure 95% of St. Tony’s job in Heaven is helping all us absent-minded folk find lost things. I know I account for a good 20% of his workload.

 

[Julia_Mae]

Are you only allowed to ask for them to pray for you?

Or can you ask them directly for their assistance? For example, asking St. Anthony to help you find your missing watch, or asking the patron Saint of X disease to heal you of X.

Many times I’ve done the latter, but now I worry that I was doing something terrible.

Sure you can ask them. If people didn’t ask them, we’d never have saints! One of the rules for accepting a miracle for canonization is that the person only prayed to the candidate in question for the healing.

 

[Lancer]

2634 Intercession is a prayer of petition which leads us to pray as Jesus did. He is the one intercessor with the Father on behalf of all men, especially sinners.112 He is "able for all time to save those who draw near to God through him, since he always lives to make intercession for them."113 The Holy Spirit "himself intercedes for us . . . and intercedes for the saints according to the will of God."114

2635 Since Abraham, intercession - asking on behalf of another has been characteristic of a heart attuned to God’s mercy. In the age of the Church**, Christian intercession participates in Christ’s, as an expression of the communion of saints.** In intercession, he who prays looks “not only to his own interests, but also to the interests of others,” even to the point of praying for those who do him harm.115

2742 "Pray constantly . . . always and for everything giving thanks in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ to God the Father."33 St. Paul adds, "Pray at all times in the Spirit, with all prayer and supplication. To that end keep alert with all perseverance making supplication for all the saints."34 For "we have not been commanded to work, to keep watch and to fast constantly, but it has been laid down that we are to pray without ceasing."35 This tireless fervor can come only from love. Against our dullness and laziness, the battle of prayer is that of humble, trusting, and persevering love. This love opens our hearts to three enlightening and life-giving facts of faith about prayer.

34 Eph 6:18.

A cloud of witnesses
**
2683 The witnesses who have preceded us into the kingdom,41 especially those whom the Church recognizes as saints, share in the living tradition of prayer by the example of their lives, the transmission of their writings, and their prayer today**. They contemplate God, praise him and constantly care for those whom they have left on earth. When they entered into the joy of their Master, they were "put in charge of many things."42 Their intercession is their most exalted service to God’s plan. We can and should ask them to intercede for us and for the whole world.

2684 In the communion of saints, many and varied spiritualities have been developed throughout the history of the churches. The personal charism of some witnesses to God’s love for men has been handed on, like “the spirit” of Elijah to Elisha and John the Baptist, so that their followers may have a share in this spirit.43 A distinct spirituality can also arise at the point of convergence of liturgical and theological currents, bearing witness to the integration of the faith into a particular human environment and its history. The different schools of Christian spirituality share in the living tradition of prayer and are essential guides for the faithful. In their rich diversity they are refractions of the one pure light of the Holy Spirit.

 

[smallgirl01]

Did you worship them, did you consider them to be like God? If no, (and it sounds like “no”) then it was perfectly fine.

Heck, I’m pretty sure 95% of St. Tony’s job in Heaven is helping all us absent-minded folk find lost things. I know I account for a good 20% of his workload.

20% of his workload…interesting.

 

[drforjc]

Are you only allowed to ask for them to pray for you?

Or can you ask them directly for their assistance? For example, asking St. Anthony to help you find your missing watch, or asking the patron Saint of X disease to heal you of X.

Many times I’ve done the latter, but now I worry that I was doing something terrible.

It’s highly possible that St Anthony, for example, helps us find things precisely by praying for us. I don’t think they are necessarily two separate things.