Intercession of Saints

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I have taken this quote from the Ask An Apologist forum, as I have a question about it.

The original question was whether we had to pray out loud to saints as they arent omnipresent.

Michelle Arnold answered…
It is true that a saint is not omnipresent. But it is also true that (a) the saint is in eternity, freeing him from the restrictions of time; and (b) the saint is in direct communion with God, who makes it possible for a saint to intercede for us.

All that is necessary is that we ask a saint for his or her prayers. It can be vocally or mentally. God will take care of making sure that the saint hears our prayers.

My question is …

Dont we pray to saints to save God’s time so to speak?
So if we can mentally pray to saints as God will hear our thoughts and pass them on to the saints, then we arent saving him time at all.
And if it isnt for tiem saving that we pray to saints for, but rather extra help, well if God hears our thoughts and passes them on to the saints to help us, isnt that God admitting he needs help.

I am confused with the whole issue of intercession. :confused:

Love Kellie
 
Praying to Saints isn’t mean to save God any time. God can do whatever he wants and isn’t restricted by time.

The whole logic behind praying to Saints is the same logic used if you were to ask me to pray for you. Just because Saints are in heaven they aren’t cut off from the Body of Christ. They are still part of the Body of Christ, but even more alive than us.

Thus we can ask the Saints to pray for us, just like we can ask each other on earth to pray for us. But the difference is, the saints are perfected and holy and close to God. And the prayers of a righteous man, the bible tells us, are powerful.
 
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kellie:
.

My question is …

Dont we pray to saints to save God’s time so to speak?
So if we can mentally pray to saints as God will hear our thoughts and pass them on to the saints, then we arent saving him time at all.
And if it isnt for tiem saving that we pray to saints for, but rather extra help, well if God hears our thoughts and passes them on to the saints to help us, isnt that God admitting he needs help.

I am confused with the whole issue of intercession. :confused:

Love Kellie
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First of all, God is outside of time and space. He does not have to worry about saving time at all. Second of all, intercession for the suffering souls on earth is a great grace which those in Heaven enjoy. It is our Christian joy on earth to pray for others and in heaven how much more so. We are a living church, in heaven and on earth. We are united to our Saints in heaven through our Communion of Saints. Praising God and interceding at His very throne for us is their joy and privilege. Heaven is about family. We are the family on earth. The Saints are our family in heaven. They just happen to be so pleasing to God as they are HOLY. He loves to hear their prayers and ours…but their perfection and grace warrents powerful answers we don’t always get from our less than perfect prayers.
 
So when we ask other people on Earth to pray for us…what are we asking for exactly??
It isnt for God to think, “hmmm this person has 50 people praying for her, i will help her first”…
Do we ask others to pray for us to make us all feel like a family?
It isnt to make our prayers any stronger is it?? As God knows what we want before we ask for it, we just have to ask.
Im still confused
 
Part of the issue is just having enought faith to turn our problems over to God and to trust in his wisdom. As for helping people first, God is omnipitant and omnipresent so it wouldn’t be about helping people in some kind of order. Remember that God always answers our prayers, its just that sometimes the answer is no.
 
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kellie:
So when we ask other people on Earth to pray for us…what are we asking for exactly??
It isnt for God to think, “hmmm this person has 50 people praying for her, i will help her first”…
Do we ask others to pray for us to make us all feel like a family?
It isnt to make our prayers any stronger is it?? As God knows what we want before we ask for it, we just have to ask.
Im still confused
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The best prayer is pure prayer for GODS will to be done. The Saints know this. They always ask the Abba Fathers perfect answer to our prayer be granted. The perfect answer is His will for us. We have a hard time understanding that. The Saints have no problem at all.

While it may appear God did not answer your prayer…He does. It is just that His answer may be no for what you asked…but it is perfect, so he actually does answer your prayer even though you may not think so.

My personal prayer is God may your will be done in my life. I trust you. Help me to love you and to Trust you more. My wants…may they be your wants. My needs, may they give Glory to Your name. I ask only the grace to be what You created me to be, to obtain only that which You would want me to have in this and all situations.
Amen!

I know my family in heaven prayes the same prayer… 🙂

I know great peace in all situations from trusting God to answer His way. In desperate situations I have never been disappointed. While sometimes the answer caused me great grief and sorrow, I still recieved peace and acceptance because I had asked for only His will.
 
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kellie:
Do we ask others to pray for us to make us all feel like a family?
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Now you’re cookin. What are the two great commandments? (see Mark 12:29-31). What is at the core of these two commandments? LOVE!!!

By praying for each other and asking for each others prayers we strengthen the bonds of love between us and grow together as a community. Those bonds of love are not effected by death which is why we continue to pray for our deceased loved ones and why those who have gone on to God continue to pray for us. God wants us to love each other regardless of whether we are in the church militant here on earth, or in the church triumphant in the heavens which is why it pleases him to meet our needs through the intercessions of the saints and especially the Theotokos, to increase our love for one another.

John.
 
God loves relationship with His creatures. God wants us to be one big loving family. God also likes to work through His creatures…giving them a role in His Divine plan (look at how God used the prophets of old, and how Christ uses the Church today…and each one of us in various ways). Having many people praying is often more effective, because God wants us to share in His work, and have an important role, as His children…God doesn’t change His mind, but I like to think that God designed His plan (well He always knew it, but you know what I mean) factoring in the prayers of His people…so in that way prayers make a difference…and the more the merrier. It’s not a magical formula of course…you don’t get an answered prayer because 35 saints and 130 people on earth are praying, but the more prayer the better just the same.
 
