Protestants agree that it is ok to ask your friend to pray for you, but wrong to ask a "dead" person to pray for you. They say that communicating with the dead is like prayer. And that prayer should only be given to God/Jesus. How do Catholics know that the dead can hear their requests and how do they know that it is not violating God's words that Jesus should be the only intecessor between us and Him.

-- AB (lifey888@hotmail.com), February 28, 2005

Answers

You stated that Protestants agree it is acceptable to ask your friend to pray for you. So that eliminates the possibility that "Jesus should be the only intercessor". If you ask your friend to pray for you, your friend becomes an intercessor. If you pray for someone else, you are an intercessor. The only other issue is whether those who have prayed for us during their earthly lives can continue to pray for us before the throne of God. It is highly unlikely that we will lose our ability to pray when we reach heaven, considering that Revelation clearly describes the worship being given to God by those in His presence. Revelation also specifically describes the saints in heaven presenting our prayers to God (Rev 5:8), which is the act of intercession. It is contrary to both Christian Tradition and Sacred Scripture to say that the saints are "dead", since Christ Himself is quoted in the Bible as saying they will "never die" (John 11:26), and that they will "live forever" (John 6;58; 1 John 2:17). There is absolutely nothing in Scripture or Tradition that suggests we should not communicate with (pray to) anyone but God. Scripture says we must WORSHIP no-one but God, and so does the Catholic Church. In fact, the Catholic Church has taught this from before the New Testament was written.

Lastly, there is that annoying passage that Protestants would rather forget about, where Jesus tells the leaders of His Church that whatsoever they bind upon earth is bound in heaven - which really is the only way anyone can know with certainty that any doctrinal teaching is true.

-- Paul M. (PaulCyp@cox.net), February 28, 2005.

Protestants agree that it is ok to ask your friend to pray for you

with all the countless thousands of protestant denominations out there, i've met protestants who dont feel its okay to ask for prayers from your friends. this should be MOST protestants agree that... etc.

They say that communicating with the dead is like prayer.

According to the dictionary...

Pray: 1) To utter or say a prayer or prayers to; address by prayer. 2) To ask (someone) imploringly; beseech. Now often used elliptically for I pray you to introduce a request or entreaty: Pray be careful. 3) To make a devout or earnest request for: I pray your permission to speak. 4) To move or bring by prayer or entreaty.

by the strict definition, entreating one's friends to pray for them, is in fact a "prayer" to your friends. communicating with the dead IS a prayer. further, since protestants are so keen on their scripture only approach, why not ask them where in the Bible it says that those who have gone to eternal LIFE (ie, are not dead but instead are ALIVE in Christ) cannot continue to pray for the people who are still on earth?

And that prayer should only be given to God/Jesus.

again, where can this sentiment be shown in any form of valid tradition or even in the scriptures. i want a verse along the lines of "And Jesus said "do not pray (ask) anything of anyone except from the Father or Myself." this is not found anywhere in the text of the scripture because this is not true.

How do Catholics know that the dead can hear their requests

because the saints are not dead. we have a command to pray for our bretheren. does physical death seperate us from the valid and good commands of God? does seperation from this physical body render null and void the Word of God? no!!! therefore the saints will still pray for us from their state of eternal grace in eternal life with God. another case in point... stop thinking of the saints as dead. Jesus promised eternal life, if protestants can't recognize that afterlife then they assert Jesus to have given us misinformation. if asking a saint who is alive in Christ to pray for us is wrong, then asking a person who is not even sanctified with eternal salvation is even more so.

and how do they know that it is not violating God's words that Jesus should be the only intecessor between us and Him.

again, where is this in scripture? We know that Jesus is the sole mediator of our salvation because this is what we are told. its a long jump through alot of hoops to turn this around into the idea that no one should pray on our behalf. this is the danger of personal (mis)interpretation, it does not account for the vast knowledge which can only be understood by correlation of tradition, ALL of the scripture, and by educated understanding.

-- paul h (dontSendMeMail@notAnAddress.com), February 28, 2005.

We also recall the 2nd chapter of John, who witnessed something very important. In the marriage feast of Cana, all of a sudden the wedding couple had run out of wine for their party.

Neither the new bridegroom nor his bride walked over to Jesus, who was a guest.

John didn't mention much except that Jesus changed some very large stone jars of plain water into finest drinking wine. Who asked Jesus to do it? Was it the major-domo? Was it another guest (Well yes, )

According to protestant scholars, only the master of this feast, or the bridegroom were supposed to request any miracle from the Son of God. But His holy Mother MARY interceded on behalf of her hosts. In fact; we can be almost sure, Jesus would NEVER have granted the favor for any other person. Because he plainly says, in the scripture, ''My hour is not yet come,'' (John 2 :4). -- Only for the Blessed Virgin Mary was Jesus moved to change that hour, to work the first of His public miracles. His holy Mother is our Intercessor par excellence. We ask her help whenever our petition is truly urgent.

Naturally, like faithful Christians, we pray to Jesus Christ, ALWAYS. --That's understood. But Mary shows us in scripture that-- For her, His MOTHER, it's ALWAYS JESUS' HOUR.

-- eugene c. chavez (loschavez@pacbell.net), February 28, 2005.