![\"AllSaints\"](\"https:\/\/wp-media.patheos.com\/blogs\/sites\/572\/2015\/09\/AllSaints.jpg\")
<\/a><\/p>\nThe Forerunners of Christ with Saints and Martyrs<\/em> (about 1423-24), by Fra Angelico<\/span> [public domain \/ Wikimedia Commons<\/a>]<\/span><\/h4>\n\u00a0<\/p>\n
It\u2019s understood in Catholic spirituality and theology that any of us can pray to God at any time. The Bible emphasizes relationship to God, as sons and daughters to a Father. That said, there is also the practice of praying for each other<\/em>. Our Protestant brethren in Christ (who generally reject intercession of the saints) have the notion of \u201cgetting a holy man [or the pastor, etc.] to pray for you.\u201d<\/p>\nHence, a person would, for example, ask Billy Graham to pray for them, because it is thought that somehow his prayer might have more effect<\/em>. This intuition is actually based on explicit biblical testimony:<\/p>\nJames 5:14-18<\/strong> (RSV) [14] Is any among you sick? Let him call for the elders of the church, and let them pray over him, anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord; [15] and the prayer of faith will save the sick man, and the Lord will raise him up; and if he has committed sins, he will be forgiven. [16] Therefore confess your sins to one another, and pray for one another, that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous man has great power in its effects. [17] Eli\u2019jah was a man of like nature with ourselves and he prayed fervently that it might not rain, and for three years and six months it did not rain on the earth. [18] Then he prayed again and the heaven gave rain, and the earth brought forth its fruit.<\/p>\nNote here that the Bible itself recommends asking someone else<\/em> to pray: \u201cthe elders\u201d of the Church, who, like other Church leaders (1 Tim 3:1-13; Titus 1:7), are supposed to be of exemplary character, and \u201cworthy of double honor\u201d (1 Tim 5:17). They have more power, due to their ordination.<\/p>\nTo nail down his point, St. James cites the example of the prophet Elijah. When he prayed, it didn\u2019t rain for three-and-a-half years. James says this was the case because (here is the principle he wishes to convey): \u201cThe prayer of a righteous man has great power in its effects.\u201d We see the same dynamic in the following passage:<\/p>\n
1 Kings 13:6<\/strong> And the king said to the man of God, \u201cEntreat now the favor of the LORD your God, and pray for me, that my hand may be restored to me.\u201d And the man of God entreated the LORD; and the king\u2019s hand was restored to him, and became as it was before.<\/p>\nThis is the biblical rationale for asking others, of more spiritual stature in the kingdom, or holier (or, best of all, both!) to pray for us. But that is not yet the same as asking a (dead) saint to pray for us. How does one arrive at that<\/em> conclusion? It takes a little more work, but it is possible to ground it, too, in Scripture.<\/p>\nIn Revelation 5:8, the \u201ctwenty-four elders\u201d (usually regarded by commentators as dead human beings) \u201cfell down before the Lamb . . . with golden bowls full of incense, which are the prayers of the saints.\u201d They appear to have other people\u2019s prayers, to present to God. So the obvious question is: what are they doing <\/em>with them? Why does Revelation present dead saints presenting the prayers of other saints to God?<\/p>\nIf they have<\/em> them, it stands to reason as a rather straightforward deduction, that they heard<\/em> the initial prayers as well, or at least were granted knowledge of them in some fashion: ultimately through the power of God. Revelation 8:3-4 is even more explicit. Rather than equating incense and prayers, it actually distinguishes between them, and presents the scenario that the prayers and incense are presented together:<\/p>\nAnd another angel came and stood at the altar with a golden censer; and he was given much incense to mingle with the prayers of all the saints upon the golden altar before the throne; [4] and the smoke of the incense rose with the prayers of the saints from the hand of the angel before God.<\/p>\n
