I guess I do.
Where did the idea of Catholics praying to saints come from? Maybe it was a protestant misinterpritation… but where would they get that idea then?
I’m pretty sure God the father does not care who you pray to if HE IS JESUS!
Are catholics not trinitarian (Father-Son-Holy-Spirit: 3 persons in 1).
If that is true, then why would he care.
Catholics use the word ‘pray’ in two ways. When we ‘pray’ to the persons of the Trinity we express contrition, adoration, love, thanksgiving, petition, and sometimes just talk from the heart. We meditate on events from the bible. Sometimes we just are silent in his presence. We ‘offer the sacrifice of praise’. We approach God as the One from whom all thing come (the Father). He is the Lord and giver of life (the Holy Spirit). He is our savior (Jesus, the eternal Son of the Father). Most of the prayers during mass are addressed to the Father.
In the creed we affirm we believe in the Communion of Saints, that is, the union of the members of Christ’s body on earth (the church) with the saints in heaven and with those who have died and are being purified in preparation for entering into God’s presence. That’s the meaning of the expression ‘the communion of saints’. It’s only because the saints are joined to us in Christ that they can be aware of us. We know that we are surrounded by a ‘cloud of witnesses’.
When we ‘pray’ to saints, we speak to them as our friends in high places. We ask them to pray for us and with us to God. We remember what God has done in their lives. We identify with certain saints who may have been like us in some way. St. Anne was Jesus’ grandmother, Francis of Assisi was a rich man who gave up his riches to follow God’s will. He saw God’s handiwork in all nature. St. Ignatius had been a soldier. Maria Goretti was a teenager murdered by a boarder in her house because she refused to sleep with him. Fr. Damien worked with poor people who had leprosy and finally died of the disease. There are saints of all races and ages. Of course the saint who loved Jesus best and who was most blessed by God was Jesus’ mother, Mary. We relate to her as our mother as well.
We also ‘pray’ to the angels who God has permitted to protect us from danger and evil. We recognize that God has made them our partners and helpers in the fight against satan. We believe God has given us each a guardian angel who is with us but also always in God’s presence.
Sometimes God works directly in our lives and sometimes he works through another person here on earth, and sometimes through a saint or an angel.
In a bit of an analogy – I have dogs and cats. My dogs always come when I call (cats are another story
) and they seek me out for affection and food. But I get a lot of enjoyment watching them interact with each other. God created us for himself but I think he likes it when we interact with each other according to his will and plan.
Carlan
