The Intercession of the Saints
Categories: faith
Date: 18 July 2008 13:30:07
Someone asked me recently why Catholics pray to dead people. (I have odd conversations sometimes).
Firstly, the saints aren't dead, they are alive in Christ. They are the great cloud of witnesses who, having fought the good fight, and finished the race, and won for themselves the crown of victory, are now crowded round the finish line, yelling their encouragement to us, the Church Militant here on earth.
They want us to cross the finish line and join them in the Church Triumphant, so they want to help us bear the burdens that are causing us to stumble on the way.
And so, just as we ask other members of the Church here on earth to pray for us, we ask the members of the Church in heaven to pray for us.
Now, I'm rubbish at praying for people. I'll say I will, but I get wrapped up in my own concerns and, whilst I don't forget any more since I bought a notebook to start writing things down in, I am not always as thorough as I'd like to be. My own, personal road to Hell with be paved with all the times I brightly said “of course I'll pray for you,” and then got distracted by the gas bill or my exam revision or “oooooh, lookit the shiny thing!” and so all you got was “God, um Bob, amen.” (Sorry, Bob, whoever you are).
The Church in heaven are not constrained by the things of this world such as the tedium of working for a living, or paying the gas bill, or having a memory like a sieve, and so have all the time in the world to carry your concerns as golden bowls full of incense, offered to God.
Secondly, “pray” is a word that has many meanings. From dictionary.com:
pray
1. to offer devout petition, praise, thanks, etc., to (God or an object of worship).
2. to offer (a prayer).
3. to bring, put, etc., by praying: to pray a soul into heaven.
4. to make earnest petition to (a person).
5. to make petition or entreaty for; crave: She prayed his forgiveness.
6. to offer devout petition, praise, thanks, etc., to God or to an object of worship.
7. to enter into spiritual communion with God or an object of worship through prayer.
When we are praying to the Saints, we are using “pray” in the sense of 4 and 5, “make earnest petition to” and “to make petition or entreaty for; crave: She prayed his forgiveness.” We are asking the saints to take our concerns to God, just as asking another member of the Church on earth to pray for us doesn't mean that we are worshipping them, either (and see above for why it's sometimes better to go to the Church Triumphant rather than the Church Militant for prayer, especially when the only handy member of the Church Militant is one who has to say “just let me write that down in my prayer note book.”)
Asking a particular saint to intercede for us is usually related to an event from their life here on earth. For instance, Saint Agatha is the patroness of breast cancer sufferers because part of her tortures as she was martyred was having her breasts cut off, likewise St Lucy is patron of eye diseases because she was blinded during her martyrdom (look, nobody ever said being a Christian was nice. We were promised burdens that would not be heavy to bear, not no burdens at all.)
There is a patron saint for everything you could possibly think to pray about.
Mice? St Gertrude, who covers all bases by also being the patron of cats.
Young people? Aloysius Gonzaga, unless they're Mexican (Don Bosco).
EDIT: (this was going to be a reply in the comments, but it got a bit long).
I'm not saying that you can't go direct to God, and I've never heard any Catholic say that. Sometimes, for whatever reason, you feel that you can't approach God directly, or you think something's a bit silly to approach God with - I know in my head that He takes all our cares and woes and nothing is too small for Him to be concerned about (sparrows and lilies and all that), but what with wars and floods and famines and disasters, my heart thinks that my worries over exams and money and so on is too trivial to bother God with, so you ask a saint for help instead.