It seems clear that they have heard the prayers of men, and are involved as intercessors. Angels are extremely intelligent beings. We know that they rejoice when a sinner repents. They have knowledge in ways that we do not; above our comprehension.<\/p>\n
This is biblical proof that dead saints and angels both somehow know about our prayers and present them to God. They are acting as intercessors and intermediaries. How do they hear our prayers? God gives them the power to do so because they are in heaven and therefore, outside of time. They are aware of earthly events. We know that from Hebrews 12:1 (\u201cwe are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses\u201d) and from Revelation 6:9-10, where dead saints are praying for those on the earth.<\/p>\n
We also know of several incidents where dead men (even some from heaven) interact with those on earth: the Transfiguration (Mt 17:1-3 \/ Mk 9:4 \/ Lk 9:30-31), the Two Witnesses of Revelation 11:3-13, the prophet Samuel (not just a demon impersonating him: 1 Sam 28:7-20), and \u201cmany bodies of the saints\u201d that came out of their graves after Jesus\u2019 Resurrection and went into Jerusalem, appearing to many (Mt 27:50-53). In the deuterocanonical book of 2 Maccabees (15:13-16) the prophet Jeremiah returns to earth.<\/p>\n
This is our entire rationale for asking saints to pray to God for us: all in perfect harmony with the Bible:<\/p>\n
1) Holy men and women\u2019s prayers have great power.<\/p>\n
2) Dead saints are perfected in holiness and are still part of the Body of Christ.<\/p>\n
3) The Blessed Virgin Mary in particular is exceptionally holy (Immaculate Conception) and as the Mother of God, her prayers have more power and effect than that of any other creature: all by God\u2019s grace.<\/p>\n
4) We know that they are aware of what goes on in the earth.<\/p>\n
5) We know that they exercise much charity and pray for us.<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The Forerunners of Christ with Saints and Martyrs (about 1423-24), by Fra Angelico [public domain \/ Wikimedia Commons] \u00a0 It\u2019s understood in Catholic spirituality and theology that any of us can pray to God at any time. The Bible emphasizes relationship to God, as sons and daughters to a Father. That said, there is also […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2331,"featured_media":2826,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[206],"tags":[266,201,198,371,372,195,369,370],"class_list":["post-2825","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-saints-purgatory-penance","tag-angels","tag-communion-of-saints","tag-intercession","tag-intercession-of-the-saints","tag-invocation-of-saints","tag-prayer","tag-prayer-to-angels","tag-prayer-to-saints"],"yoast_head":"\n
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Formerly a campus missionary, as a Protestant, Dave was received into the Catholic Church in February 1991, by the late, well-known catechist and theologian, Fr. John A. Hardon, S. J. Dave\u2019s articles have appeared in many influential Catholic periodicals, including \\\"This Rock\\\" (now called \\\"Catholic Answers Magazine\\\"), \\\"Envoy Magazine\\\" (Patrick Madrid), \\\"The Catholic Answer,\\\" \\\"The Coming Home Journal,\\\" \\\"Gilbert Magazine\\\" (American Chesterton Society), and \\\"The Latin Mass.\\\" He also writes a featured column for every issue of \\\"The Michigan Catholic\\\": published by the archdiocese of Detroit, and was editor for most of the apologetics tracts published by the St. Paul Street Evangelization apostolate. Dave\u2019s apologetics and writing apostolate was the subject of a feature article in the May 2002 issue of \\\"Envoy Magazine.\\\" He served as the staff moderator at the Internet discussion forum for The Coming Home Network, from 2007-2010. Dave has been interviewed on many nationally syndicated Catholic radio shows, including \\\"Catholic Answers Live\\\" (twice), \\\"Faith and Family Live\\\" (Steve Wood), \\\"Kresta in the Afternoon,\\\" \\\"Son Rise Morning Show,\\\" \\\"Catholic Connection\\\" (Teresa Tomeo), and \\\"The Catholics Next Door.\\\" His large and popular website, \\\"Biblical Evidence for Catholicism,\\\" was online from March 1997 to March 2007, and received the 1998 Catholic Website of the Year award from \\\"Envoy Magazine.