Catholics Praying to Saints? (Why do Catholics pray to Saints?)

Catholics Praying to Saints? Why do Catholics pray to Saints and to Mary? Some people claim that we do not need Mary or the Saints, and that all you need is Jesus. This is an incorrect understanding of Christianity...

FSUPPORT OUR WORK:
Catholic Truth is dedicated to the truth Catholicism and defending our Church without apology or compromise. Please support us our work and join in the fight for souls!

FOLLOW CATHOLIC TRUTH:
- Instagram: Catholic_Truth_Official

BOOK: "Counterfeit Spirituality: Exposing the False Gods:"

Related topics: praying to saints, catholics pray to saints, catholics and saints

[jcpenny]

Amen! This is so powerful! I love your passion. You are inspiring and very joyful. God bless, brother!

[tasiaflynn]

Amen glory be to God now and forever Amen ✝️✝️✝️

[gracieoffisialcennel]

Hello brother Bryan, introduce i'm a new Catholic, convert from islam, i want to learn Catholic teachings can you put indonesian translations in each of your videos, so that i can understand. I'm pleased with your knowledge of the Catholic Church, the church built by saint Peter. Thanx Nita

[juliehillebrand]

Thank you for this YouTube “podcast”. Helps me to try to explain to others what I do. I do ask Mother Mary’s intercession in prayer all the time. Just try the scriptural Rosary. So much help and peace. 🙏🙏🙏😇😇

[amaanadonai]

It is not salvation by good works but good works by salvation. There is no other intermediary between God and mankind but ONLY JESUS CHRIST. Jesus is the ONLY WAY to the Father. The Son God is the only way to God.

[apostateevangelist]

But all you said is what is unbiblical, Jesus alone is enough for our salvation.

[kronosful]

You don't pray to anyone except God! Period!

[vaticancitybride]

GOD’S Empower’s Rome’s True Christian Saints us Amen

[RLWhite]

I Timothy 2:5 For there is ONE mediator between God and men the man CHRIST JESUS

[markcordova]

Awesome Biblical facts! Thank you brother for all your great powerful videos!!!

[nabelisrael]

The official position of the Roman Catholic Church is that Catholics do not pray to saints in heaven or to Mary; rather, Catholics are taught they can ask saints or Mary to pray for them. According to the Roman Catholic Church, asking saints in heaven for their prayers is no different from asking someone here on earth to pray for us.

Despite official Catholic claims, it’s hard to see how the words of the Memorare, a famous Catholic prayer, are not a direct petition to Mary:
“Remember, most loving Virgin Mary,
never was it heard
that anyone who turned to you for help
was left unaided. . . .
I run to your protection
for you are my mother.”

The same can be said for the words of another traditional Catholic prayer, “Hail, Holy Queen”:
“Hail, holy Queen, Mother of mercy,
hail, our life, our sweetness, and our hope.
To you we cry, the children of Eve;
to you we send up our sighs,
mourning and weeping in this land of exile.
Turn, then, most gracious advocate,
your eyes of mercy toward us;
lead us home at last.”
(from A Book of Prayers, 1982, International Committee on English in the Liturgy, Inc.)

In practice, many Catholics diverge from official Roman Catholic teaching on prayer. Many Catholics do, in fact, pray directly to saints and/or Mary, as seen in the above prayers. Even in cases in which Mary or a saint is simply being asked to pray, the practice has no biblical basis.

The Bible nowhere instructs believers in Christ to pray to anyone other than God. The Bible nowhere encourages, or even mentions, believers asking individuals in heaven for their prayers. Why, then, do many Catholics pray to Mary and/or saints such as Gertrude, Rita, Sylvester, Vincent, Agnes, etc.? Why do they petition the dead to request their prayers? Catholics view Mary and the saints as “intercessors” before God. They believe that a saint, who is glorified in heaven, has more “direct access” to God than we sinners do from our earthly vantage point. In Catholic thinking, if a saint delivers a prayer to God, it is more effective than our praying to God directly. This concept is blatantly unbiblical. Hebrews 4:16 tells us that we, believers here on earth, have direct access to God and can “approach the throne of grace with confidence.”

No saint can take Jesus’ place: “There is one God and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus” (1 Timothy 2:5). There is no one else who can mediate with God for us. Since Jesus is the only mediator, Mary and the saints cannot be mediators. Further, the Bible tells us that Jesus Christ Himself is interceding for us before the Father: “He is able to save completely those who come to God through Him, because He always lives to intercede for them” (Hebrews 7:25). With Jesus Himself interceding for us, why would we need Mary or the saints to intercede for us? Whom would God listen to more readily than His only begotten Son? Romans 8:26–27 says the Holy Spirit is also interceding for us. With the second and third Persons of the Trinity already interceding for us before the Father, why would we need to have Mary or the saints interceding for us?

