Why ask for the saint's intercession to begin with?

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Pathway2

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Why ask the saints to intercede for us? why not go in front of God through prayer?
 
I’m sure we do both often, I do.

I ask a saint to pray for me hoping that as that saint is closer to God than I his or her prayer will have greater power than mine alone. It’s like asking a friend to lend a hand.
 
By asking the Saint’s for their intercession, we ask that they pray for us by having them pray to God about what we have requested. Basically, we are not praying to saints, we ask for their prayers. Being in Heaven, saints’ prayers will help us a lot.
 
Would a saint be able to deny intercession if they determine our prayer request is ill-advised or doesn’t comport with God’s will? If not, intercession requests would put a saint in an awkward position.
 
The Saints don’t do the work. God does the work either directly or by giving the saint a charism. Saints have no power of their own authority.
 
Are you saying a saint will take every intercession request to God or do they have the ability to deny a request for intercession if they determine it is ill-advised or immoral?
 
Obviously a saint isn’t going to intercede for anything immoral.

If it’s not immoral, then the saint would no doubt pray that God grant the favor if He thinks it would be good for the person, and that God help the person in the best way if God has decided the favor is not good for the person. I’m sure a saint might express to God their personal thought/ opinion on the request, but the decision is ultimately God’s.
 
Pathway2 said:
Why ask the saints to intercede for us?
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Asking other people to pray for us is a mystery to you? Why is that? When we want someone to do us a favor, it’s perfectly natural to get other people to encourage him to do it.
 
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KevinK said:
Are you saying a saint will take every intercession request to God or do they have the ability to deny a request for intercession if they determine it is ill-advised or immoral?
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We have no reason to think that souls have lost their capacity to reason. It seems obvious that a perfected righteous soul would not ask for anything contrary to the will of God.
 
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In a word: networking.

It’s all in who you know.

“Hey, St. Joseph, if you have a moment, next time you’re with God, would you consider putting in a good word for me?”

Although, they say the best way to get in to the boss is through his secretary. Maybe it would be better to do something nice for St. Peter, then he’ll remember you when you show up at the kingdom’s gate.

I’m being facetious, obviously (I hope it’s obvious) but the fact is, when we pray for intercession we are essentially networking and building up our connections with God.
 
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Pathway2 said:
Why ask the saints to intercede for us? why not go in front of God through prayer?
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Why do catholic’s pray to the saints when they can’t answer? Sacred Scripture
Saints do answer! God makes them aware of our prayers for intercession and they pray for us. Merriam Webster: answer, noun (3) something done in response or reaction Scripture: Revelation 5:8 And when he had taken the scroll, the four living creatures and the twenty-four elders fell down before the Lamb, each holding a harp, and with golden bowls full of incense, which are the prayers of the saints; James 5: 16 Therefore confess your sins to one another, and pray for one another, that…
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In addition to the saints being more powerful in prayer than ordinary sinners on earth like you and me, prayer, like most things…

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Or three or a dozen or however many saints you wish to involve in your prayer life.
 
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Others can go into the theology. The theology is sound but the reality of the efficacy of the intercessory prayers of the “righteous man” are absolutely dumbfounding. I’ll ask you to experiment. Ask St. Paul to intercede for the grace to pray unceasingly. Ask him for the grace to be set afire or for the grace to know the Truth. These are righteaous prayers and causes he would have cared about on earth. He said he has run the race and finished it so presumably he’s in heaven. God gave the apostles the power to perform miracles in Jesus name. I have seen miraculous things happen because of the intercession of my friends, the saints.

I have so many miraculous stories just in my own life due to prayers for intercession from the saints. I pray to Saint Paul for the grace to pray unceasingly and
I wake up at night praying. I pray to St Patrick for our Bishop and diocese and receive all kinds of signal graces and intense consolation that this is what God desires. I experience all kinds of answers to simple prayers I offer up to God through the prayer of the “righteous man” whose prayers availeth much.

