Mary & the Saints · Beginner
Asking the Saints to Pray for Us
Objection
“Why pray to dead people? The Bible says there is one mediator between God and man, Christ Jesus. Asking saints to intercede is unbiblical and takes glory away from Jesus.”
The Catholic response
Catholics do not pray 'to' the saints as though they were gods; we ask them to pray 'for' us, exactly as we ask a friend on earth to pray for us. Paul repeatedly asks living Christians to intercede for him (1 Thessalonians 5:25), and the saints in heaven are described in Revelation 5:8 offering the prayers of the faithful to God as incense. Christ's unique mediation as the one who reconciled us by his blood (1 Timothy 2:5) does not exclude other, subordinate forms of intercession any more than my asking a friend to pray excludes it. Since the saints are alive in Christ and 'a great cloud of witnesses' surrounding us (Hebrews 12:1), and since love does not end at death but is perfected, it is fitting that they continue to intercede for the Church still on pilgrimage. This has been the constant practice of the Church from the earliest centuries, attested in the catacomb inscriptions and the writings of the Fathers, who asked the martyrs' prayers at their tombs. Far from diminishing Christ, honoring his saints glorifies the grace he worked in them.
Scripture references
Catechism
The Church Fathers
“If the apostles and martyrs while still in the body can pray for others... how much more after their crowns, victories, and triumphs.”
“We commemorate... the holy fathers and bishops, and generally all who have fallen asleep before us, believing that great benefit will be conferred on those souls for whom the supplication is made.”
Mistakes to avoid
- Saying we pray 'to' saints in the same sense we worship God (confuses veneration with adoration).
- Failing to cite that living Christians interceding for one another is already biblical, making the leap to the saints in heaven less shocking.
- Overstating saints' knowledge as literal omniscience.
Practice drills
Choose the response you would give, then see how it holds up.
Objection
“A friend says: 'Praying to saints is necromancy — the Bible condemns speaking with the dead (Deuteronomy 18:11).'”
Objection
“'How can saints hear millions of prayers at once? Only God is omniscient.'”