I like it....
Honestly, I don’t see the point in going to anyone but God with my requests. Asking another person to agree with me in prayer for something is not asking them FOR the thing.
Not to mention that He’s promised to hear and answer our prayer Himself. And it’s not like people are going to get something out of a saint or Mary that God Himself wouldn’t do for us. They’re not going to go contrary to His will, even if they could answer prayer.
I’ve encountered the mentality that they can or will do something for us that God won’t, as is evidenced in the concept that God cannot or will not refuse any request of Mary’s that she makes to Him. Therefore, they go to Mary, who they perceive as being more loving and motherly and less likely to say *No* and get the *Yes* from her and then God has to do it cause He can’t refuse her.
It reminds me of kids who play one parent against the other.
I can cite precise events when agreeing in prayer resulted in miraculous occurences. Jesus said that where two or more are gathered in His name, there is He int he midst of them. If the miraculous is needed and in God’s Grace allowed, there is He in the midst of those gathered in His name to pray as one.
Any Catholic, I would venture, who prays to a saint in heaven (as he believes) and makes a petition without "by your intercession" being understood, is in error.
This is not like asking someone on earth to pray for you, since they are physically here to converse. What the Roman Catholic is doing is asking those who are not physically here and are unable to see or affect the affairs of mankind on earth... to do what is attributed to God only.
When we look in the Bible we find that prayer is directed to God alone.
To set up a person as a recipient for our prayers,..... is making them out to be deity. ......Asking a saint to help and guide or protect is something only God can do.....
There is not one example of a Christian addressing prayers to Mary or saints, or those who are dead passing from our world.
There is much to be said of those who practice Spiritism that use this method......There are hundreds of prayers and passages about prayer in scripture, and none of them instruct prayers to the dead. The scriptures forbid attempting to contact the dead, yet the Catholic Church teaches people to do it.