I experienced an intense smell of flowers in my kitchen while praying a Novena to St Therese (who has said would send a shower of roses and do good upon earth when she was in heaven). After praying for the doctors to become confused and not complete a friend’s husband’s vasectomy, he became confused and the friends decided it was God’s will to not do it and now they have their only girl after three boys, born three weeks before my own little girl. After prayers to Blessed Father Solanus Casey, a friend of mine became pregnant and is having a healthy pregnancy at 36 after 12 years of infertility and miscarriages. They could only become pregnant with fertility meds until this pregnancy. My aunt sent his relic and unbeknownst to us that his feast was that Monday, she sent the relic Saturday by usps and it got there Monday, on his feast day. This woman’s husband happened to be in Detroit on his feast and they were saying masses all day for his feast.

All I’m saying is that the proof is in the pudding. I could go on and on, but great is the body of Christ and God who shows His glory in His saints. He used people to accomplish His will throughout salvation history and he hasn’t stopped either on earth or in heaven when the saints like in Revelation 8:4 offer their prayers.

❤️❤️❤️
 
Tis_Bearself said:
I’m sure a saint might express to God their personal thought/ opinion on the request, but the decision is ultimately God’s.
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If God is perfect and everything He does is optimal and perfect, then the opinion of a saint is of no relevance.
 
KevinK said:
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Tis_Bearself:
I’m sure a saint might express to God their personal thought/ opinion on the request, but the decision is ultimately God’s.
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If God is perfect and everything He does is optimal and perfect, then the opinion of a saint is of no relevance.
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I would say that Saints in heaven have to be in perfect harmony with God’s will. That’s part of being perfected and purified for heaven. That’s what we are striving for on earth: perfect sinc with God’s will. He is veiled so we struggle and have to have faith and will His will ourselves, ask for the grace to do right/pray right. It all takes faith. In heaven, though, I believe it would be part of the air they breathe, knowing God’s ways and what is right, good, true and what would be harmonious for people’s lives.
 
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Then why did God allow himself to be persuaded by Abraham in Genesis 18:20-31?
[[20]]And the Lord said: The cry of Sodom and Gomorrha is multiplied, and their sin is become exceedingly grievous.

[[21]] I will go down and see whether they have done according to the cry that is come to me: or whether it be not so, that I may know. [[22]]And they turned themselves from thence, and went their way to Sodom: but Abraham as yet stood before the Lord. [[23]] And drawing nigh he said: Wilt thou destroy the just with the wicked? [[24]] If there be fifty just men in the city, shall they perish withal? and wilt thou not spare that place for the sake of the fifty just, if they be therein? [[25]] Far be it from thee to do this thing, and to slay the just with the wicked, and for the just to be in like case as the wicked, this is not beseeming thee: thou who judgest all the earth, wilt not make this judgment.

[[26]] And the Lord said to him: If I find in Sodom fifty just within the city, I will spare the whole place for their sake. [[27]]And Abraham answered, and said: Seeing I have once begun, I will speak to my Lord, whereas I am dust and ashes. [[28]] What if there be five less than fifty just persons? wilt thou for five and forty destroy the whole city? And he said: I will not destroy it, if I find five And again he said to him: But if forty be found there, what wilt thou do? He said: I will not destroy it for the sake of forty. [[30]] Lord, saith he, be not angry, I beseech thee, if I speak: What if thirty shall be found there? He answered: I will not do it, if I find thirty there.

[[31]] Seeing, saith he, I have once begun, I will speak to my Lord. What if twenty be found there? He said: I will not destroy it for the sake of twenty. [[32]] I beseech thee, saith he, be not angry, Lord, if I speak yet once more: What if ten should be found there? And he said: I will not destroy it for the sake of ten. [[33]] And the Lord departed, after he had left speaking to Abraham: and Abraham returned to his place.
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And why did Jesus change water into wine at Cana only after his mother, the greatest saint of all, called it to his attention?
 
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We are also, through intercessory prayer, learning how to love our neighbor and care about our neighbor’s woes. God doesn’t “need” our prayers or the saints’ prayers but it is evidenced through scripture that he desires to use people to effect his will and that it humbles is to pray for something that otherwise would not matter to us. To pray because we know how great He is and because we love Him. And prayer changes us…it purifies us.

The most righteous prayers are the prayers for virtues and for things that lead people to God but as evidenced in Jesus, God sent his son to heal and the body of His son can heal as well. Prayers for sanctification, for conversion and for salvation are almost always answered affirmatively by God because those are His greatest desires. To bring souls to Himself.
 
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