Is praying to Our Lady and other saints contrary to the Commandments?

[Doug_S]

Doug, the verse you quote is often used to counter this practice. However, it is useless if you truly understand the Catholic teaching on the communion of saints.

The teaching of the communion of saints is that we are all members from the moment of our baptism. Our membership doesn’t end with our death, but rather we are granted a more exalted status within this community because we have been blessed to be with God and see Him face to face.

Anyone in this community, whether in Heaven or on Earth, may be asked to pray for other members of the community.

You could ask me to pray for you, or you could ask the saints in Heaven to pray for you. Either way you are not replacing Christ as mediator, but asking for several people to take your petition to Him.

Which is more effective, taking a petition that you signed to your congressman or one that several people in the community have signed? The more people you have in your corner, the better. Especially when those people have already “made their robes white with the blood of the Lamb.” Not only have they been made perfect, but they are right there walking with God.

Ok, assuming you believe in purgatory,how do you know if these souls are out of purgatory? It seems that there could be no way to know this. Or is it more of a random response as to who hears your prayers.

 

[Tantum_ergo]

Ok, assuming you believe in purgatory,how do you know if these souls are out of purgatory? It seems that there could be no way to know this. Or is it more of a random response as to who hears your prayers.

I’m still waiting for you to tell me how a soul who is with Jesus in Heaven is ‘apart’ from Him. I thought that Jesus was in fact everywhere and that Scripture tells us when we die we will be one with Him.

Remember too that outside of earth TIME does not exist. Purgatory is simply a concept (we are not sure if it is a place or a state, or both) where the soul is purged of sin before entering heaven. But Jesus is not sitting up there in heaven looking at the clock and saying, “OK, guys, it’s 9:11 p.m. Eastern Standard time, let that guy out of purgatory at 9:15 SHARP”. As far as you know, the person who died this minute and went to/through purgatory passed into heaven ONE MINUTE LATER (our ‘time’). THEY are in eternity (a concept we simply can’t grasp in a ‘temporal’ word, because it is not ‘endless days’ but instead an endless ‘now’.

 

[davidc5996]

No.James 5:16 is clear on the fact that we can ask others to pray for us.It does not give details on who.Since the saints and Mary are in Heaven and can hear us,we can ask them as well as each other,for they are human,although glorified,just as we are human.