Friday, November 7, 2008

Why Do Roman Catholics Pray to Saints?

Shallom,


Like all Christians, Catholics believe in life after death, but they also believe that our relationship with other Christians does not end with death. Catholic prayer to saints is a recognition of this communion.

-Do Catholics believe that saints should be worshiped?
-Why do they pray to saints?
-Is there a difference between prayer and worship?

Answer:

The Communion of Saints

Like all Christians, Catholics believe in life after death. Those who have lived good lives and died in the faith of Christ will, as the Bible tells us, share in his resurrection.

While we live together on earth as Christians, we are in communion, or unity, with one another. But that communion doesn’t end when one of us dies. We believe that Christians in heaven, the saints, remain in communion with those of us on earth.

So, just as we might ask a friend or family member to pray for us, we can approach a saint with our prayers, too.

The Difference Between Prayer and Worship

Many non-Catholic Christians believe that it is wrong to pray to the saints, claiming that our prayers should be directed to God alone. Some Catholics, responding to this criticism, have argued that we do not pray to the saints but with them.

Both groups, however, are confusing prayer with worship. True worship (as opposed to veneration or honor) does indeed belong to God alone, and we should never worship man or any other creature as we worship God. But while worship may take the form of prayer, as in the Mass and other liturgies of the Church, not all prayer is worship. When we pray to the saints, we’re simply asking them to help us, by praying to God on our behalf, or thanking them for having already done so.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Praying with or to the saints (whichever way you choose to see it) has NO scriptural basis.

Prayers on behalf of the dead or to them have no meaning, for nothing can be changed by them. God's Word shows that the dead no longer have any physical or mental activity (Psalm 146:4; Ecclesiastes 9:5, 10). Each person who dies sleeps in his grave in unconsciousness until the resurrection (John 5:28-29; Daniel 12:2; Job 19:25-26; 14:12-14; John 3:13; Acts 2:29, 34). Clearly, prayers should be for the living while there is still hope of repentance, not for the dead, who can do nothing.

Prayers for the dead are based on the false teaching that man possesses an immortal soul. Some believe that at death a wicked person's "immortal" soul is tormented in hell. Friends and relatives then pray that the departed "soul" be spared some of its suffering. However, the Bible says that the soul itself can die (Ezekiel 18:4, 20; Matt 10:28; also, compare the last parts of Genesis 2:7, 17). In addition, Solomon says the human spirit returns to God, not to some place of punishment (Ecclesiastes 12:7; see Job 32:8). God preserves the spirit until He can return it in the resurrection from the dead when eternal judgment—to either eternal life or eternal death—is determined (see Ezekiel 37:1-14; Revelation 20:14-15; 21:6-8). There are absolutely no biblical grounds for the doctrine of the immortality of the soul which argue for the veneration, worship or exaltation of saints.