Catholics argue that praying to Mary and the saints is no different than asking someone here on earth to pray for us. Let us examine that claim: (1) Asking other believers (on earth) to pray for us is certainly biblical (2 Corinthians 1:11; Ephesians 1:16; Philippians 1:19; 2 Timothy 1:3). The apostle Paul asks other Christians to pray for him in Ephesians 6:19. (2) The Bible nowhere mentions anyone asking for someone in heaven to pray for him. The Bible nowhere describes anyone in heaven praying for anyone on earth. (3) The Bible gives absolutely no indication that Mary or the saints can hear our prayers. Mary and the saints are not omniscient. Even glorified in heaven, they are still finite beings with limitations. How could they possibly hear the prayers of millions of people? (4) Whenever the Bible mentions praying to or speaking with the dead, it is in the context of sorcery, witchcraft, necromancy, and divination—activities the Bible strongly condemns (Leviticus 20:27; Deuteronomy 18:10–13). In the one instance when a dead “saint” is addressed by a living person, the saint, Samuel, is not exactly happy to be disturbed (1 Samuel 28:7–19). Praying to Mary or the saints is completely different from asking a friend here on earth to pray for us. Asking people on earth to pray for us has a strong biblical basis; asking the heavenly saints or Mary to pray has no biblical basis whatsoever.

It is wrong to think that God will hear and answer the prayers of St. Jude, for example, over yours. Scripture teaches that prayer offered to God in faith, according to God’s will, from a redeemed heart will be heard. As an example, “Elijah was a human being, even as we are. He prayed earnestly that it would not rain, and it did not rain on the land for three and a half years. Again he prayed, and the heavens gave rain, and the earth produced its crops” (James 5:17–18).

There is absolutely no scriptural basis to pray to anyone other than God alone. There is no need to, either. Jesus, our Intercessor, has it covered. No one in heaven can mediate on our behalf except for Jesus Christ. Only God can hear and answer our prayers. The temple veil was torn in two (Hebrews 10:19–20); the child of God on earth has just as much access to God’s throne of grace, in Jesus’ name, than anyone in heaven (Hebrews 4:16).

[cd]

I am sorry but I have to say the way that you talk about us “fake Christians” is very unwelcoming and would cause “fake Christians” to turn away from anything you say.

Big questions I have. Is prayer not a form of worship? So when praying to saints is that not worshiping? I think of prayer as worship. My alone time with God. When I go to that secret place He fills me with joy and peace. Our God is the almighty king and creator of the universe. He created each of us and knows the number of hairs on our heads pieced every cell of our bodies together to create each and every one of us. Are you saying that we need to pray to saints and need saints to get to our Divine and Almighty King of the Universe? I’m sorry these are genuine questions I’m honestly confused.
Angels have explicitly said to men multiple times “do not worship me” yet somehow it is okay to pray to saints? I’m just trying to rationalize this.

I understand the artwork and the statues, you want to honor these saints. Nothing wrong with that.

You say “no where in the Bible does it say all you need is Jesus” yet also didn’t mention a single passage that says to specifically pray to people who are in Heaven. In fact, it specifically says not to kneel or bow before angels. So why do I see people with altars who kneel and bow in prayer to them with JUST the saints and no Jesus?
The Bible DOES say “My grace is all you need. My power works best in weakness.” - 2 Corinthians 12:9

Also,
“His divine power has given us everything we need for a godly life through our knowledge of him who called us by his own glory and goodness.” - 2 Peter 1:3
Of course, the word “need” is very subjective. But that goes into a whole other discussion.

I appreciate your fierce loyalty to the Catholic faith. These are the questions I have always pondered and the reason I doubt.

[c.s.froggis]

I appreciate your videos. This is a tough one for me. The difference between asking Mary and the other saints to pray for me as opposed to asking someone on earth to pray for me is that the saints are not on this earth, so it seems close to talking to the dead, which the Bible forbids. In the OT, Saul got in big trouble for trying to seek answers from Samuel (granted, through a witch) instead of humbling himself directly before God. Is the logic here that the saints have already been raised to life with Jesus? Is that true, or are we all waiting for the Day of Resurrection once we die? Help me out here with scriptural backing.

Also, another issue I have is are we praying to them as we pray to God the Father? Because as I read the Bible, Jesus only prayed to the Father. He did talk with Moses and Elijah in the transfiguration, but he did not pray to them. Nor did Jesus instruct us to pray to anyone but God the Father. Since Jesus and the Father are one, it does make sense we can pray to him as well. But at the same time, he is our intercessor with God the Father. Why would I choose Mary or another saint as intercessor when I have Jesus as my intercessor?

And is praying to Mary (or any other saint) somehow putting her on equal footing with Jesus Christ, our Savior?

[sirabe]

What are u saying? Our prayer and the prayers of the saints are equally effective? If it is so we do we bother them

[kgriff]

First video I have ever seen that explains why Catholics pray to the saints, so thank you for that. With that being said, this logic is completely false. There is no human greater than any other, no matter how they were used by God in the Bible. Sin has separated us from God and salvation can only be attained through Jesus alone. I agree with asking other fellow Christians to pray for requests, but that is as far as I can follow the logic. Asking the saints to pray for you is no different than asking my dead grandfather to pray for me.... he is in paradise as the Bible says, not even in Heaven yet. So how can any dead human being intercede for us?

[susangesel]

It's okay to ask people who are alive to pray for you, but not people who are dead. The Bible says that we are not to have any communication with the Dead.

[leeolson]

I love your straight talk. Keep it up, please.

[joshlara]

Its a sin to pry to any other we're only allowed to pry to god n have no other image to worship

[jond]

On the first 1 minute, he already contradict what he says. Praying to the saints is also not in the bible even if we believe what you say we need to check in the dictionary. Still its not in the bible.

[catz]

Are there any examples of people praying to guardian angels in the bible to protect them? Do we have scriptural evidence that the saints can hear us post mortem?