\\\" His blog of the same name (now transferred to Patheos), begun in February 2004, contains more than 1,500 papers, at least 500 debates or dialogues, and over 50 distinct \\\"index\\\" web pages. Unsolicited correspondence has indicated many hundreds of conversions (or returns) to the Catholic faith as a result, by God's grace, of these writings. Dave's conversion story was published in the bestselling book \\\"Surprised by Truth\\\" (edited by Patrick Madrid; San Diego: Basilica Press, 1994). Sophia Institute Press has published six of his books: \\\"A Biblical Defense of Catholicism\\\" (Foreword by Fr. John A. Hardon, S. J., 1996 \/ 2003), \\\"The Catholic Verses\\\" (2004), \\\"The One-Minute Apologist\\\" (2007), \\\"Bible Proofs for Catholic Truths\\\" (2009), \\\"The Quotable Newman\\\" (editor: 2012), and \\\"Proving the Catholic Faith is Biblical\\\" (2015). He is co-author (with Dr. Paul Thigpen) of the inserts for \\\"The New Catholic Answer Bible\\\" (Our Sunday Visitor: 2005), and editor for \\\"The Wisdom of Mr. Chesterton: The Very Best Quotes, Quips, and Cracks from the Pen of G. K. Chesterton\\\" (Saint Benedict Press \/ TAN Books: 2009). \\\"100 Biblical Arguments Against Sola Scriptura\\\" was published by Catholic Answers in May 2012. His \\\"Quotable Wesley\\\" compilation was published by (Protestant \/ Wesleyan publisher) Beacon Hill Press in April 2014. Several of his 49 books are bestsellers in their field. Dave maintains a popular personal Facebook page, a Facebook author page, and has a Twitter account as well. He offers almost all of his books in e-book form on his own Biblical Catholicism site (http:\/\/biblicalcatholicism.com\/), at a permanent deep discount: only $2.99 for ePub, mobi, and AZW, and $1.99 for PDF. His writing has been enthusiastically endorsed or recommended by many leading Catholic apologists, authors, and priests, including Dr. Scott Hahn, Fr. Peter M. J. Stravinskas, Marcus Grodi, Patrick Madrid, Steve Ray, Tim Staples, Devin Rose, Mike Aquilina, Al Kresta, Karl Keating, Fr. Dwight Longenecker, Brandon Vogt, Marcellino D'Ambrosio, and Fr. John A. Hardon, S. J. Dave has been happily married to his wife Judy since October 1984. They have three sons and a daughter, and reside in southeast Michigan (metro Detroit).\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/davearmstrong\/author\/davearmstrong\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Why Pray to Saints Rather than God? (The Biblical Rationale)","description":"In Revelation 5:8, the \u201ctwenty-four elders\u201d (human beings) posses \u201cthe prayers of the saints.\u201d They appear to be presenting other people's prayers to God.","robots":{"index":"noindex","follow":"follow"},"og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Why Pray to Saints Rather than God? 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Formerly a campus missionary, as a Protestant, Dave was received into the Catholic Church in February 1991, by the late, well-known catechist and theologian, Fr. John A. Hardon, S. J. Dave\u2019s articles have appeared in many influential Catholic periodicals, including \"This Rock\" (now called \"Catholic Answers Magazine\"), \"Envoy Magazine\" (Patrick Madrid), \"The Catholic Answer,\" \"The Coming Home Journal,\" \"Gilbert Magazine\" (American Chesterton Society), and \"The Latin Mass.\" He also writes a featured column for every issue of \"The Michigan Catholic\": published by the archdiocese of Detroit, and was editor for most of the apologetics tracts published by the St. Paul Street Evangelization apostolate. Dave\u2019s apologetics and writing apostolate was the subject of a feature article in the May 2002 issue of \"Envoy Magazine.\" He served as the staff moderator at the Internet discussion forum for The Coming Home Network, from 2007-2010. Dave has been interviewed on many nationally syndicated Catholic radio shows, including \"Catholic Answers Live\" (twice), \"Faith and Family Live\" (Steve Wood), \"Kresta in the Afternoon,\" \"Son Rise Morning Show,\" \"Catholic Connection\" (Teresa Tomeo), and \"The Catholics Next Door.\" His large and popular website, \"Biblical Evidence for Catholicism,\" was online from March 1997 to March 2007, and received the 1998 Catholic Website of the Year award from \"Envoy Magazine.