Praying to Angels

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CSUNGerrie

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Hello,
I was wondering if I could get some replies on whether it is ok to pray to angels for help. On the one hand, it seems quite obvious that we could ask God’s spiritual elite to help us in matters of demons and such. However, I have a protestant friend who told me that her church teaches against requesting the help of an angel because we are dealing with spiritual matters that are beyound our understanding.

She said something like, “when you pray for an angels help you may be opening an invitation for a demon.”

To which I replied, “but we know the name of certain angels and we ask for their help by name, so there is no confusion here”

To which she said, “If you need help, pray to Jesus and if he decides to send you an angel to help you then so be it. You shouldnt ask an angel.”

To which I said, “But doesnt God allow us to call on his army directly the way a King might exalt his peasants to beseech the help of the army directly?”

To be quite honest, I am not sure what to think. I am very ignorant on Catholic teaching but I am slowly starting to draw back to the catholic faith.

Some clarification would be appreciated. Thank you
 
Hi , Gerrie,

Protestants reject any prayer to saints or angels, on the basis that we have only one mediator between God and us, Christ. But why can’ t we have mediators between us and Christ? Prayer to the saints is documented from the early days of the Church. Here is the prayer to your guardian angel that is common among Catholics
ANGEL OF GOD,
my guardian dear,
To whom his love commits me here;
Ever this (day, night) be at my side,
To light and guard, to rule and guide.
Amen

Verbum
 
Of course you can pray to the angels! Hopefully, you will live with them some day.
 
Praying to saints who happen to be angels is no different from praying to saints who happen to be human. We do not worship them as is proper for God alone, but we can and do honor them as friends of God and we may ask them to help us and pray for us.

The protestant friend who said that praying to an angel may be opening an invitation to a demon doesn’t know what she is talking about. The only reason any kind of prayer to the saints is effective is because God permits and enables the saints to hear our prayers. For a prayer intended for a saint to be misdirected to a demon would either mean that God is incompetent or that he is a malicious mischief maker. Both of which possibilities we Catholics utterly reject.
 
“When tempted, invoke your Angel. he is more eager to help you than you are to be helped! Ignore the devil and do not be afraid of him: He trembles and flees at the sight of your Guardian Angel.”

--------St. John Bosco 👍
 
Every Sunday we pray “…and I ask you my brothers and sisters, all the angels and saints to pray for me to the Lord my God”
 
I guess never thought of Angels as saints. But I suppose if a protestant doesn’t even think you should be “praying to saints” such a response fall on deaf ears.
 
CSUNGerrie said:
I guess never thought of Angels as saints. But I suppose if a protestant doesn’t even think you should be “praying to saints” such a response fall on deaf ears.
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Certainly. The word saint comes from sanctus, meaning holy. It refers to any created persons who enjoy friendship with God in Heaven, whether those persons are human or angels. We do not commonly refer to the angels as saints except for the Archangels, Saints Michael, Gabriel and Raphael. This may be because these angels are the only ones we have names for.

(actually there are traditional names for some other angels, but these are not commonly used.)
 
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