Yet, you cannot get past the fact that Origen, as Irenaeus and other church fathers explicitly condemned the practice of praying to any other than God, a practice that Rome embraced, in spite of "tradition".
What Rome does in reality is define "tradition", to be whatever it says it is at the time they want it to be, reserving the right to change it to suit other agendas as needed, regardless of the "new" tradition contradicting the old.
>> Yet, you cannot get past the fact that Origen, as Irenaeus and other church fathers explicitly condemned the practice of praying to any other than God, a practice that Rome embraced, in spite of “tradition”. <<
But he didn’t SAY that. And he couldn’t have because the word “pray” didn’t even have the connotation it does today. Ever file a court plea? At least in Virginia, they are called “prayers” to the court. Ever hear of the word “prithee”? It’s a contraction of “pray thee.” Any favor requested is a prayer.
This is one case where begging the question cannot be avoided.
Did you know that the Catholic Church forbids praying to dead relatives, etc.? It’s precisely because, as Origin warns, we do not know whether they are in Heaven or not. Protestants argue about the Catholic use of the word, “Saint,” but the Catholic use comes not because holy living people aren’t saints, but because we do not know the state of their soul. Hence, Catholics pray only to saints which have been approved by the Church.
What Origin would have to condemn to be used the way you are using him is the practice of praying to dead people who were known to have died in grace, which would largely simply further establish that the practice was well-defined by his time.