Honest question "re: Praying to the Saints"

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Sign Of The Fish Burger

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Hey guys!

Hope you don't mind me popping in every once and awhile with questions :D

I was laying in bed last night thinking at 3am and I came up with a question I didn't have an answer for.

This is an honest question, there is absolutely no intent behind the question other than what it is.

Now I totally understand based on conversations with Fillia Marie why Catholics pray to Mary. She explained it really well in a way I was able to understand- Not praying TO her, but (and correct me if I am wrong) asking her to pray for you?

So my question is (and I'm sure this is extremely rocky and everyone is laughing at me :p) assuming I understood what FM told me that praying to Mary (or the other Saints) is like asking a friend to pray for you, do Catholics also hold the understanding or belief that say your mother, who is a devout Catholic (or believer, whatever) died you could pray to her, and ask her to pray on your behalf? Or does this only apply to Saints?
 

Sign Of The Fish Burger

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Well that was an easy answer :D

Do Catholics regularly practice this? To be quite honest I find it a beautiful part of the Catholic Faith. Maybe it's because I recently lost a family member, but there is something comforting in knowing that you can keep that line... (right word?) of communication open via prayer with someone you dearly love.

Obviously I'm not well educated with all the proper lingo, so I'm just hoping I'm not offending a ton of people as I type these things.
 
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isshinwhat

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...assuming I understood what FM told me that praying to Mary (or the other Saints) is like asking a friend to pray for you, do Catholics also hold the understanding or belief that say your mother, who is a devout Catholic (or believer, whatever) died you could pray to her, and ask her to pray on your behalf? Or does this only apply to Saints?

From the Catholic Encyclopedia:

There are at present two ways in which the Church allows public worship to be paid those who have lived in the fame of sanctity or died as martyrs. Of these some are beatified, others are canonized. (See BEATIFICATION AND CANONIZATION). Beatification is a permission for public worship restricted to certain places and to certain acts. In the more recent discipline of the Church, the pope alone can beatify, though formerly bishops could grant the honour of beatification to those of the faithful who had shed their blood for Christ or lived lives of heroic virtue. All those permissions for public worship which in the early ages of the Church were granted to particular churches and spread thence with the sanction of other bishops to other congregations, to be finally made a matter a precept for the universal Church by the Roman pontiff, constituted beatification and canonization in the exact sense of the word. It was only beatification while the cult, of the martyr for instance, was restricted to the place where he had suffered, but became canonization when it was received in the entire Church. The difference between canonization and beatification lies in the presence or absence of two elements which are found united in canonization and either separate or entirely absent from beatification, though generally only one is lacking. These elements are:
  • the precepts regarding public worship, and
  • its extention to the whole Church.

So I guess the answer to your question is yes, but theologically the way we would go about it would be different. Whereas we are certain of the presence of a Blessed or Saint in Heaven, we cannot be with individual family members, etc. We pray for them, definately, but the way we would ask for their prayers would be similar to this prayer seeking the intercession of Pope John Paul II from the official site for his cause:

O Blessed Trinity
We thank You for having graced the Church
with Pope John Paul II
and for allowing the tenderness of your Fatherly care,
the glory of the cross of Christ,
and the splendor of the Holy Spirit,
to shine through him.
Trusting fully in Your infinite mercy
and in the maternal intercession of Mary,
he has given us a living image of Jesus the Good Shepherd,
and has shown us that holiness
is the necessary measure of ordinary Christian life
and is the way of achieving eternal communion with you.
Grant us, by his intercession, and according to Your will,
the graces we implore,
hoping that he will soon be numbered
among your saints.
Amen.
 
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isshinwhat

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Do Catholics regularly practice this? To be quite honest I find it a beautiful part of the Catholic Faith. Maybe it's because I recently lost a family member, but there is something comforting in knowing that you can keep that line...

That's one of the reasons I converted... I watched the funeral of Cardinal O'Conner and heard them singing the in Paradisum in Latin as they were leading the body into the crypt. The priest translated the prayer, and it gave me chills... Finally I felt the beauty of eternal life! Death no longer felt like an end, but a beautiful beginning. Here's the prayer and translation.

In paradisum deducant te Angeli; in tuo adventu suscipiant te martyres, et perducant te in civitatem sanctam Ierusalem. Chorus angelorum te suscipiat, et cum Lazaro quondam paupere æternam habeas requiem.

May angels lead you into paradise; may the martyrs receive you at your coming and lead you to the holy city of Jerusalem. May a choir of angels receive you, and with Lazarus, who once was poor, may you have eternal rest.

It really made Hebrews 12 come alive for me, and truthfully, it changed my life... I could see the angels singing in festal gathering, and Lazarus, the just made perfect, embracing him and welcoming him home to Christ.

Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight, and sin which clings so closely, and let us run with perseverance the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus the pioneer and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God...

...you have come to Mount Zion and to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to innumerable angels in festal gathering, and to the assembly of the first-born who are enrolled in heaven, and to a judge who is God of all, and to the spirits of just men made perfect and to Jesus, the mediator of a new covenant, and to the sprinkled blood that speaks more graciously than the blood of Abel...

...Therefore let us be grateful for receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken, and thus let us offer to God acceptable worship, with reverence and awe; for our God is a consuming fire.
 
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Sign Of The Fish Burger

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Never feel bad... I'm sorry that you have been made to feel that way.
Oh no no no. Don't apologize. I've never been made to feel that way. But I've been around the board long enough to see that there are some people who like to "innocently" ask controversial questions when they have other motives to debate or whatever, and not actually care to learn.

Plus I'm sure you guys must get annoyed with people like me coming in here and saying asinine things like "How do you call yourself a Christian! You pray to Mary!!"

I can't imagine how old that one must get... :D
 
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Assisi

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Hi SOTFB,:wave:

Yes Christ is bigger than death and so we are still connected to those who have died in Christ, through Christ. We can all pray for each other. The way I see it, the 'line of communication' as you put it, is Christ - He makes the communion of the saints possible.
 
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