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All graces and blessings come from God alone. He alone is the source. However, in His goodness, He has given us the ability, as His children, to make intercession. Whenever we say a prayer for someone else, we are making intercession. By God's design, our intercession draws down blessings on others, which come from the infinite treasury of graces merited by Jesus Christ through His Passion and Death. It is by virtue of our being sons and daughters of the Father that we can access this infinite treasury, in ways that are in accordance with God's will for the recipient.

Catholics and some other Christians believe that the ability to make intercession on others' behalf, before the throne of God's Mercy, does not end with death. In fact, one's ability to make intercession is increased. If David, while alive, was a man after God's own Heart, how much more he is while beholding the face of God!

If you read the Franciscans' prayer (above) carefully, it is addressed to God the Father, and it incorporates His Son, Jesus Christ, and also the Holy Spirit. It asks that if it is God's will that He should glorify his servant, Archbishop Sheen, then, please hear and answer the intercession that he is making for this cause.

It is important to see that this prayer acknowleges God as being the Source, and the Almighty, to whom we owe all love, worship, praise, loyalty, obedience, and thanksgiving. For God to "glorify his servant," means that through the answer that God gives to us as a result of Archbishop Sheen's intercession - through the granting of this miracle - God is testifying as to the holiness of his servant, and the esteem in which He holds him.

In turn, this takes NOTHING away from God - it is a glory to Him. It glorifies God when He can say, "This is my good and faithful servant, in whom I am well pleased." By asking Archbishop Sheen for his intercession, we are actually glorifying God by acknowleging His accomplishment of grace in Archbishop Sheen's life for his salvation - we are giving Jesus' Passion and Death the glory, and also the lifelong working of the Holy Spirit in this man's soul, and in ours, too.

Praying to false gods won't get them anywhere.

I'm pinging you to my post #48 for an explanation as to why anyone would ask for intercession from a "dead person."

Have you ever appreciated a prayer said for you, or asked for prayers, or said a prayer for someone else? Since the Passion and Death of Jesus Christ conquered death, why should the ability to make intercession be ended with death?

If after death the Saints are asleep in the ground, awaiting the Final Judgment and Resurrection of the Dead, then I can see your point. But if after death the saints enter their glory in heaven, and await the Final Judgment and Resurrection there, then I can't.