WHAT IS SO WRONG ABOUT PRAYING TO THE SAINTS?

The Complete Illustrated Encyclopedia of Saints - one of my favorite books about saints.

Not so long ago in the distant past, I had a heated argument with a Christian friend of mine, Kelly (not her real name), about the issue of praying to saints. I don't quite remember which church she belongs to. This is because the name of this church sounds rather obscure and uncommon or perhaps too common to me. Certainly not the Methodist Church. Neither is it the Anglican nor the Lutheran Church as far as I can remember. It sounded something like Holy Fountain Church, Flowing Spring Church, or River of Life Church or is it Living Word Church, Holy Tongue Church, Peaceful Stream Church, Perfect Living Church, New Life Church, Great Hope Church, Green Pasture Church, Red River Valley Church, or Stepping Stone Church? It should be noted that these names are purely my own inventions as I do not know whether there are any churches with these names - I am only trying to say that the church Kelly goes to has a name which belongs to this category of names.  In Malaysia, anyone can rent a flat or a shop lot and call it a church and then call himself a pastor and start asking for donations. And Kelly belongs to this kind of church.

What did she say that started the argument? Well, according to her, Mary and the saints are just human beings like us and there is no reason why we should worship them. She also said that Mary is not a virgin and that she also has other children. Her duty is to give birth to Jesus and that is all. She then said that her church is genuine because they pray in tongues. How childish and ignorant of her to say all these things! Praying in tongues does not mean that her church is genuine. What is even more genuine is her pastor has lots of money to tour America with his wife and children at the end of the year - Kelly told me about this proudly.

It seems that many non-Catholics still do not understand that we do not worship Mary and the saints. We only pray to them. It should be noted that 'worship' and 'pray' are not the same. True worship belongs to God alone. We do not worship the saints. Why do we pray to the saints? We pray to the saints to ask them for help, for their intercession on our behalf and to thank them for helping us. Praying to saints is just like talking to someone who is very dear to us. I am sure that many of us would talk to our dead grandmother and ask for her blessings even though she is not a saint. There is absolutely nothing wrong with that. Perfectly normal, I would say. In the Chinese community, there are people who like to buy lottery tickets because they are so desperate to strike it rich and very often they would ask their ancestors to give them four digit numbers in their dreams. And of course there have been instances when these numbers appeared to them in their dreams!

Now to answer the question that Kelly asked, "Why don't you pray directly to God. Why should you ask someone else to intercede for you?" Of course we do pray to God directly but we also pray for each other and surely there is nothing wrong asking the saints to pray for us. It is just like having another member of our Church to pray for us. The saints are our friends and they will gladly help us if we ask them to intercede for us. Why do I say that the saints are our friends? Because they really are. I have prayed to St. Anthony for so many years and I find that he is always there whenever I need him. Hours before I boarded the plane to Lourdes in May 2008, I lost my keys. But I wasn't worried. I prayed to St. Anthony and somehow I got the feeling that my keys would be found on time. And I did find my keys on time! A few days ago, I lost my driving licence. I prayed to St. Anthony calmly believing that it would be found and not long after my prayers, I found my driving licence in a very unexpected place.

I have been praying to Father Damien even before he was canonized in 2009. Why do I pray to him? Because he is a very holy man. Because I have known since I was a child and he is like a dear old friend to me - a friend whom I adore, love, respect and honour. In fact, I am so used to him that I just couldn't help feeling his intense presence in my life. Yes, he is there and I am glad that I have a good friend like him. Through him, I found a lot of inspiration and encouragement. To a greater or lesser extent, he does have an influence in my life because he is my childhood hero and I will continue to venerate this hero all my life.

Since I came back from Medjugorje, I have been praying to Father Slavko Barbaric too. Or to be more exact, I like to talk to him and for a long, long time too. Why do I pray/talk to him? He is not a saint yet. Because he is a priest who lived a very holy life. Because of his sacrifices for the Church and God's people. Because he is a great scholar. Because he is a very unique and respectable priest. In reality, you can only pray to someone who is good because you know that he will help you. And you can only pray to someone whom you love, honor, and respect. And this is what Father Slavko is all about. And he will always live in my heart.

The apparitions of the Mother of God are nothing new and we all know that She does visit the earth and that Her visits are often followed by many miracles. In Lourdes, Medjugorje and Fatima, just to mention a few of the places that She has appeared, many miraculous healings have occurred and these cannot be contested. What do these apparitions signify? The Mother of God is real. The Catholic Church is real. Can we say that the Virgin Mary is human like us? Well, can we perform miracles like Her? Are we as holy as Her? To say that Her duty is to give birth to Jesus and nothing more reminds me of what the old-fashioned mother-in-laws used to do in the old cantonese movies. These irrational old ladies have the habit of taking away the baby (their grandchild) and dumping their daughter-in-law. What a pitiful sight! If we respect Jesus, we should also respect His Mother. Let us not be so inhuman as to take Jesus away from His Mother and then dump Her!

Thanks for reading. You may also like to read Beware of Greedy, Selfish and Money-Hungry Pastors, THE MESSAGE OF LOURDES and THE APPARITIONS OF OUR LADY AT MEDJUGORJE. To view the content page of this blog, please click here.