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cgfisher
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| Joined: | Sun Mar 9th, 2008 |
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| First Name: | Cody | | Gender: | Male | | Faith History: | Church of Christ, Assemblies of God, United Methodist |
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Posted: Thu Jun 19th, 2008 09:50 pm |
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I began praying the rosary a while back because I am comforted by the belief that Mary and the saints pray for us if we ask them to. I don't think I completely grasp the full meaning or significance of this belief yet, but I know that if I don't pray my rosary I miss it. I am having trouble with one aspect of belief surrounding the saints, though. What is the origin of praying to a saint for a specific reason? People pray to one saint for their eyesight, one for stomach problems, another for a thousand other reasons. Can't any saint intercede for any purpose? I'm not trying to be funny or rude; I am really struggling with this.
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mg57
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| Joined: | Mon Oct 9th, 2006 |
| Location: | Tolland County, Connecticut USA |
| Posts: | 176 |
| First Name: | mg57 | | Gender: | Male | | Faith History: | Infant Baptised Catholic |
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Posted: Fri Jun 20th, 2008 02:22 am |
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Hi Cody -
Sure, Saints can intercede without category, but as I'm sure you know, particular Saints are patrons of particular things, ie., St Luke - physicians, ... etc. \
We also might find ourselves identifying with a particular Saint because of what we know about them, their lives, struggles etc., and that would be an additional impetus for us.
God bless.
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Ali
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| Joined: | Sat Jan 6th, 2007 |
| Location: | Ohio USA |
| Posts: | 661 |
| First Name: | Ali | | Gender: | Female | | Faith History: | JW, finally fully Catholic |
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Posted: Tue Jun 24th, 2008 02:02 pm |
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Of course, any saint can intercede for any problem, but just like IRL today we seek out experts to help and guide us.
When we are asking specific saint to pray for a specific reason, to me it's not different than asking a good friend who is knowledgeable about my problem to help me out instead of going to any Tom, Dick or Harry for advice. Wow, that was a run on sentence  Didja follow that ok? LOL
HTH 
Ali
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Credo Catholic
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| Joined: | Sat May 5th, 2007 |
| Location: | Greenville, South Carolina USA |
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| First Name: | Marsha | | Gender: | Female | | Faith History: | Baptist, Catholic |
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Posted: Tue Jun 24th, 2008 03:45 pm |
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I don't know if all saints fall into this category. But I have learned that the lives of certain saints lead us to believe they have a special "charism." Such as St. Monica, the mother of St. Augustine. She prayed for years and years for a wayward son and he eventually came to Christ and became a bishop of the church. So I pray to her and ask her to help with my children who go astray. I pray to St. Joseph, who was the protective and nurturing "father figure" to Jesus. I ask him to help my husband, son and son-in-law become better men. I pray to St. Joseph, the carpenter, to help my son-in-law find work. St. Therese of Lisieux, the "Little Flower" lived her life doing small deeds with great love. I pray to her to help me do the small, unimportant and mundane chores in my life, and to do them with great love. Although I do them with love for my family, I try to do them with great love for Christ.
So, each saint that you hear about who has a special area of intercession, probably had an experience of that sort in their own life. The saint that I most relate to is St. Mary, our heavenly mother. Because she is a mother and understands my heart.
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David W. Emery
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| Joined: | Fri Sep 29th, 2006 |
| Location: | Brownsville, Texas USA |
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| First Name: | David | | Gender: | Male | | Faith History: | Catholic |
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Posted: Tue Jun 24th, 2008 05:22 pm |
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St. Therese of Lisieux, the "Little Flower" lived her life doing small deeds with great love. I pray to her to help me do the small, unimportant and mundane chores in my life, and to do them with great love. Although I do them with love for my family, I try to do them with great love for Christ.
