(I hope I haven't crossed the line into sacrilege. I'm probably way, way over into Strangeness of the Faithful territory.)
That raises all kinds of speculative questions. Would we have to exclude every member of the Body of Christ, or just the BVM? Do I have to ask the people who are praying for us, not to pray for us anymore because we're just going straight to Jesus?
We address the Angels and Archangels and ask them to join us in praise in all Masses. I am realizing it would be hard to get an antiseptically isolated prayer here, even for experimental purposes.
For a month? Yeesh.
I can't speak for others, but I sure wouldn't do it. I suspect that he Catholics I know, rascally romanists that they are, would go in exactly the opposite direction: try to get EVERYBODY praying: Mary * Joseph, Peter, James & John, apostles, martyrs, cousins by the dozens, all the faithful who have gone on before us, that whole "cloud of witnesses," Grandma and Grandpa, everybody.
This doesn't seem to be the time to minimize the prayer community!
So, on to Maximum! Please pray for us!
Tagline to you!
Gotta go for a bit.
Back later with a response.
Sorry mrs. don-o but Jesus never commanded or taught us to be on speaking terms with His mother. Now His Father is another story....
That is an interesting thought. Really.
It raises the question of why we do ask others to pray for us. It's like we really don't think that God will answer our prayers Himself, like He promised.
I know I struggled with that for years; thinking that God will answer the prayers of others instead of mine, before mine, whatever. I prayed out of obedience, but not in faith that God would come through like He said He would when it was just me praying. I guess I thought that he didn't consider me significant enough, or good enough, or whatever enough to be worth paying attention to as an individual. Part of the group, yeah, but just me. Not so much.
I've come to realize what a slap in the face of God that is.
I will post Scripture in another post so as not to make this one too long.
We address the Angels and Archangels and ask them to join us in praise in all Masses. I am realizing it would be hard to get an antiseptically isolated prayer here, even for experimental purposes.
But why go to them instead of God? Do you think God will listen better to someone else? Or the more the merrier? You do realize that time you spend praying to someone else is time not spent praying to God, don't you?
How do you get to know your best friend? BY spending time with her, or her mother, her husband, her children, her other friends? Maybe you can learn more ABOUT her, but you don't get to know her through the intimacy taht being with her and speaking with her , and spending time with her alone will do.
Some time ago, I was praying for a job for my son. I was thinking of asking a friend to pray also and as I was talking to God about it, He said, *No! Do not ask so and so.* I was really taken aback. He continued and told me that He wanted me to know that HE would answer MY prayers Himself.
So I did. And He did. I didn't tell another soul or ask anyone else to pray for it. But what a boost to my faith that was.
Do you think those in heaven aren't already aware of the abortion issue (presuming they know what's going on down here anyway) and if they are praying for us, do you think that they aren't already praying for the abortion issue?
The best thing that's happened to me in the last couple years is getting out of the churchianity box. Challenging the assumptions I was making and taking chances I would not have taken before.
When we stretch ourselves, God will meet us. When we are at the end of ourselves, it's the beginning of seeing the awesome and amazing things God can do.
I've come to love asking God for the impossible, or even the possible and letting HIM decide how to do it. It's often the answer that would NEVER have occurred to me.
For a month? Yeesh.
Yeah, for a month. I dare you.
“Father, hallowed be your name. Your kingdom come. Give us each day our daily bread, and forgive us our sins, for we ourselves forgive everyone who is indebted to us. And lead us not into temptation.”
And he said to them, “Which of you who has a friend will go to him at midnight and say to him, ‘Friend, lend me three loaves, for a friend of mine has arrived on a journey, and I have nothing to set before him’; and he will answer from within, ‘Do not bother me; the door is now shut, and my children are with me in bed. I cannot get up and give you anything’? I tell you, though he will not get up and give him anything because he is his friend, yet because of his impudence he will rise and give him whatever he needs.
And I tell you, ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives, and the one who seeks finds, and to the one who knocks it will be opened. What father among you, if his son asks for a fish, will instead of a fish give him a serpent; or if he asks for an egg, will give him a scorpion? If you then, who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will the heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him!”
Luke 18:1-8 And he told them a parable to the effect that they ought always to pray and not lose heart. He said, “In a certain city there was a judge who neither feared God nor respected man. And there was a widow in that city who kept coming to him and saying, ‘Give me justice against my adversary.’ For a while he refused, but afterward he said to himself, ‘Though I neither fear God nor respect man, yet because this widow keeps bothering me, I will give her justice, so that she will not beat me down by her continual coming.’”
And the Lord said, “Hear what the unrighteous judge says. And will not God give justice to his elect, who cry to him day and night? Will he delay long over them? I tell you, he will give justice to them speedily. Nevertheless, when the Son of Man comes, will he find faith on earth?”
John 14:12-14 “Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever believes in me will also do the works that I do; and greater works than these will he do, because I am going to the Father. Whatever you ask in my name, this I will do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son. If you ask me anything in my name, I will do it.
James 5:13-18 Is anyone among you suffering? Let him pray. Is anyone cheerful? Let him sing praise. Is anyone among you sick? Let him call for the elders of the church, and let them pray over him, anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord. And the prayer of faith will save the one who is sick, and the Lord will raise him up. And if he has committed sins, he will be forgiven. Therefore, confess your sins to one another and pray for one another, that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous person has great power as it is working. Elijah was a man with a nature like ours, 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 heaven gave rain, and the earth bore its fruit.
1 John 5:14-15 And this is the confidence that we have toward him, that if we ask anything according to his will he hears us. And if we know that he hears us in whatever we ask, we know that we have the requests that we have asked of him.
Hebrews 4:14-16 Since then we have a great high priest who has passed through the heavens, Jesus, the Son of God, let us hold fast our confession. For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who in every respect has been tempted as we are, yet without sin. Let us then with confidence draw near to the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need.
God has promised that if we pray according to His will, He hears us. Now some things we might not be sure what His will is.
But others we can be sure. I feel pretty confident that it would be praying according to God's will to shut down the baby murder business.
Therefore, I can know that when I pray for that to happen, I am praying according to God's will and that He WILL hear and answer that prayer. Even if it's only me who does it.
Elijah thought he was alone until god told him that He had a remnant. And God heard and answered Elijah's prayer.
Hey, the Crazy Evangelicals want to go as far as the bible says they can. They saw the glory of the Lord getting snuffed out in actual Roman Catholic congregations, as far back as Luther. Luther, you may remember, wanted to fix the problem locally... which was exactly the right spirit. When it wasn’t fixed, then independent Christian worship community was plan B. We know that as Lutheran, but Luther himself asked them not to go by that name; he wanted Jesus Christ exalted alone. Alas the misleading name, applied generally by their opponents not themselves, stuck. Other such ironies are seen in Christendom. Methodists from their methodical habits trying to work their salvation (unbiblical) as much as they were trying to work it OUT (biblical). Baptists from their insistence on baptizing believers only. (At least the less flattering Dunkards name died out.) Calvinists... argh! John Calvin did NOT die for anyone’s sins! ARGH!
Anyhow, we Crazy Evangelicals go as far as Christ was documented to go by the bible. Invocation of visual contact with a departed saint would be a very special thing at best, viz. the Transfiguration scene, and then Jesus would do all the talking there. (I actually wrote a song featuring a saint appearance, based on this scenario. If you ever hear a country song “With Duct Tape On His Boots” remember this ole Redneck.) Alleged God-independent contacts with sub-divine supernatural entities, even departed saints, just give us the willies. Too much caution in the bible against doing that.