\" His blog of the same name (now transferred to Patheos), begun in February 2004, contains more than 1,500 papers, at least 500 debates or dialogues, and over 50 distinct \"index\" web pages. Unsolicited correspondence has indicated many hundreds of conversions (or returns) to the Catholic faith as a result, by God's grace, of these writings. Dave's conversion story was published in the bestselling book \"Surprised by Truth\" (edited by Patrick Madrid; San Diego: Basilica Press, 1994). Sophia Institute Press has published six of his books: \"A Biblical Defense of Catholicism\" (Foreword by Fr. John A. Hardon, S. J., 1996 \/ 2003), \"The Catholic Verses\" (2004), \"The One-Minute Apologist\" (2007), \"Bible Proofs for Catholic Truths\" (2009), \"The Quotable Newman\" (editor: 2012), and \"Proving the Catholic Faith is Biblical\" (2015). He is co-author (with Dr. Paul Thigpen) of the inserts for \"The New Catholic Answer Bible\" (Our Sunday Visitor: 2005), and editor for \"The Wisdom of Mr. Chesterton: The Very Best Quotes, Quips, and Cracks from the Pen of G. K. Chesterton\" (Saint Benedict Press \/ TAN Books: 2009). \"100 Biblical Arguments Against Sola Scriptura\" was published by Catholic Answers in May 2012. His \"Quotable Wesley\" compilation was published by (Protestant \/ Wesleyan publisher) Beacon Hill Press in April 2014. Several of his 49 books are bestsellers in their field. Dave maintains a popular personal Facebook page, a Facebook author page, and has a Twitter account as well. He offers almost all of his books in e-book form on his own Biblical Catholicism site (http:\/\/biblicalcatholicism.com\/), at a permanent deep discount: only $2.99 for ePub, mobi, and AZW, and $1.99 for PDF. His writing has been enthusiastically endorsed or recommended by many leading Catholic apologists, authors, and priests, including Dr. Scott Hahn, Fr. Peter M. J. Stravinskas, Marcus Grodi, Patrick Madrid, Steve Ray, Tim Staples, Devin Rose, Mike Aquilina, Al Kresta, Karl Keating, Fr. Dwight Longenecker, Brandon Vogt, Marcellino D'Ambrosio, and Fr. John A. Hardon, S. J. Dave has been happily married to his wife Judy since October 1984. 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Hence, a person would, for example, ask Billy Graham to pray for them, because it is thought that somehow his prayer might have more effect<\/em>. This intuition is actually based on explicit biblical testimony:<\/p>\n James 5:14-18<\/strong> (RSV) [14] Is any among you sick? Let him call for the elders of the church, and let them pray over him, anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord; [15] and the prayer of faith will save the sick man, and the Lord will raise him up; and if he has committed sins, he will be forgiven. [16] Therefore confess your sins to one another, and pray for one another, that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous man has great power in its effects. [17] Eli\u2019jah was a man of like nature with ourselves and he prayed fervently that it might not rain, and for three years and six months it did not rain on the earth. [18] Then he prayed again and the heaven gave rain, and the earth brought forth its fruit.<\/p>\n Note here that the Bible itself recommends asking someone else<\/em> to pray: \u201cthe elders\u201d of the Church, who, like other Church leaders (1 Tim 3:1-13; Titus 1:7), are supposed to be of exemplary character, and \u201cworthy of double honor\u201d (1 Tim 5:17). They have more power, due to their ordination.<\/p>\n To nail down his point, St. James cites the example of the prophet Elijah. When he prayed, it didn\u2019t rain for three-and-a-half years. James says this was the case because (here is the principle he wishes to convey): \u201cThe prayer of a righteous man has great power in its effects.\u201d We see the same dynamic in the following passage:<\/p>\n 1 Kings 13:6<\/strong> And the king said to the man of God, \u201cEntreat now the favor of the LORD your God, and pray for me, that my hand may be restored to me.\u201d And the man of God entreated the LORD; and the king\u2019s hand was restored to him, and became as it was before.