Ecumenical Dialogue - Catholic

----- Original Message -----

From: Matthew Tan Yew Hock

To: catholicact@yahoogroups.com

Sent: Friday, June 11, 2004 10:50 PM

Subject: Re: [catholicACT] Why pray to Mary or the saints?

Furthermore.  We have to deal with the Protestant mind-set, which is:

 

(1) "All we need is Jesus"

 

This is true in the primary and ultimate sense. But the ordinary fact of life is that God himself ordains things to be worked through with many secondary helpers - Angels, Saints and the earthly men.  I always tell myself that Christ himself enlists or benefits from the help of Angels, Joseph and Mary, and the Apostles, etc.

 

"Jesus alone" is great and glorious.  But Jesus with the company of Angels and Saints is even better, and glory multiplied !

 

Do we refuse help from the Saints?  Then we are saying to them:  "I don't need you (or your prayer)". (cf. 1 Cor 12:21);  or "I do not belong to [your] body"  (cf. 1 Cor 12:14)

 

(2) "I have direct access to God"

 

Answer:  Good.  But to have "direct" access to God in the company of his Saints and Angels is better.  A sure sign of humility.  Praying "through" the Saints does not mean that I am not having "direct" access to God.  At the very most, it means I am not asserting and exercising this God-given privilege.  Actually, the reality is I am asking the Saints "to pray with me and for me".  The "direct" access part is maintained, if I so wish.

 

It is great to pray "directly" to God. It is better to pray "directly" to God with Saints (and saints) praying alongside with me (and for me) - if I so wish.

 

But in my utterly sinful state, I may wish to count myself unworthy to talk to God "direclty";  and I have a choice, to pray "indirectly" to God, asking the Saints in humility to pray for me.

 

Or, in my desperate state of many repeating, unanswered, "direct" prayers to God, I ask for prayers from the Saints, just like I ask for prayers for from my earthly brothers and sisters.

 

 

----- Original Message -----

From: Matthew Tan Yew Hock

To: catholicact@yahoogroups.com

Sent: Friday, June 11, 2004 9:25 PM

Subject: Re: [catholicACT] Why pray to Mary or the saints?

Before I became a Catholic, I asked a simple Catholic girl who gave me a simple-minded question.  She said:  "When I visit the household of my good friend, I speak also to his mother." 

 

And I find this simple answer most satisfactory.  All other arguments are good and have "added value".  But this alone is good enough for me.

 

Hebrews 12:23 says, we are entering into the household of Christ our Lord, into the heavenly assembly of angels and Saints!  Hebrews 12:1 says we are surrounded by these witnesses.

 

Therefore, I always see it in the context of "communion of saints", the communications of family members in the household of God.  Whether my "prayer" is answered or not, or whether it is answered with the intercessions of Mary (and Saints), are all of secondary importance.

 

So, for me, non-communication with the Church in heaven simply means we do not belong to the same household of God.  Not to communicate is to cut-off oneself from the family !

# posted by Matthew Tan Yew Hock @ 3:17 AM