Praying TO Saints

Livindesert

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I, too, have a special needs child - when his condition became acute (before he was diagnosed), and our entire family was deeply affected by this, I had little time to pray; our other 5 children were so pained by this, too. I prayed to God as much as I could, and asked the prayers of family, friends, the Theotokos and specific Saints. There was an entire monastery (of his Saint, in Israel) praying for us through the request of a Kombara. We had such prayer coverage, all hours in heaven and on earth -- it helped me not to despair, knowing that in terms of prayer, we were not only having my puny prayers.

glory be to God +

By admiting your prayers are puny you have proved they are not.:hug:
 
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Anglian

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By admiting your prayers are puny you have proved they are not.:hug:
Indeed, dear brother. God will grant our prayers as they accord with His will and our good. These things we cannot know or see.

peace,

Anglian
 
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Dorothea

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I agree.

In our case, he will learn to cope better (God willing).... but he will likely never live on his own.

Praying to the Saints is like getting a big hug from my Mom and hearing that she'll take care of things for a couple of minutes while I rest.

As a note, St. John the Wonderworker prays for my son too. It was mentioned over at TAW that I should ask his intercessions and the very next day my godmother brought 2 icon cards and a little icon medallion for my son. I hadn't mentioned it, but for some reason she thought we needed it.
What a wonderful way to explain it, cobweb! And yes, St. John the Wonderworker also prays for my son. What a blessing for your son and Thekla's son as well. :) We have two bottles of holy oil from the monastery of St. John in San Fran that was given to us when we were in the hospital in Seattle's Children's Hospital back in 2003 by a priest who came to visit us. Our priest back in Spokane at the time must have put the word out. We had just moved to WA, and we already had priests in Seattle coming to annoint our son and give him Holy Communion. Two Greek priests and one Russian priest. It was such a blessing. When we got back to Spokane, our priest gave us a bottle of the holy oil as well. I annoint him weekly. :)
 
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katherine2001

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Cobweb, have you thought about getting some of the oil from the vigil lamps in the Cathedral in San Francisco? You might want to contact them and see if you can get some. I am hoping to make a trip to San Francisco next year (2010). I definitely want to go there and attend Vigil on Saturday by his crypt. St. John of Shanghai and San Francisco is one of my favorite saints and I ask for his prayers every day. God worked a lot of healings through St. John when he was alive and is still working many healings through him and his powerful prayers. I definitely want to get some oil when I go.
 
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kenblaster5000

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When is the last time anyone mentioned the name of Jesus Christ? Do these saints really deserve the glory. When you say God, do you mean the God of the trinity, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. God spared my mom from Leukemia, because I prayed a fervent, heart felt, simple prayer that I love her and cannot live without her. I give the Father the glory in Jesus name. I have seen alot of miracles, confirmation, signs, and wonderful things, not done through any saint in heaven, and definately done in Jesus name, for God's glory. You seem to care more about your saints than the Lord Jesus Christ. I will leave you to your respective miracle worker, power, signs, and lying wonders. I cannot be unequally yoked with people who love and worship saints over the Lord Jesus Christ. I am on my way to worship Him right now. See ya.
 
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Sphinx777

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cking-feast1.jpg
 
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Thekla

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When is the last time anyone mentioned the name of Jesus Christ? Do these saints really deserve the glory. When you say God, do you mean the God of the trinity, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. God spared my mom from Leukemia, because I prayed a fervent, heart felt, simple prayer that I love her and cannot live without her. I give the Father the glory in Jesus name. I have seen alot of miracles, confirmation, signs, and wonderful things, not done through any saint in heaven, and definately done in Jesus name, for God's glory. You seem to care more about your saints than the Lord Jesus Christ. I will leave you to your respective miracle worker, power, signs, and lying wonders. I cannot be unequally yoked with people who love and worship saints over the Lord Jesus Christ. I am on my way to worship Him right now. See ya.

Hello again :)

actually, Christ has been mentioned frequently in this thread; I just scanned the last several pages to check :thumbsup:

Father, Son and Holy Spirit is the most complete name of God; so God can also refer to any member of the Trinity.

Thank God -- it is truly a blessing to hear about your mom !

I don't think anyone here worships Saints at all - because they are not worshiped, they cannot be worshipped "... over the Lord Jesus Christ."

To acknowledge and honor the method God wills, and to demonstrate in action love for the members of the body of Christ is to honor God.
 
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narnia59

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When is the last time anyone mentioned the name of Jesus Christ? Do these saints really deserve the glory. When you say God, do you mean the God of the trinity, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. God spared my mom from Leukemia, because I prayed a fervent, heart felt, simple prayer that I love her and cannot live without her. I give the Father the glory in Jesus name. I have seen alot of miracles, confirmation, signs, and wonderful things, not done through any saint in heaven, and definately done in Jesus name, for God's glory. You seem to care more about your saints than the Lord Jesus Christ. I will leave you to your respective miracle worker, power, signs, and lying wonders. I cannot be unequally yoked with people who love and worship saints over the Lord Jesus Christ. I am on my way to worship Him right now. See ya.
Hmm, you come into a forum area specifically designated to discuss theology surrounding saints, into a thread specifically about saints, and then because people are talking about (gasp!) saints, you discern that saints are more important to them than Christ? All you have proven is that people who want to find fault will find fault, regardless of the truth of the matter.

