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I just for the life of me cannot understand why anyones own prayers are not sufficient before God, further that something within people feels the need to ask people, who are not here,(but have indeed died and with God), to pray for them. They can’t hear you? This is just not biblically sound at all, and borders too far into cultish like activity as I see it.

Further, why Christ is not sufficient for people? If they say He is then why all these other rites and complicated issus ,like the right one to pray for you for whatever etc. that have just added up over the centuries. It is mindboggling, and keeps ones heart and mind pre-occupied. Like the Sadduces and Pharases.

All this stuff of Mary reaching down from heaven and handing some munk or whoever the first rosary beads. Calling her Queen etc...it’s just too hocus pocus. But then I suspect some might need to feel significant unto themselves........it is sad.

I just for the life of me cannot understand why anyones own prayers are not sufficient before God, further that something within people feels the need to ask people, who are not here,(but have indeed died and with God), to pray for them. They can’t hear you? This is just not biblically sound at all, and borders too far into cultish like activity as I see it.

Further, why Christ is not sufficient for people? If they say He is then why all these other rites and complicated issus ,like the right one to pray for you for whatever etc. that have just added up over the centuries. It is mindboggling, and keeps ones heart and mind pre-occupied. Like the Sadduces and Pharases.

All this stuff of Mary reaching down from heaven and handing some munk or whoever the first rosary beads. Calling her Queen etc...it’s just too hocus pocus. But then I suspect some might need to feel significant unto themselves........it is sad.

You have just put my own convictions on such matters far better than I have in all my 63 years. THANKS TONS. Very well put.

All this stuff of Mary reaching down from heaven and handing some munk or whoever the first rosary beads. Calling her Queen etc...it?s just too hocus pocus. But then I suspect some might need to feel significant unto themselves........it is sad.

Amen. Well-said.

"...need to feel significant unto themselves"

Exactly.

I just for the life of me cannot understand why anyones own prayers are not sufficient before God,

That's incorrect. Your prayers are sufficient

further that something within people feels the need to ask people, who are not here,(but have indeed died and with God), to pray for them.

For the same reason you ask your friends and family to pray for you.

They can’t hear you?

They can -- because God lets them, this is not invokation of the dead or conjuring up of the dead. Any ability they have to hear is because of God alone.

This is just not biblically sound at all, and borders too far into cultish like activity as I see it.

We believe that our relationship with other Christians does not end with death. While we live together on earth as Christians, we are in communion, or unity, with one another. But that communion doesn’t end when one of us dies. We believe that Christians in heaven, the saints, remain in communion with those of us on earth.

So, just as we might ask a friend or family member to pray for us, we can approach a saint with our prayers, too.

And do the prayers of the saints help? Remember Luke 15:7-10 ----Those in heaven could not rejoice over a sinner repenting on earth unless they knew about it.

And is clear from Revelation 5:8 that the saints in heaven do actively intercede for us

This in no way violates the sole mediatorship of Christ,

But asking one person to pray for you in no way violates Christ’s mediatorship, as can be seen from considering the way in which Christ is a mediator. First, Christ is a unique mediator between man and God because he is the only person who is both God and man. He is the only bridge between the two, the only God-man. But that role as mediator is not compromised in the least by the fact that others intercede for us. Furthermore, Christ is a unique mediator between God and man because he is the Mediator of the New Covenant (Heb. 9:15, 12:24), just as Moses was the mediator (Greek mesitas) of the Old Covenant (Gal. 3:19–20).

The intercession of fellow Christians—which is what the saints in heaven are—also clearly does not interfere with Christ’s unique mediatorship because in the four verses immediately preceding 1 Timothy 2:5, Paul says that Christians should interceed: "First of all, then, I urge that supplications, prayers, intercessions, and thanksgivings be made for all men, for kings and all who are in high positions, that we may lead a quiet and peaceable life, godly and respectful in every way. This is good, and pleasing to God our Savior, who desires all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth" (1 Tim. 2:1–4). Clearly, then, intercessory prayers offered by Christians on behalf of others is something "good and pleasing to God," not something infringing on Christ’s role as mediator.

You also, quite logically ask "Why not pray directly to Jesus?" The answer is: "Of course one should pray directly to Jesus!" But that does not mean it is not also a good thing to ask others to pray for one as well. Praying for each other is simply part of what Christians do. As we saw, in 1 Timothy 2:1–4, Paul strongly encouraged Christians to intercede for many different things, and that passage is by no means unique in his writings. Elsewhere Paul directly asks others to pray for him (Rom. 15:30–32, Eph. 6:18–20, Col. 4:3, 1 Thess. 5:25, 2 Thess. 3:1), and he assured them that he was praying for them as well (2 Thess. 1:11). Most fundamentally, Jesus himself required us to pray for others, and not only for those who asked us to do so (Matt. 5:44).

Also, God answers in particular the prayers of the righteous. James declares: "The prayer of a righteous man has great power in its effects. Elijah was a man of like nature with ourselves and he prayed fervently that it might not rain, and for three years and six months it did not rain on the earth. Then he prayed again and the heaven gave rain, and the earth brought forth its fruit" (Jas. 5:16–18). Yet those Christians in heaven are more righteous, since they have been made perfect to stand in God’s presence (Heb. 12:22-23), than anyone on earth, meaning their prayers would be even more efficacious.

Having others praying for us thus is a good thing, not something to be despised or set aside. Of course, we should pray directly to Christ with every pressing need we have (cf. John 14:13–14). That’s something the Catholic Church strongly encourages. In fact, the prayers of the Mass, the central act of Catholic worship, are directed to God and Jesus, not the saints. But this does not mean that we should not also ask our fellow Christians, including those in heaven, to pray with us.

I just for the life of me cannot understand why some people misstate Catholic doctrine and then attribute belief in their misstatement to some sinful or pathological need on the part of the alleged person allegedly believing the misstatement.

(Hint: We don't really think that Mary and Jesus handed Dominic - who was NOT a "munk" - and Catherine Rosaries.)

So what's the deal with criticizing what the Church does not teach? What's that about? I'm confident that all over the place there are people who do not believe the official teaching of their church. I remember in the 70's there was a survey which indicated that the vast majority of Lutherans did not believe in sola fide.

Misstatements of our doctrine followed by comments or refutations of the teaching as misstated may do something for some. I'm not sure about what they have to do with the Truth.