What is proper when praying to Saint's?

[donnyblake]

At my church, The National Shrine of the Little Flower in Royal Oak, MI. we have many stautues of Saints, such as St. Jude, St. Perpetua, St. Joseph and of course St. Therese. I ask for their intercession regularly. When I stand or kneel before their statues is it proper for me to make the Sign of the Cross before praying, or is that innapropriate and only reserved when praying before Christ? I also make the SOTC when praying to Mary. Any help would be appreciated.

 

[iamscifimike]

I can’t speak for church teaching here, but I would think the SOTC would be more important to signify in whose name you are praying, ie. not the particular saint.

God Bless All,
Michael

 

[Brendan]

At my church, The National Shrine of the Little Flower in Royal Oak, MI. we have many stautues of Saints, such as St. Jude, St. Perpetua, St. Joseph and of course St. Therese. I ask for their intercession regularly. When I stand or kneel before their statues is it proper for me to make the Sign of the Cross before praying, or is that innapropriate and only reserved when praying before Christ? I also make the SOTC when praying to Mary. Any help would be appreciated.

The Sign of the Cross is always appropriate prior to any pious action, that includes prayer to the saints, good works or even almsgiving.

It reminds us that all good thing are to be done in the Name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirt.

For example, prior to moving to a new house, I used to drive past your parish on my way to work. I would cross myself when passing the cemetary accross the street, in prayer for the souls of those departed who are buried there, and then shortly afterward, as I drove past Shrine, in prayer to Christ in the Tabernacle there, for a productive and holy work day.

I’d repeat the same on my way home.

All of which was done in the Name of the Holy Trinity and in union with the Cross of Christ, all of which the Signum Crucis remind us of.

So keep it up

 

[holy_roamer]

At my church, The National Shrine of the Little Flower in Royal Oak, MI. we have many stautues of Saints, such as St. Jude, St. Perpetua, St. Joseph and of course St. Therese. I ask for their intercession regularly. When I stand or kneel before their statues is it proper for me to make the Sign of the Cross before praying, or is that innapropriate and only reserved when praying before Christ? I also make the SOTC when praying to Mary. Any help would be appreciated.

I think that it depends on where a person is in their walk with the Lord? Eventually, I grew out of that sort of stuff, and I now go directly to God the Father through Jesus Christ.

The only two that I meditate about are Mary the mother of Jesus and Saint Margaret Mary Alacoque. I do not pray directly to either, but sort of ponder about them.

As a Charismatic I am fine tuned to the mystical channel of Saint Margaret Mary and her sense of indwelling of the Holy Spirit and her personal union with the crucified and risen Christ. My pondering is a highly personal devotion to the “Heart” of Jesus and not to Saint Margaret Mary.

When it come to praying to Mary, well, there has been so much written that I wont add to it. A couple of interesting passages are: “But Mary kept all these things and pondered them in her heart” (Luke 2:19) and “His mother kept all these sayings in her heart” (Luke 2:51) KJV

I believer I’m on safe ground if I ponder what Mary pondered about Jesus rather than praying directly to her. In the First Epistle of Paul the Apostle to Timothy, Paul said that Christ Jesus is the only mediator between God and man, so I stay on that safe ground and as a Charismatic follow Paul’s teaching.

Here is the stuff:

“For there is one God, and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus; Who gave himself a ransom for all, to be testified in due time.” (I Timothy 2:5,6)

 

[Miserissima]

I just wanted to throw this out there: be careful when you use the word “pray.” Prayer to God is worship, prayer to the Saints is asking for their intercession. That’s why, when I pray to a saint in personal devotion, I’m careful about the words I choose. (Since it’s private devotion, you can change the words around, unlike the Liturgy). For example, the prayer to Our Lady of LaVang goes like this:

Blessed Lady of Lavang, be my mother and comfort me, especially in times of trial and unhappiness. Enter my heart and stay with me wherever I may go. Grant that one day, through you, I may find rest and peace in my Father’s house.

I change the last sentence to, “Grant that one day, through your intercession, I may find rest and peace in my Father’s house.” It may be piddly, but it makes me more comfortable.

 

[Godlovestrength]

This thread is so cool, it has neither ambiguity or anamosity.
It is as though I can feel the individual feeling of each of yo for God in the way you do.
Godbless keepitup.