Praying to Saints: Part 1
Catholics pray to dead people. Looking through a Protestant lens, that is a logical deduction. Why?
- Catholics: Those who adhere to the teachings of the Catholic Church
- Pray to: Converse with an unseen “higher power,” specifically to ask for something one cannot attain in their own power.
- Dead People: Humans who lived a natural, earthly life with a beginning and end.
Praying to is different than reciting a prayer of. Catholic Prayers fall into both categories and it may be helpful to separate them. For example, “Christ with me, Christ before me, Christ behind me, Christ in me….” is a common quote attributed to St. Patrick. It is a small portion of a long text known as The Prayer of St. Patrick (or The Breastplate of St. Patrick). When prayed, the words are directed to God, though originally the words of another. This would, in a way, be similar to a Protestant reciting The Lord’s Prayer, The Nicene Creed, or memorized meal time prayers. Reciting a “prayer of” may also be used as a guide similar to the Protestant “ACTS of Prayer”: Adoration, Confession, Thanksgiving, Supplication.
In contrast are prayers to Saints (or angels). Part of a prayer to St. George reads:
Jesus Christ protects and defends me with the power of His Holy and Divine Grace….And God, with His Divine Mercy and great power, is my defender against the evils and persecutions of my enemies.
Glorious Saint George, in the name of God, extend to me your shield and your powerful arms, defending me with your strength and your greatness; and may my enemies underneath your feet become humble and submissive to you. So Be it in the Power of God, of Jesus Christ and of the Divine Holy Spirit. Amen. (Emphasis added)
This falls into the category of “intercessory prayer.” The person praying is seeking intervention on their behalf. They are asking someone else to approach God with a request. The part in bold is where many Protestants would “check out” of the above prayer. Looking through a Protestant lens, St. George’s natural life on earth ended (i.e. Saint George died), so asking him to intercede is no longer an option. Praying for enemies to be submissive to Saint George instead of God also does not line up with mainstream Protestant theology.
If we look through the Catholic lens, the picture is different. Because Saint George trusted in salvation through Christ, his soul did not die, therefore he is alive with Christ. From a Catholic viewpoint, asking Saint George to intercede is no different than asking a friend, loved one, or complete stranger to pray for them because they remain connected as the Body of Christ. To Protestants, this may appear as though praying to God or Jesus is equal to (or even surpassed by) praying to saints and angels. But, to Catholics, it is not either-or, but both.
My future son-in-law explained it this way:
When we ask a saint or angel to provide something for us…it is asking God through them; we do NOT believe that the saints have power on their own, but only through God. Again, it’s like asking a friend to do something for us; we know that everything he or she has ultimately comes from God, and we are asking them to share some of it with us….we are not asserting that they alone have the power to provide us with that thing; we go under the implicit assumption that everything they have (and can give) ultimately comes from God. To assume otherwise…would, in fact, be idolatrous….
(Stay tuned…we will continue to explore this subject in the next two posts.)