So my non-Catholic mother's asking saints to intercede

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God knows I love my mother. He knows none of this is meant in disrespect…

I don’t know what to think about her asking the saints to intercede for situations in our lives.

A little background: She was baptized in her teens as a Christian. Then she met my dad (agnostic), and the two of them kind of compromised and ended up in a very broad-minded, liberal, unity church. She has had very new-agey philosophy (believing the universe will provide whatever you need, effortless prosperity, The Secret, the Abraham teachings, Oprah-style conglomeration of beliefs). Over the years since I became a Christian (2003) and Catholic-Christian (2009) she has been seemingly more and more accepting of Christian Orthodoxy. We’ve been praying together as a family, and she crosses herself when we finish, and we do a very Christian devotion together (Jesus Calling). This is great, and I’m thankful for it. But let me now get to my point.

She’s been asking different saints to pray for different things in our lives - Saint Joseph for work situations, for instance, and Saint Cecilia for a violin for my niece, etc. My concern is that she is using these means of prayer in a superstitious way, in the same manner that she may be when she does her affirmations about the universe providing, the universe opening doors, the universe making life easy and giving us everything we want, etc. So I’m here asking for wise insight and advice about this situation from folks here on the forum, about how I should look at this and how I should respond…
 
desales09 said:
God knows I love my mother. He knows none of this is meant in disrespect…

I don’t know what to think about her asking the saints to intercede for situations in our lives.

A little background: She was baptized in her teens as a Christian. Then she met my dad (agnostic), and the two of them kind of compromised and ended up in a very broad-minded, liberal, unity church. She has had very new-agey philosophy (believing the universe will provide whatever you need, effortless prosperity, The Secret, the Abraham teachings, Oprah-style conglomeration of beliefs). Over the years since I became a Christian (2003) and Catholic-Christian (2009) she has been seemingly more and more accepting of Christian Orthodoxy. We’ve been praying together as a family, and she crosses herself when we finish, and we do a very Christian devotion together (Jesus Calling). This is great, and I’m thankful for it. But let me now get to my point.

She’s been asking different saints to pray for different things in our lives - Saint Joseph for work situations, for instance, and Saint Cecilia for a violin for my niece, etc. My concern is that she is using these means of prayer in a superstitious way, in the same manner that she may be when she does her affirmations about the universe providing, the universe opening doors, the universe making life easy and giving us everything we want, etc. So I’m here asking for wise insight and advice about this situation from folks here on the forum, about how I should look at this and how I should respond…
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I would mention to her nicely that she is starting to sound Catholic and would look for the opportunity to tell her what we believe about the saints and their intersession.👍
 
Some folks gravitate to the things around them but never seem to commit to anything as their own. I have a brother like this. Something you might try is introducing her to books on some of our great saints. Not sure what her favorite type of reading is but maybe St. Faustina or Mother Theresa. By geting drawn into their life and life experiences it may make a connection with her life.
 
Not something I’d ordinarily recommend as an “introduction to intercessory prayer for non-Catholics”, but it might be a good idea for someone coming from that specific mindset…

I was reading something the other day about how do we expect to pay back our debts to the saints who intercede for us. Five minutes later, I couldn’t have told you what book it was, or what the answer was to the question, but the question itself stuck with me very solidly. We can be quite casual in our prayers to the saints-- St. Joseph, do this for me with workplace or the family, please; St. Therese, ask God for that, and send me a rose while you’re at it; St. Anthony, I really need to find x, could you give me a hand; St. Jude and St. Philomena, I know this is a really big long shot, but could you ask God for y. And so often, they come through quite graciously and willingly, on issues great and small— what do we do in return? We spend so much effort “turning heaven upside-down” with our prayer requests, are we equally fervent in our gratitude?

Then take it to the next step. Make the gratitude come first. Make it be confidence that the saint has heard your request, and whatever the outcome is is God’s will, and you can accept that-- but thank you for your time and assistance. What form does gratitude take? Just as you tailor your requests to a particular saint, you should put as much thoughtfulness into the form of your thanksgiving. If you want to see results from the saint’s intercession, let’s see some action on your part, too, thanking the saint for his or her hard work on your behalf. If you’re lazy with your thanksgiving and gratitude, how much effort do you think the saint’s going to expend on your behalf? If you just mouth empty words or perform halfhearted acts, do you think they won’t notice or wouldn’t mind?

In the process, in theory, it should help diminish the superstitious aspect of things. She should accumulate grace, or acts of charity, to her spiritual benefit, whether or not she recognizes it at the time. She might develop a more personal, human relationship with the saints as she finds out more about them and what they esteemed, rather than viewing them as so many Santa Clauses running around.

–edit-- Just to be clear, the saints are often quite indulgent with those of us who can be very demanding, ungrateful, and/or thoughtless. 😉 But who wants to be that someone who’s always asking for stuff and never giving a proper thank-you once you get it? 😛
 
Dear Midori, Great insight and depth in your response and much appreciated. I judge others by who I am and how I do things. When I dig into it, in all honesty, I’m a selfish individual. As much as I 've grown in understanding of God’s goodness I still pray best and most ardently when I’m hurting or in need. I have words of advice posted on my board,“In times of trouble Praise God and pray for Wisdom”. This is not natural human reaction but I have found this to always provide comfort, solace, and hope. And yet as much as I know this it still seems to be the last place I go.
It’s my hope that the mother who has some interest and understanding of a saint can get drawn into the personal. To realize the flesh and blood existence and struggles, thus being exposed to God’s Goodness and mercy and ultimately our need to be thankful and praise. I know this is all backwards but sadly , this is the journey i and many others have to take to true appreciation and Love of God.
Want to add this. It’s my hope that the young people like yourself are a sign of a “New Spring” on this earth, that my generation is as bad as it gets before a Great Renewal comes about.
 
Thanks - I think the key is the need to understand that its about relationships, not just means…great point, Midori, in saying that with the practice of gratitude will come that recognition. She’s open and I will try finding some good reading material for her to clarify this. Thank you all for your responses.
 
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