And the truth of the matter is this -- St. Paul says to give honor and respect to those whom it is due. Does that mean by doing so it is taking away from honoring Christ? Is this what Paul is commanding -- honor these instead of Christ?

It seems the ability to take a both/and situation and force an illogical either/or seems to be a talent some have worked overtime to develop.

Scripture itself says things like Paul healed a man. Does this mean it is taking away from Christ in doing so? Careful, next thing you'll decide is you're unequally yoked with Scripture as well for thinking it isn't necessary to always identify God as the source and assume Christians simply know this. :doh:
 
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narnia59

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God works through His Saints. Everything we talk about has to do with God - the Trinity, the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. It's all connected. :)
Such as "11 God did extraordinary miracleshttp://www.biblestudytools.com/acts/19.html#cr-descriptionAnchor-19 through Paul, 12 so that even handkerchiefs and aprons that had touched him were taken to the sick, and their illnesses were curedhttp://www.biblestudytools.com/acts/19.html#cr-descriptionAnchor-20 and the evil spirits left them."
 
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Dorothea

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Such as "11 God did extraordinary miracles through Paul, 12 so that even handkerchiefs and aprons that had touched him were taken to the sick, and their illnesses were cured and the evil spirits left them."
Yes, such as that. :D
 
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Philothei

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Well saints in Heaven are just clay that God molded for His purpose and Glory. Mere human beings that have passed from this life The only thing Special about saints is Christ.

So that means that we could not pray for their intercession? They live next to God in heaven and still we have to think of them as "clay'? They have as we hopefully too have eternal souls....far from the 'clay' that is our bodies... indeed...The saints are truly made 'saints" as per the way they lived closer to God while on earth and in total communion with Him in the afterlife...


Christ is the only godman ever worshiped now that is different story...:wave::wave:
 
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So that means that we could not pray for their intercession? They live next to God in heaven and still we have to think of them as "clay'? They have as we hopefully too have eternal souls....far from the 'clay' that is our bodies... indeed...The saints are truly made 'saints" as per the way they lived closer to God while on earth and in total communion with Him in the afterlife...


Christ is the only godman ever worshiped now that is different story...:wave::wave:
We all have eternal spirits.. Just depends on where one spends enternity and that is not up to the man but up to God and who He will have mercy Upon. For God is our salvation and not ourselves.. Nothing we can ever do to save ourselves or be made a saint.. Saints are saved people by the very Grace of God.. Not of works lest any man should boast. They no longer live here on earth among us.. Therefore how can we know anything they hear or think or say or do? We cannot see them nor can we hear them..
 
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bbbbbbb

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Hey Folks! Time to wake up and get back to the OP!

The OP was not about asking the saints to intercede for anyone.

The OP was about asking the saints to do things for us. As is typical, the thread has meandered into the paths of discussing the merits of having disembodied people intercede with God for embodied people such as ourselves.

Are we to be commended for asking saints to do things for us that God can, and is willing, to do? By that I mean, for example, should I pray to St. Christopher to prevent my car from sliding off the road or should I pray to God for such safety?
 
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Jpark

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I have been told and read, any number of times that Catholics don't pray to angels. I just saw a thread on this board with prayers to a saint. Not through a saint (whatever that means) but TO A SAINT, along the lines of - Protect and guide me.
IMHO
Prayer is for talking to the triune God. Our Father, Jesus and Holy Spirit. Not some created being. God alone provides protection and guidance.

Where in Scripture does it say you should pray to other created beings instead of The Creator?
It is Catholic error to declare a person a saint. Only God can bestow that position.

we know them from their fruits and in your tadition (calvinist) that would be if they are elect they bear fruits... and thus they are sainst...Makes sense now..*I do not agree since I am not a calvinist* but trying to explain it to ya... "you will know them by their fruits" the EO and RC does canonize saints who do have much fruit and bear the signs of Christ...
 
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Philothei

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We cannot see them nor can we hear them..

we can neither see God or his anglels with our "bare" eyes does this means they do not exist. They are in the company of the saints for we are told in the bible the saints do that and God places them there. We are to be humble and have a humble spirit and we know from a certain person's fruits of the spirit that he is closer to God here on earth and of course in the after life. We are told in the Bible that ultimately we know who is with God of the fruits he bears ;)

There is nothing in the Bible that forbits us from praying for the intersession of the saints.
 
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I'll never understand praying to someone with no power to answer prayer, instead of praying to the Father in Jesus name. Do people think that Jesus or the Father are too busy to answer prayer? As a former Roman Catholic I must admit I no longer understand the rationale. Saints, who are they? When I was growing up the Church was purging saints from their list of saints because they now believed some of these saintly people never existed. So what about all the people who prayed to the non-existent or "legendary" saints? They for sure didn't get their prayers answered unless the Lord had mercy on them. Now I hear that the Roman Catholic Church is considering sainthood for Pope Pious XII, also known as Hitlers Pope (see historian John Cornwell's book of the same name). Are you looking forward to praying to him, or do you disagree with this move? If this all sounds too harsh, I apologize. I know there are many good Christians in the Roman Catholic Church. My harsh remarks are not directed at church members, but at their leadership.
 
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