Expert: J.M.J. West - 1/25/2009

Question
Hi J

I am Catholic and often my non Catholic friends ask me why Catholic pray to the Virgin Mary and Saints and where in the bible tells us that we can do that. I always find it difficult to explain to them. Can you help me?

Thank you
Malia

Answer
Malia,

Thanks for the questions.  I wrote this bit for an RCIA class I teach:

What is the Communion of saints?

i.   "We believe in the communion of all the faithful of Christ, those who are pilgrims on earth, the dead who are being purified, and the blessed in heaven, all together forming one Church; and we believe that in this communion, the merciful love of God and his saints is always [attentive] to our prayers" (CCC 962)

ii.   The Church is a family.  All of salvation history is the story of God and the people he freely chose to create for the sake of a sharing in his love.  He created us to be in ‘communion’ with him completely (faithfully), totally, freely, and in such a manner as one that bears fruit.  It is the holy human family living now in communion with God, which is heaven.  We are children of the Father, and brothers of the Son.

Why do we pray to them?

i.   Is it idolatry?

  1.   No.  We do not worship the saints.  They are not our creator, but mere creatures like us.  Were we to worship Mary or the Saints, we would be gravely sinning.

  2.   Clarification of terms:  We do not worship saints, but only pray to them.  

    a.   Worship is the praise and adoration we give to God alone.   

    b.   Prayer, properly understood, means “to ask” (“your honor, the defendant prays the court to have mercy” or “pray tell me, did you think that ‘to pray’ always meant ‘to worship’”)

  3.   When we pray to the saints, we are only asking them to pray for us and with us.  This is not mandatory, but is permissible and laudable.

ii.   Is it scriptural?

  1.   Most certainly.  First we know that we are to pray for each other (i.e. be intercessors).  And we know that we can ask others to pray for us.  Paul often exhorts those to whom he is writing for prayers on his behalf or the behalf of others.  

  2.   We pray to the saints because they are part of the body of Christ, and the body of Christ is ONE.

iii.   Can they even hear us?  Are they aware of us?

  1.   Hebrews 11 runs the gamut of Heroes of the Old Testament, and then Hebrews 12 immediately calls those great heroes “such a great cloud of witnesses”.  What do witnesses do?  They WITNESS

  2.   Revelation 5:8 presents us with the image of the ‘elders’ in heaven presenting the prayers of those on earth to God like bowls of incense (and it presents the angels as doing the same thing in Rev 8).

  3.   We can see this mentality stretching back into the old testament too.  The Psalmist sings “Praise him, all you angels; give praise, all you hosts!” (Psalm 148)

You may also find these links helpful:
http://scripturecatholic.com/saints.html
http://scripturecatholic.com/blessed_virgin_mary.html
http://www.catholic.com/library/mary_saints.asp

Hope that helps!

Pax Christi,

-J.M.J. West