completelybiblical.blogspot.com/2008/12/prayer-to-saints-in-bible.html
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1 Corinthians 12:
20 As it is, [we] are many parts, yet one body.
21 The eye cannot say to the hand, “I have no need of you,” nor again the head to the feet, “I have no need of you.”
22 On the contrary…
25 …the members [should] have the same care for one another.
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Argument:
Paul says that we cannot say to any member of the Body of Christ that we do not need them; we should do “the contrary,” because true “care” should move us to accept that there are other Christians besides ourselves, and then acknowledge one to another: “I DO need you!” I have need of your prayers! Pray for me, please! Do what you can for me, exercise the gifts that God has given you for the building up of the Body of Christ!
We should request this service from all the members of the Body of Christ; St. Paul isn’t talking about the Church on earth alone, for he goes on to say that this love for one another that animates us does not stop at death: “Love never ends; as for prophecies, they will pass away; as for tongues, they will cease; as for knowledge, it will pass away” – but love will never pass away. (1 Corinthians 13:8) So let us have care for those in heaven as they have care for us, and let this care move us to say to them, as we must say to one another, “I have need of you,” and your prayers, and everything that you can do to build up the Body of Christ. These are prayers; these are interactions between the members of the Body of Christ, in heaven and on earth; and this is completely biblical.
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Hebrews 12:
12 Therefore lift your drooping hands and strengthen your weak knees, …
22 [for] you have come to Mount Zion and to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to innumerable angels in festal gathering,
23 and to the assembly of the first-born who are enrolled in heaven, and to a judge who is God of all, and to the spirits of just men made perfect,
24 and to Jesus, the mediator of a new covenant, and to the sprinkled blood that speaks more graciously than the blood of Abel.
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Argument:
We are encouraged to lift our drooping hands to all of Heaven, including the Saints and Angels. ‘Lifting drooping hands’ and ‘strengthening weak knees’ refers to praying for help when in trouble: when Joshua fought the Amelekites in Exodus 17:10-13, Moses lifted his hands to heaven in prayer. “But Moses’ hands grew weary; so they took a stone and put it under him, and he sat upon it, and Aaron and Hur held up his hands, one on one side, and the other on the other side; so his hands were steady until the going down of the sun. And Joshua mowed down Am’alek and his people with the edge of the sword.”
So when we pray for help, we are to come – not to God alone – but to all of the heavenly Jerusalem, the Saints and Angels and Jesus and the Father. That is biblical prayer: that is Catholic prayer.
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Jeremiah 51:
34 “Nebuchadrezzar the king of Babylon has devoured me, he has crushed me; he has made me an empty vessel, he has swallowed me like a monster; he has filled his belly with my delicacies, he has rinsed me out.
35 The violence done to me and to my kinsmen be upon Babylon,” let the inhabitant of Zion say. “My blood be upon the inhabitants of Chaldea,” let Jerusalem say.
36 Therefore thus says the LORD: "Behold, I will plead your cause and take vengeance for you. I will dry up her sea and make her fountain dry;
37 and Babylon shall become a heap of ruins, the haunt of jackals, a horror and a hissing, without inhabitant.
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Argument:
The inhabitants of Jerusalem had been “crushed” and “devoured” by Babylon. They were asked to pray for judgment against their enemy, and because of their prayers Jerusalem was delivered.
The prayer itself proves that the request was made even to those who had been martyred in defense of their land, since they prayed on the basis of their own “blood” and “the violence done to [them]” and their families. So here we have an ancient prayer, which all of Jerusalem is asked to join in – even her martyrs, for they knew that they would be crying out to God and pleaing for justice.
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Psalms 103:
20 Bless the LORD, O you his angels,
you mighty ones who do his word, hearkening to the voice of his word!
21 Bless the LORD, all his hosts,
his ministers that do his will!
P.S. Psalms 29:1-2, Psalms 148:1-2, and Daniel 3:58 contain similar prayers.
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Argument:
Here David addresses all the heavenly host in his psalm of rejoicing.
He says: “Bless the Lord, O you his angels, …all his hosts!”
Catholics say, “Pray for us, O you angels, all you saints!”
This is only the difference between two kinds of prayer. Who will say that you may ask the angels and saints to pray with you in rejoicing, but not for you in supplication? For I protest that if we may pray with them at all, and they may hear us, then we should be asking them to pray for us out of simple concern for the Body of Christ.
Psalms 29 is especially powerful in this regard, because the first two verses are directed to the Saints and angels to ask them to pray with us: “Ascribe to the LORD, O heavenly beings, ascribe to the LORD glory and strength.” (Psalms 29:1) But then after asking them to pray with us in this Psalm, it continues with a prayer for Israel: “May the LORD give strength to his people! May the LORD bless his people with peace!” (Psalm 29:11) Thus in Psalms 29 we see that we certainly can ask them to pray with us, even when that prayer includes a prayer of supplication.
