Why don't Protestants asks the saints for intercession?

[Joseph_L_Varga]

Hi all!

Honestly, I don’t think that there is anything wrong with asking the saints to intercede…but it just seems awkward, uncomfortable, and unnecessary for me to do this. I’ve been raised to pray directly to God the Father & Son, so prayer to anyone else just seems strange…like I’m distancing myself unnecessarily from my Beloved Savior. But, that’s just how I feel - no judgment against those who find comfort in saintly intercession!

Peace and blessings,
Julie

Hi Julie,

would you have a problem asking a living family member, friend, or member of your congregation, to pray for your intentions to God? When we Catholics pray to the saints, we ask them to pray to God for our intentions (we do not worship the saints). In Catholic usage, prayer to the saints means fervently asking the saints to intercede with God for our intentions. In old English language, pray does mean to fervently ask. So, in our mind, fervently asking a saint to pray to God for our intentions is not really different from fervently asking our family members, and friends, to pray to God for our intentions.

We Catholics do both: we do pray directly to God, but we also ask other human beings (and even the angels) to join in with our prayers to God. It’s not really either/or (you either pray directly to God, or you ask the saints to pray for you). It’s both/and. When I’m in trouble, I pray directly to God (Father, Son, and Holy Spirit) for help. But in addition, I also ask the Angels (including my Guardian Angel, and St. Michael the Archangel), the Saints (including Holy Mary and other saints), and my family members and friends from my church, to pray for me.

And one reason why it’s not unnecessary to pray to the saints (=to ask them to intercede for us) is that “the prayer of the righteous availeth much”. Quite simply, the prayer of a saintly person, who is closer to God than I am, is more powerful than my own prayer. In Job chapter 42, God goes as far as to command Job’s friends to pray for them. The three friends offended God, and God tells the three friends of Job that the righteous Job should pray for them, because he (God) will listen to Job’s prayers, not to severely punish the three friends. The implication is that God will not listen to the prayers of the three who offended him, but he will listen to the prayers of the righteous Job. I already posted about this example from Job chapter 42, in post #14 of this thread.

 

[onenow1]

Now now! :tsktsk: who said that we stop loving those who go on to the next step. Certainly not me.

In context your :tsktsk: takes my context and reverses it into a specious response !
First of all I have no way of knowing if you love your parents or not.

The truth Bob,we are all part of God’s family He is our Creator and chooses to deal with us as a Father ! I ask you Bob would God deny our love, or prayer, in regard to His Family in the afterlife ? He certainly took the thief, with Himself to Paradise, and I would suspect many Saints since then.

I repeat Jesus demonstrated on the cross, death will not seperate the family of God.

Only sin causes a seperation, in particular a mortal sin like adultry, idolatry,etc…
In fact Jesus says we will be like angels in heaven no need for marriage.

God Bless

 

[Hiskid1973]

I repeat Jesus demonstrated on the cross, death will not seperate the family of God.

Only sin causes a seperation, in particular a mortal sin like adultry, idolatry,etc…
In fact Jesus says we will be like angels in heaven no need for marriage.
God Bless

No one denies they are not part of the family…It’s the contacting of them that is the issue…We know how Jesus and the apostles prayed…We know the divine attributes of the Holy Trinity.

 

[onenow1]

No one denies they are not part of the family…It’s the contacting of them that is the issue…We know how Jesus and the apostles prayed…We know the divine attributes of the Holy Trinity.

Hi, Kid,

Answer:If the mere fact that we can go straight to Jesus proved that we should ask no Christian in heaven to pray for us, then it would also prove that we should ask no Christian on earth to pray for us. Dont"cha think ?

Peace
onenow1

 

[Hiskid1973]

Hi, Kid,

Answer:If the mere fact that we can go straight to Jesus proved that we should ask no Christian in heaven to pray for us, then it would also prove that we should ask no Christian on earth to pray for us. Dont"cha think ?

