Praying without ceasing is not what I understood to be conveyed here. Praying without ceasing refers to praying to God without ceasing–not communicating with the dead unceasingly or refusing to use the past tense regarding those who have passed on in order to make a theological point. (For something on prayer and praying without ceasing, see one of the articles referenced on my website.)
I also didn’t understand the reply of the earlier response. What does St Augustine have to do with this topic? Yes, he he experienced a wonderful conversion, but I think I am missing your point.
I would suggest you look at it this way… The communion of saints is there as truly (or more truly) than we see what is around us in the “real world”. We’re in agreement there. Where I think you’re heading off to the deep end, is when you suggest that our every move is observed and crtiqued by those above. (For one thing, unless they are saints, who are we to judge their eternal destination? Perhaps they are not where you assume them to be.) I think this view makes us more important than we are. Yes, the angels rejoice, but that does not cancel the fact that our value is rooted solely in the saving act of Christ. If the multitude are with Christ, their attention should be directed to Him–as well as ours down below. After all, all the world may be a stage of sorts, but that doesn’t mean that the world revolves around us.
Bottom line…praying without ceasing is great, but I don’t believe that’s what you’ve described at all. In life, we should be focused on what we are about, our eathly mission for God. As I alluded to earlier, I would suggest that you are perhaps too immersed in a world of your own creation, and you’re losing out on the real ministry opportunities elsewhere. Instead of speaking to the dead unceasinly, perhpahs find a lonely man or woman (in this life) who just needs someone to talk to…someone of flesh and blood. That’s why we’re here. There will be plenty of time for talking to the rest of “them” later, and you will know with certainty there with whom you’re speaking.
I couldn’t agree with you more about the reason for us
being here. It’s for reaching out to others, not talking to
the dead. When I pray, I pray to my Father who art in
heaven, like Jesus taught us to. Prayer to the saints only
distracts my focus, not enhances it. However I have noted
that this is not true for all, the Pope included. Who
reaches out to others more than he?
Even if we don’t actually know which of our loved ones are
in heaven, the ones who are there are there. They are with
the angels and Mary and all the saints. They are busy
rejoicing over every good thing. Sometimes we all do things
that make them happy. Important things that we may not
even know are important. For example, what if we were
way up high and saw a car coming fast right toward a child.
Supposing God sent an angel to tell someone to call that
child inside. The child listened, then the car went speeding
by, and the child was unharmed. We would be so happy.
What if we were up even higher than seeing the speeding
car? What if we were up so high that we saw what bar
the driver of that car was going into before he even got into
that car to go speeding crazily down that street? What if
God sent an angel to say to that man “no, don’t go in there
today”. What if he listened and didn’t go in that day? We
would be so happy.
The ones in heaven are way up high and they can see the
consequences of our actions before we do. It makes them
important, not us. But we are still vital to everything,
even every word we say on this forum.
)
And I don’t think that’s what you’re saying either. You just send your thoughts out there to them, in case they can perceive them, right?