If Saints Hear Prayer

Published on by D. G. Hart

. . . what do sinners hear and see? They may not be looking down on us, but even looking from a different direction, don’t the damned see and hear as much as the saved?

In which case, Osama bin Laden must be getting a big chuckle out of what he sees. Every time I go through airport security I lose my patience because I not only need to remove parts of my clothing (I am tempted to dispense with the whole charade of dignity and go through the scanner butt naked); but I also need to misplace possessions that I have assembled and ordered on my person precisely so as not to misplace them. At such moments Mr. Laden must be gleeful. Who else do we have to blame for an element of air travel that took an already uncomfortable form of transportation (gone are the days of air travel’s glamour) and turned it into Greyhound? Strike that. Flying is worse than bus travel since at least with the bus you don’t have to unpack and repack before boarding.

Call me “tight jaws.”

14 thoughts on “If Saints Hear Prayer”

  2. With the covenant spawn no longer an infant, gone are the days of being whisked to the front with the oppressive first class elites.

    Prole united and it feels so good.

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  5. Oh man. Next OLTS gonna be dissin the Patriot Act.
    But Big Brother the NSA is watching to see who’s naughty and nice.
    And there will be drones with maybe more than charcoal for the stockings of the ungooders.
    Make sure the life insurance is paid up. Yah never know.

    9/11 was America’s Reichstag Fire and Leviathan’s power to annoy and harass the populace took a quantum leap. But none dare call it fascism, treason or tyranny because America is an exceptionalism (sic). Go figure.

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  9. A glass ceiling to prayer in the after life?

    Whether the souls in purgatory can, by their prayers, help those still on earth is an unsettled question in Catholic theology and a matter on which renowned theologians have differed. Thomas Aquinas held quite definitively that the poor souls could not help us, while Robert Bellarmine and Alphonsus Liguori believed that they could.

    The section in the Catechism of the Catholic Church that deals with purgatory (No. 1030-1032) makes no mention of the holy souls praying for us, and at no point does the liturgy of the church invoke their help.

    But we cannot exclude that possibility; it could be that praying for the living is part of their purification in readying themselves for the holiness of heaven. So, I see no harm in asking for their prayers. If they are in purgatory, they might be able to pray for us; if they are already in heaven, they certainly can.

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  10. Thomas Aquinas prays for them/us?

    Today on the Church calendar is the memorial of Saint Thomas Aquinas, Priest and Doctor of the Church. This great saint, who lived on earth from 1225 to 1274, is now alive and well in heaven praying for us.

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  11. Pingback: Troubling - Old Life Theological Society

  12. That‘s what I’m saying:

    I want a Catholic to explain how Mary, a Jewish woman of the first-century A.D., can simultaneously hear the appeals of millions of people who speak dozens of languages that she never learned. I know Catholics don’t believe Mary has become God, but that looks like something only a God could manage.

    Liked by 1 person

  13. An error Roman Catholics should avoid:

    4. I go straight to Jesus. I don’t bother with the saints. This is a hard row to hoe. It’s not necessarily sinful to avoid asking the saints for their prayerful assistance. But, by avoiding their assistance, one is actively ignoring the Biblical injunction that the prayers of holy men and women are particularly efficacious. (James 5:16) If we weren’t meant to ask the saints for their prayers, why would it be recommended to us in the Bible? Getting through life without their prayers is the equivalent of walking a tightrope, blindfolded with both arms tied behind your back over a raging fire. It’s possible to do so but why would you want to?

    Still not sure how saints hear us since they don’t have ears.

    But is this what counts for biblical exposition in the Roman fellowship?

    And oh how they murder logic:

    15. I’m allowed to interpret Scriptures as I wish. It’s an unfortunate aspect of Protestantism to concentrate upon Paul’s words in the Epistles to the exclusion of Christ’s. To be clear, Paul’s words are meaningless unless they are interpreted to be completely in sync with Christ’s words and not the other way around. If it was, Christ would have lauded St Paul for having died for the sins of humanity. But even if we were to put aside the implicit heresy and pride in this type of individualism run amok, we should at least take an example from our Protestant brothers and sisters. When everyone is allowed to have their own opinions backed up by nothing more than, “Well…this is what I believe!” then that just destroys all chance at community.

    So Roman Catholics can use proof texts for praying to saints but Protestants are bad.

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  14. stop DG. my ears hurt

    “Conclusion :We as Catholics are surrounded by many demonically-inspired, sin-filled dangers …The Catholic Church has produced many saints (17,000 by the last count) and martyrs ..We’ve got the best record thus far and we’re the only ones who can trace our origins back to Christ Himself. Its seems like a slam dunk. All we need do is love and trust our tradition.”

    wow.

    double wow:

    “Below, we publish the text of Pope Francis’ prayer: …We ask this through the intercession of Mary, Mother of Mercy, you who live and reign with the Father and the Holy Spirit for ever and ever. Amen.” http://en.radiovaticana.va/news/2015/05/06/pope_francis%E2%80%99_prayer_for_jubilee_year_of_mercy/1142087

    Prooftext: Rev 11:15 Then the seventh angel sounded; and there were loud voices in heaven, saying,“The kingdom of the world has become the kingdom of our Lord and of His CHRIST; and HE will reign forever and ever.”

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