<\/p>\n This is the biblical rationale for asking others, of more spiritual stature in the kingdom, or holier (or, best of all, both!) to pray for us. But that is not yet the same as asking a (dead) saint to pray for us. How does one arrive at that<\/em> conclusion? It takes a little more work, but it is possible to ground it, too, in Scripture.<\/p>\n In Revelation 5:8, the \u201ctwenty-four elders\u201d (usually regarded by commentators as dead human beings) \u201cfell down before the Lamb . . . with golden bowls full of incense, which are the prayers of the saints.\u201d They appear to have other people\u2019s prayers, to present to God. So the obvious question is: what are they doing <\/em>with them? Why does Revelation present dead saints presenting the prayers of other saints to God?<\/p>\n If they have<\/em> them, it stands to reason as a rather straightforward deduction, that they heard<\/em> the initial prayers as well, or at least were granted knowledge of them in some fashion: ultimately through the power of God. Revelation 8:3-4 is even more explicit. Rather than equating incense and prayers, it actually distinguishes between them, and presents the scenario that the prayers and incense are presented together:<\/p>\n And another angel came and stood at the altar with a golden censer; and he was given much incense to mingle with the prayers of all the saints upon the golden altar before the throne; [4] and the smoke of the incense rose with the prayers of the saints from the hand of the angel before God.<\/p>\n It seems clear that they have heard the prayers of men, and are involved as intercessors. Angels are extremely intelligent beings. We know that they rejoice when a sinner repents. They have knowledge in ways that we do not; above our comprehension.<\/p>\n This is biblical proof that dead saints and angels both somehow know about our prayers and present them to God. They are acting as intercessors and intermediaries. How do they hear our prayers? God gives them the power to do so because they are in heaven and therefore, outside of time. They are aware of earthly events. We know that from Hebrews 12:1 (\u201cwe are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses\u201d) and from Revelation 6:9-10, where dead saints are praying for those on the earth.<\/p>\n We also know of several incidents where dead men (even some from heaven) interact with those on earth: the Transfiguration (Mt 17:1-3 \/ Mk 9:4 \/ Lk 9:30-31), the Two Witnesses of Revelation 11:3-13, the prophet Samuel (not just a demon impersonating him: 1 Sam 28:7-20), and \u201cmany bodies of the saints\u201d that came out of their graves after Jesus\u2019 Resurrection and went into Jerusalem, appearing to many (Mt 27:50-53). In the deuterocanonical book of 2 Maccabees (15:13-16) the prophet Jeremiah returns to earth.<\/p>\n This is our entire rationale for asking saints to pray to God for us: all in perfect harmony with the Bible:<\/p>\n 1) Holy men and women\u2019s prayers have great power.<\/p>\n 2) Dead saints are perfected in holiness and are still part of the Body of Christ.<\/p>\n 3) The Blessed Virgin Mary in particular is exceptionally holy (Immaculate Conception) and as the Mother of God, her prayers have more power and effect than that of any other creature: all by God\u2019s grace.<\/p>\n 4) We know that they are aware of what goes on in the earth.<\/p>\n 5) We know that they exercise much charity and pray for us.<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The Forerunners of Christ with Saints and Martyrs (about 1423-24), by Fra Angelico [public domain \/ Wikimedia Commons] \u00a0 It\u2019s understood in Catholic spirituality and theology that any of us can pray to God at any time. The Bible emphasizes relationship to God, as sons and daughters to a Father. That said, there is also […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2331,"featured_media":2826,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[206],"tags":[266,201,198,371,372,195,369,370],"class_list":["post-2825","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-saints-purgatory-penance","tag-angels","tag-communion-of-saints","tag-intercession","tag-intercession-of-the-saints","tag-invocation-of-saints","tag-prayer","tag-prayer-to-angels","tag-prayer-to-saints"],"yoast_head":"\n