Peace
onenow1

We’ll here’s the thing, we are told by letters written to living believers in the churches to pray for one another…Paul asked for it, he knew the letters went to other believers…Prayer is a main facet of our faith…You would think addressing prayer to the dead in Christ(those who left this realm and out of our physical contact) would have been addressed as a NT issue…Take when Stephen was martyred, that would have been a perfect time to discuss it…Anyway it is part of your faith and you have the choice to do it or not…Everything filters through Christ anyway for Him to do His will for our life…It just makes more sense when we are told to boldly approach the throne…We are welcomed to cast our cares directly rather than have to give giving it to the gatekeeper and ask them to take it in…I know the attributes of the Holy Trinity, do we know the attributes of the dead in Christ who have not received their resurrected bodies?
Anyway this thread is about why we don’t do it as opposed to debating about it…Grace and peace to you also.

 

[JRRTFAN]

Hi all!

Honestly, I don’t think that there is anything wrong with asking the saints to intercede…but it just seems awkward, uncomfortable, and unnecessary for me to do this. I’ve been raised to pray directly to God the Father & Son, so prayer to anyone else just seems strange…like I’m distancing myself unnecessarily from my Beloved Savior. But, that’s just how I feel - no judgment against those who find comfort in saintly intercession!

Peace and blessings,
Julie

At the risk of sounding a little off, let me ask you, do you have a prayer list for the sick or troubled in your Church? In other words, we were all raised to pray directly to God, the Mass is entirely directed to God, but we were also raised to request the prayers and intercession of others. Every Catholic bulletin I’ve ever seen has a prayer list in it for people in need and they need our prayers, as we need their’s. But is is not a consistent argument to exclude those in the very presence of God from the list of those we want praying for us.

 

[mark_a]

If Mary was sinless, how then could she have died, since death is a result of sin? In other words, I don’t see how she could have died if she was assumed. If she died, then communication with a Marian Apparition could be seen as necromancy.

Good point. Catholics are free to hold either (maybe others too) theological opinion that she died or didn’t die because the Catholic Church makes no claim as to whether or not Mary died before being assumed.

I mean if Mary died, how are her alleged appearences different than say, if my grandmother Mary appeared to me and attempted to communicate with me?

I don’t know that they are. Did your grandmother ask you to pray this prayer: “Oh my Jesus, forgive us our sins and save us from the fires of hell, lead all souls to heaven, especially those in most need of thy mercy. Amen”?

 

[onenow1]

We’ll here’s the thing, we are told by letters written to living believers in the churches to pray for one another…Paul asked for it, he knew the letters went to other believers…Prayer is a main facet of our faith…You would think addressing prayer to the dead in Christ(those who left this realm and out of our physical contact) would have been addressed as a NT issue…Take when Stephen was martyred, that would have been a perfect time to discuss it…Anyway it is part of your faith and you have the choice to do it or not…Everything filters through Christ anyway for Him to do His will for our life…It just makes more sense when we are told to boldly approach the throne…We are welcomed to cast our cares directly rather than have to give giving it to the gatekeeper and ask them to take it in…I know the attributes of the Holy Trinity, do we know the attributes of the dead in Christ who have not received their resurrected bodies?
Anyway this thread is about why we don’t do it as opposed to debating about it…Grace and peace to you also.

Indeed ! Here’s what the Spirit Has to say Kid. Rev. 14: 13 Then I heard a voice from heaven say to me,"Write down; Blessed are those who die in the Lord ! Blessed Indeed, the Spirit says; now they can rest forever after their work, since there good deeds go with them.

I think Kid uderstood, correctly, today as is sometimes said, Jesus and me alone,cannot be we must be in communion with Jesus, He did ask for this you know. John 17: 23 I in them and thou in me, that they may become perfectly one, so that the world may know that thou hast sent me and hast loved them, even as thou hast loved me

Peace