Intercession

[mdshamess]

I know that when a catholic person pray to a saint is only for that this saint intercede along Jesus. Is a help for that Jesus, according the catholic doctrine the unique font of miracles, respond to the request of the believer.

Why, then, when a miracles is made, normally the catholics say that “saint X cured my daughter”, “saint Y remove my tumor”, etc.? I am trying understand this.

Thanks,
Michel.

 

[uxordepp]

Hi

I think that when people say “St. X cured my daughter” it is a sort of shorthand for “I prayed for St. X’s intercession and my daughter was cured”.

Or it could be that the person saying this is misinformed and wrongly believes the saint affected the cure.

 

[mdshamess]

Hi

I think that when people say “St. X cured my daughter” it is a sort of shorthand for “I prayed for St. X’s intercession and my daughter was cured”.

Or it could be that the person saying this is misinformed and wrongly believes the saint affected the cure.

Then, I guess think the same, but it is the correct answer?

Anyone can help us?

 

[fermat]

Only Jesus has the power to cure us on earth. Scripture tells us that the prayer of a righteous man is worth much. Who is more righteous than those perfectly united with Jesus in heaven? We all know that we are parts of the body of Christ and the entire body has a role to play. Christ, as the head of the body, is in control.

When we say that, St. Lucy, for example, cured my eye sight, we are saying that we asked St. Lucy to intercede on our behalf to Jesus. Jesus hears our prayer first and passes that request to St. Lucy. Jesus already knows what we need because in asking for the help of a saint, we ask for Jesus’s help too.

Let’s say you are sued. You retain a lawyer to intercede for you to the judge. The lawyer does a good job and the judge relents and drops the charges. When you tell your friends the good news, do you say that ‘Judge X dropped the charges!’ Or do you say, ‘That my lawyer got the charges dropped!’. Most people do the latter. It is the judge who actually drops the charges, but it was because your lawyer went to bat for you. You will probably recommend that same lawyer to a friend if they land in the same mess.

It should always be the Catholic understanding that without Christ, nothing happens. No saint is greater than Jesus. We acknowledge the saint for their work on our behalf and we praise Jesus for curing us.

Hope this helps!

 

[mdshamess]

Only Jesus has the power to cure us on earth. Scripture tells us that the prayer of a righteous man is worth much. Who is more righteous than those perfectly united with Jesus in heaven? We all know that we are parts of the body of Christ and the entire body has a role to play. Christ, as the head of the body, is in control.

When we say that, St. Lucy, for example, cured my eye sight, we are saying that we asked St. Lucy to intercede on our behalf to Jesus. Jesus hears our prayer first and passes that request to St. Lucy. Jesus already knows what we need because in asking for the help of a saint, we ask for Jesus’s help too.

Let’s say you are sued. You retain a lawyer to intercede for you to the judge. The lawyer does a good job and the judge relents and drops the charges. When you tell your friends the good news, do you say that ‘Judge X dropped the charges!’ Or do you say, ‘That my lawyer got the charges dropped!’. Most people do the latter. It is the judge who actually drops the charges, but it was because your lawyer went to bat for you. You will probably recommend that same lawyer to a friend if they land in the same mess.

It should always be the Catholic understanding that without Christ, nothing happens. No saint is greater than Jesus. We acknowledge the saint for their work on our behalf and we praise Jesus for curing us.

Hope this helps!

I guess that i know the same, but before I still have doubts. You help me now. Then, when anyone said that “saint X cured” means “saint X have sucessfull in your task”. I got it, fermat!

One more answer plis: how dead saints can hear us if they are “in other dimension”? In the Bible I only read about intercede between persons alive, Plis, help me.

 

[LilyM]

When we say that, St. Lucy, for example, cured my eye sight, we are saying that we asked St. Lucy to intercede on our behalf to Jesus. Jesus hears our prayer first and passes that request to St. Lucy. Jesus already knows what we need because in asking for the help of a saint, we ask for Jesus’s help too.

Other way around - the saint passes our requests to God, adding their own pleas for us to them as they do so. Think of the angels in Revelation offering bowls of incense before God, the incense being the prayers of the righteous.

Look at your lawyer example. It’s not like YOU would stand up in court and ask the judge to drop your charges. What happens is your LAWYER stands up, asks the judge on your behalf to drop your charges, then the judge does so.

 

[fermat]

One more answer plis: how dead saints can hear us if they are “in other dimension”? In the Bible I only read about intercede between persons alive, Plis, help me.

Saints are not in another dimension, they are in heaven. God is in an eternal now. Past, present and future are same to Him and so will heaven exist in the same way. People in heaven are just as alive as you and I are. Their bodies are dead, but their souls are alive in Christ Jesus.

They can hear us because they are perfectly united to the body of Christ. If I were to pinch your arm, you would feel pain. Your arm by itself cannot understand pain, it can only send a signal to your brain that something happened. You brain interprets that pinch as painful. The same thing happens when we pray to a saint. The saint cannot hear our request without Jesus. The prayer goes from us (the arm), to Jesus (the head), then to the saint, and then the saint will intercede on our behalf. If Jesus was not the central part of that process, then the saint would not know we are praying.

Think about hell. If I were to direct a prayer request to someone who is in hell, nothing would happen. That soul would not hear my request. Why? There is no Jesus in hell.

I should also mention that when a Catholic says they they ‘pray’ to a saint, we mean that we are asking a saint for help the same way I would ask you to pray for me. When a Catholic says that we are praying to God, then we are asking God to do something for us. We use the same word in two different ways depending on who we are talking to. Prayer to God is an act of worship and praise. Prayer to a saint is asking for intercession and help through Jesus.

Again, they key thing to remember is that Jesus is always the central focus of our prayers.

 

[laszlo]

I guess that i know the same, but before I still have doubts. You help me now. Then, when anyone said that “saint X cured” means “saint X have sucessfull in your task”. I got it, fermat!

One more answer plis: how dead saints can hear us if they are “in other dimension”? In the Bible I only read about intercede between persons alive, Plis, help me.

Through the beatific vision, they see us in God.

As for the original problem, ultimately every action is made by God, but many is made through intermediate means. Many times we take the intermediate for the whole. The physicial who prescripres an effective medicine, is part of the curing, we say the physician cured … The Saint whose intercession was successful, had part in the curing

 

[colmcille1]

Hi mdshamess,
May I direct you to CCC 2634 - 2636. These articles come under the heading:** Prayer of Intercession.**
God Bless,
Colmcille.

 

[mdshamess]

Thanks all! I do understand perfectly now.