Isn’t what you say here precisely what I was talking about in this other thread, wherein we must be the patron saints for the next generation? Just as the saints in heaven intercede for us, so we must intercede for those around us. Each member of the body of Christ has his own, unique job to do. The theologians tell us that a single act of perfect love is worth more than all other acts together; compare 1 Corinthians 13. It doesn’t have to be something monumental; St. Therese’s “small deeds with great love” are far more powerful from an eternal perspective than many a grand apostolate. The individual heart which has the “great love” provides something to the world that no organization can match. And this is why aid from the saints in heaven is so powerful. Why, then, do we look askance at their patronage?
David
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NorthStar
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| Joined: | Sat Mar 15th, 2008 |
| Location: | Wisconsin USA |
| Posts: | 66 |
| First Name: | Chuck | | Gender: | Male | | Faith History: | Roman Catholic, Evangelical, Orthodox |
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Posted: Sun Aug 10th, 2008 04:46 pm |
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cgfisher wrote: I began praying the rosary a while back because I am comforted by the belief that Mary and the saints pray for us if we ask them to. I don't think I completely grasp the full meaning or significance of this belief yet, but I know that if I don't pray my rosary I miss it. I am having trouble with one aspect of belief surrounding the saints, though. What is the origin of praying to a saint for a specific reason? People pray to one saint for their eyesight, one for stomach problems, another for a thousand other reasons. Can't any saint intercede for any purpose? I'm not trying to be funny or rude; I am really struggling with this.
I know this is quite late, but let me put a personal spin on it. I sometimes, ok more than sometimes struggle with doubt, lack of faith and skepticism. yes so does everyone, but I tend to struggle with this more than others. I want to SEE the proof, either in an historical document or some other actual literal source. Other times I even doubt God's existence. So I need someone who also knows and understands these very personal struggles. I need someone to pray for me who knows all about doubting, cynicism, skeptism, and doubting......yet someone who has overcome these things and used them for God's glory. I need an example in my life of how all these things are not hopeless. And so, I often ask St. Thomas the Apostle to pray and intercede for me. (in fact, Thomas is my chrismation/confirmation name) I could go to any saint or any person on earth to pray for me on this issue, but I go to St. Thomas because i know he has overcome and has seen with his own eyes. Yes, sometimes I even doubt that (or have in the past when I walked the line of agnosticism) yet I still asked for his prayers....did they work? I wouldn't dare to assume they did, but I'm still here, and I'm still struggling and I'm still praying, and so yes, I still believe, even if I doubt....so I do believe his prayers helped more than say, St. Augustine's or St. John Chrysostom's might have, because he LIVED the doubts and skepticism himself, and so understands the struggle better. He knows what kind of prayers I might need because he himself lived through it. The early Christians knew these things about the martyrs and saints and I'm sure ancient Christians who doubted in times of persecution asked Thomas to pray for them....over the centuries then Thomas became a patron for those with doubts (amongst other things)...
There are plently of examples like this, that's sort of how it works, with a personal twist. I also ask St. Patrick the Enlightener of Ireland, St. Francis of Assisi to intercede for me for different reasons quite regularly....some times I'll also ask St. Theophan the Recluse (a 19th century Russian saint) to pray that I remain steadfast in my prayer prule and St. Nektarios to pray for me as well...as they had different callings and pastoral concerns in their lives. These are the saints I feel closest to, and of course St. Mary the Theotokos. Can't forget her.
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David W. Emery
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| First Name: | David | | Gender: | Male | | Faith History: | Catholic |
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Posted: Sun Aug 10th, 2008 05:18 pm |
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NorthStar wrote:I'm still here, and I'm still struggling and I'm still praying, and so yes, I still believe, even if I doubt.
This is the whole point of the Christian doctrine of temptation. We don’t have to give in to it. Faith is believing in spite of doubts.
I think your choice of St. Thomas the Apostle was a wise one, for he learned this lesson from Christ himself. But let us remember that all the saints have had to face temptations and other obstacles to faith. Otherwise they would not be saints, for as it is written, “He who endures to the end will be saved” (Matthew 24:13).
David
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