INTERCESSION OF SAINTS


As part of their belief in the role of the saints as professed in the "APOSTLES CREED", Roman Catholic Christians petition the intercession of saints.

The apostle Paul frequently asked other fellow believers in Jesus to pray for him.

COL 4:3 - At the same time, pray for us, too, that God may open a door to us for the word, to speak of the mystery of Christ, for which I am in prison.

ROM 15:30 - Join me in the struggle by your prayers to God on my behalf.

James asks presbyter believers to pray over other believers.

Jam 5:14 - Is anyone among you sick? He should summon the presbyters of the church, and they should pray over him and anoint (him) with oil in the name of the Lord.

Prayer appears to be the normal way believers (saints) on earth to support one another. Probably all of us have asked another Christian, as Paul did (another saint in the Body of Christ) to pray for us when we had a need.

Catholic Christians believe that as we can ask a fellow Christian (a saint) to pray for us, we should be able to ask for prayers from the saints already united to the Lord in heaven. If the prayers of certain Christians here on earth seem to possess special power because of their great faith witness or holiness, how much more powerful and effective might not the prayers be of those of the COMMUNION OF SAINTS in heaven who are fully united to God.

It is not uncommon that non-believers see the Roman Catholic devotion to the Saints and the dead in general as falling under the prohibition of necrology as found in the Hebrew Scriptures. These people are not aware of the New Life of the Christian who has been called out of this life. They are not dead, but alive!

ROM 6:3-4 - Or are you unaware that we who were baptized into Christ Jesus we were baptized into his death? We were indeed buried with him through baptism into death, so that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might live in newness of life.

COL 2:12 - You were buried with him in baptism, in which you were also raised with him through faith in the power of God, who raised him from the dead.

Many people who do not share the Catholic Christian faith have difficulty with the appearance that Catholics pray to Saints and Mary, as one prays to God. This "praying to" appears to them to indicate a worship of the Saint or Mary what is due to God alone. However, earliest Christianity has always defined prayer as conversation, as in conversation with God. Conversation as any other act of communication requires a sign of the direction of the communication: one talks to someone, communicates with someone, prays to someone, etc. Hence, praying to God, a Saint, the Virgin Mary indicates simply the direction of prayer communication. It is more a matter of grammar and understanding communication than acknowledging the worship of the receiver.

From the earliest of Church Councils (THE COUNCIL OF ROME, 993; DEFINED BY THE COUNCIL OF TRENT) the distinction was made between worship and honor. Catholics believe that worship is due to God alone. Catholics honor those saints who have gone before us as a sign of faith and victory in the christian life.