What Catholics say about Praying to saints and

PurgatoryRoman Catholicism

Why Do Catholics pray to saints when they can go straight to God?

“Catholics ask the saints to mediate for them. One reason is that the saints are closer to God then we are here on earth. Let us say there is a job you want in a certain company and you know someone who is a friend of the Boss who is hiring. Would you go directly to the Boss or would you rather your friend speak about you to the Boss first? How about another example, there is always that certain person you know, whether it be your pastor, priest, or friend, whom you always feel that their prayers are stronger for what ever reason, and when you ask them to pray for your important need, you fell a confidence that God will surely hear your request now. This is the same reasoning that Catholics use when they ask a saint to help them pray for a certain intention. You know that the saints prayers are a lot stronger than your won because they are perfected and in heaven with God.”

Why do Catholics Pray to saints when they can go straight to God

• Catholics “claim” they do not pray TO saints but they ask saints to pray FOR them

• What Catholics say is different from what Catholics actually practice. Many Catholics do in fact pray directly to saints and/or Mary, asking them for help – instead of asking the saints and/or Mary to intercede with God for help

• Catholics Go to the Friend of the Boss, Christians Go to the Son of the Boss

Why Do Catholics Pray to Saints when they can go straight to God?

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.

Hebrews 4:16

16 Let us then approach the throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need.

1 Timothy 2:4-5

• 5 For there is one God and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus

• Hebrews 7:25 - Therefore he is able to save completely those who come to God through him, because he always lives to intercede for them. Or forever

Romans 8:26-27

• 26 In the same way, the Spirit helps us in our weakness. We do not know what we ought to pray for, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groans that words cannot express. 27

And he who searches our hearts knows the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for the saints in accordance with God’s will.

Why do Catholics Pray to saints when they can go straight to God

Whenever the Bible mentions praying to or speaking with the dead, it is in the context of sorcerywitchcraftdivination

- activities the Bible strongly condemns (Leviticus 20:27; Deuteronomy 18:10-13)

Why do Catholics Pray to saints when they can go straight to God

God does not answer prayers based on who is praying. God answers prayers based on whether they are asked according to His will

1 John 5:14-15 - This is the confidence we have in approaching God: that if we ask anything according to his will, he hears us. 15 And if we know that he hears us—whatever we ask—we know that we have what we asked of him.

Ecclesiastes 9:3-63 This is the evil in everything that happens under the sun: The same destiny overtakes all. The hearts of men, moreover, are full of evil and there is madness in their hearts while they live, and afterward they join the dead. 4 Anyone who is among the living has hope—even a live dog is better off than a dead lion! 5 For the living know that they will die, but the dead know nothing; they have no further reward, and even the memory of them is forgotten. 6 Their love, their hate and their jealousy have long since vanished; never again will they have a part in anything that happens under the sun.

What Catholics say about Purgatory – the origination

The Catholic Church originated this doctrine at the Council of Trent. "There is a Purgatory, and souls there detained, are helped by the prayers of the faithful, and especially by the acceptable Sacrifice of the Altar." (Sess. XXV.)

What Catholics say about Purgatory

• James Cardinal Gibbons explained their position in this way. "The Catholic Church teaches that, besides a place of eternal torments for the wicked and of everlasting rest for the righteous, there exists in the next life a middle state of temporary punishment, allotted for those who have died in venial sin, or who have not satisfied the justice of God for sins already forgiven. She also teaches us that, although the souls consigned to this intermediate state, commonly called purgatory, cannot help themselves, they may be aided by the suffrages of the faithful on earth. The existence of purgatory naturally implies the correlative dogma - the utility of praying for the dead - for the souls consigned to this middle state have not reached the term of their journey. They are still exiles from heaven and fit subjects for Divine clemency."

(Faith of Our Fathers, James Cardinal Gibbons, Archbishop of Baltimore, P.J. Kenedy & Sons, page 173).

What Catholics say about Purgatory

In the absence of scripture, Catholic defenders turn to the apocryphal book of 2 Maccabees. Keep in mind this is not an inspired document and has absolutely no divine sanction. It is not even accurate history in some instances. Chapter 12, verses 43-46 read:"And making a gathering, he sent twelve thousand drachms of silver to Jerusalem for sacrifice to be offered for the sins of the dead, thinking well and religiously concerning the resurrection. For, if he had not hoped that they that were slain should rise again, it would have seemed superfluous and vain to pray for the dead . . . It is therefore, a holy and wholesome thought to pray for the dead that they may be loosed from sins."

Indulgences retrieve people out of Purgatory

"Indulgences, the remission of temporal punishment due to sin after its guilt has been forgiven, which the Church grants from the treasury of the merits of Christ and His saints." (The Catholic Encyclopedia Dictionary, The Gilmary Society, page 478).

The Catholic Church offers a variety of indulgences:1. For the living.2. For the dead.3. Plenary.4. Partial.5. A 40 day Indulgence.

Of what benefit are indulgences to the Catholics? The same article says, "The Church offers satisfaction to the souls in purgatory, from her treasury of the merits of Christ, and asks God to apply this satisfaction to the souls of those in purgatory

What the Bible says about Purgatory

The doctrine offers, to the dead, a time for penitent sinners to be fully perfected and purified prior to entrance into heaven. The bible says at the end, when the Lord returns to judge the world in righteousness (Acts 17:31) those who are in sin will go away into everlasting punishment (Matthew 25:46). There is no reprieve from the final sentence pronounced upon those guilty of sin.

Luke 16:25-26

"Son, remember that thou in thy lifetime receivedst thy good things, and likewise Lazarus evil things: but now he is comforted, and thou art tormented. And beside all this, between us and you there is a great gulf fixed: so that they which would pass from hence to you cannot; neither can they pass to us, that would come from thence"

Proverbs 11:7

Solomon tells us even now, "When a wicked man dies, his expectation will perish, and the hope of the unjust perishes"

What happens when we Die?

We either go to Heaven… or Hades to await Hell. Hades is NOT purgatory, it is a waiting place until Christ returns to cast all of those who are disobedient into Hell (the lake of Fire). You can’t be bought out, prayed out, baptized out, or delivered out of Hades once you are there.

There is no second chance….