Do Catholics "pray" to Mary and the saints in the same sense as in prayer to God?

I think that the reason that the discussion goes silent is that Catholic Christians are dumbstruck wondering why you would think that 1tim 2:5 has anything to do with praying for each other or forbids in some way prayers for each other. I see no reason why you could not ask your deceased grandfather to pray for you. Why would you think that some saints can hear prayers and others can't.

Anyone in the Communion of Saints can pray for another whether they are part of the Church militant, suffering or triumphant. Perhaps you will share with us why you do not ask others in the Church to pray for you. Would you pray for someone else if they asked you to pray for them?

First of all it is disingenuous to state that the practice of praying for each other has no biblical foundation, we are instructed in Scripture to have a prayer life for others as it is part of God’s commandment to love one another. (2Co 5:8 DRB) But we are confident and have a good will to be absent rather from the body and to be present with the Lord. The Catholic Church does not teach that it is absolutely necessary for one to ask for the intercession of saints for salvation.

The Church does teach that prayer to God is necessary for salvation for all believers. For a Catholic it would be wrong to ignore the liturgical worship offered to God at feast days for the saints and the prayers asking for their intercession. The Communion of Saints is a dogma of the ancient Church and is recorded in the apostles Creed.

It simply states that the faithful because of their relationship with Christ are alive even after the death of their flesh and worship with us. To us the Church is made up of the Church militant who represents all those believers living out their hope in the flesh. (Phi 2:12 DRB) Wherefore, my dearly beloved, (as you have always obeyed, not as in my presence only but much more now in my absence) with fear and trembling work out your salvation.

(Phi 2:13 DRB) For it is God who worketh in you, both to will and to accomplish, according to his good will. It consists of the Church Suffering who are those who are temporarily in need of further purgation from sin so that they may enjoy the presence of God. (2Ma 12:46 DRB) It is therefore a holy and wholesome thought to pray for the dead, that they may be loosed from sins.

Lastly, the Communion of the Saints consists of those who have won the race: (Phi 3:14 DRB) I press towards the mark, to the prize of the supernal vocation of God in Christ Jesus. Their immortal souls are in heaven in God’s presence: (Rev 5:8 DRB) And when he had opened the book, the four living creatures and the four and twenty ancients fell down before the Lamb, having every one of them harps and golden vials full of odours, which are the prayers of saints.

Jesus is indeed the only Mediator in the matter of resolving our sin debt to the Father. A mediator is one who settles a dispute between two parties. Jesus alone can go to the Father and say, "Father, there is no longer any enmity between you and Wolfe because I paid her sin debt on the Cross."

Jesus is NOT our only intercessor, however, because an intercessor is one who puts in a good word for another person. When you ask a friend or family member to pray for you, they are interceding with God for your needs. And since Mary and the Saints are alive in Heaven (Jesus told us so, according to Luke 20:38), they can be our intercessors with the Father whenever we ask.

They lived lives of great holiness and obedience to God, so they would be logical choices to pray for us. As far as whether small-s saints can pray for us, the problem with that is that we don't know just how truly godly and righteous they really were. What we thought we knew of them might not be what God saw in their hearts and souls, and until we get to Heaven, we will have no way of knowing for sure.

That's why the Church sifts through the lives of those people who are up for canonization, meticulously examining everything about them before an official pronouncement is made. You can trust the Church's declaration that someone is truly a Saint, whereas our judgment of a person may be faulty. Finally, the proposed doctrine of Mary as "Co-Mediatrix" is a controversial one even in the Church, but the term does not mean what the average person thinks it does.

In this instance, the prefix "Co" means "with," not "equal to." Mary's co-operation with God in bringing our Savior into the world means that she co-operated in our redemption. No one is saying that she is equal to her Son or that she is God.

She isn't, and we don't make that claim. But she *did* play a significant role in giving us our Savior, and that is the basis of the potential doctrine. I have no idea of how other Catholics around the world feel, but I do know that the views I've expressed are very common among U.S. Catholics.

We regard asking Mary and the Saints for their prayers as a very important part of our spirituality and not merely a "folk custom." I trust that this post answers your questions and has not been 'dismissive.' If you plan on arguing every point that I and other Catholics have made, however, please be aware that you will be arguing with air. I've said all that I intend to on this subject.

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