Thanks everyone, and prodromos for acknowledging that I have finally hit the nail on the head.

We are all God’s children, and I will ask lots more of you to pray for me in the coming months as I prepare for nullification of my marriage.

I want all of you, my brothers and sisters, to help me let God do His will through the Marriage Tribunal.

Thanks so much everyone for helping me understand intercession better 👍

Love Kellie
 
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kellie:
Thanks everyone, and prodromos for acknowledging that I have finally hit the nail on the head.

We are all God’s children, and I will ask lots more of you to pray for me in the coming months as I prepare for nullification of my marriage.

I want all of you, my brothers and sisters, to help me let God do His will through the Marriage Tribunal.

Thanks so much everyone for helping me understand intercession better 👍

Love Kellie
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Will do,
We are not Saints so far, but we are in communion with them. 😉 We shall pray for you and your needs.
God Bless,
Marie
 
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kellie:
Thanks everyone, and prodromos for acknowledging that I have finally hit the nail on the head.

We are all God’s children, and I will ask lots more of you to pray for me in the coming months as I prepare for nullification of my marriage.

I want all of you, my brothers and sisters, to help me let God do His will through the Marriage Tribunal.

Thanks so much everyone for helping me understand intercession better 👍

Love Kellie
Click to expand...
Will do and hope that all goes according to God’s will for you and that you have the strength to accept that will. I did not see it before but one of the biggest reasons I pray to the Saints is that they like me were tempted and when I face a temptation like they had in their life it helps me to talk with them about it and to know that by the grace of God were able to overcome the temptation. I always get a kick out of St. Fransis jumping in a snow bank when he would be tempted by impure thoughts, now when I have an impure though I think of him jumping in the snow bank and I do not have to because my mind is now on how cold he must have been.

God Bless
 
kellie said:
So when we ask other people on Earth to pray for us…what are we asking for exactly??
It isnt for God to think, “hmmm this person has 50 people praying for her, i will help her first”…
Do we ask others to pray for us to make us all feel like a family?
It isnt to make our prayers any stronger is it?? As God knows what we want before we ask for it, we just have to ask.
Im still confused
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My opinion.

If you are willing to ask others to help you, this pleases Christ. He may wait or not even answer a prayer UNTIL you take it to Him through a Saint. It’s not that you can’t take issues directly to Christ, you can. But I think it pleases Him when we use Saints or His Mother.

It’s all about humility…
 
Hi everyone and God bless you. I have read enough of the Bible to say that I have never read any place where it makes mention of the “Intercession of Saints”. I have however read 1 Timothy 2:5- “For there is one God, and one mediator between God and man, the man Christ Jesus.” Hope that helps. If you have any questions, comments, or (I hope not) complaints, shoot me an email or respond in the forum. God Bless.
 
I can’t find the exact verse at the moment, but I think the Apocalypse mentions the saints bringing the prayers of men to God, doesn’t it?
Also you must understand that Catholics believe in Sacred Tradition as well. It is true that some things we believe are not to be found in the Bible, but they are brought to us through Sacred Tradition, which is also inspired by God. Much of it comes from the early days of the Church, and maybe even from the Apostles. Remember, the whole world could not hold all of the books that would be required to tell everything Jesus said and did.
Nowhere, I repeat nowhere, in the Bible does it say that it is the only source of inspired truth. Nowhere at all.
 
For me it began with understanding how the early Church, and the Hebrews in particular dealt with the subject of death and the afterlife.
In the modern world, when somebody dies, its as if they cease to exist. They are spoken of in the past tense, they were alive once, but now they are dead, gone, they cease to exist. We print their obituaries in the newspaper, show old pictures or film of them and talk about OUR memories.
In the ancient world, and in many parts of the world today, this is unknown. To the Hebrews, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob were just not some names in history, they were part of a Covenant that transcended time itself.
God called Himself the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. He is the God of the Living, not of the dead. Hebrew ancestors were NEVER spoken of as some forgotten point of history, but as a LIVING part of the Covenant.
In the early church, this thinking never changed.
When a Christian died in the Early Church, they ‘fell asleep’. They were never spoken of as just ‘dead’.
Hebrews 12:1 says “Therefore, since we have so great a cloud of witnesses surrounding us, let us also lay aside every encumbrance and the sin which so easily entangles us, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us,”
Those who have gone on before us are more alive than ever! We have the hope of the resurrection, so our EXPECTATION is that we will see them again. The Church is more than we can physically see.
Since we are all one Body of Christ, we are connected to each other by the Holy Spirit. Our deceased loved ones do not cease being part of the church just because they have gone on before us. They are STILL part of the Church and remain ‘on the church membership rolls’. We join hands with them spiritually as part of the mystical Body of Christ.
If the Saints are those who share in eternal life in Christ and full communion with God, then the Saints are living in a much more real way than those left on the earth.
Catholics believe in a SPIRITUAL church, not just a physical one.
The saints are still alive in Christ and part of our worship.
Revelation shows the saints in heaven bring before the Lamb the prayers of the saints on earth. They are concerned over what is happening on this planet.God told us to ask others to intercede for us. Consider, only the righteous are in heaven. And Scripture says that prayers of the righteous are efficacious.
Revelation tells us of those who have overcome are ruling and reigning with Christ. He shares His power and glory with His Saints, and they reign as kings and priests, offering up prayers and petitions on our behalf.
🙂
 
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