HOLY
TRINITY CELTIC ORTHODOX CHURCH
CELTIC
ORTHODOX BENEDICTINE FATHERS
http://www.celticorthodoxy.com/bkceltic-orthodox-church
Praying
to the Saints – is it even possible?
Communicating
With the Dead-
|
IS
IT LAWFUL TO PRAY DIRECTLY TO A SAINT OR ANGEL? Bishop
Brian Kennedy, O.S.B. ___________________________________________ It
is God pleasing that we should join with Mary and the Saints in giving
worship to God in Christ but our prayer must be Christ centered. We do this by uniting our prayers
with the Saints in the measure it pleases the Father and offer our prayer
through Christ, that through the working of the Holy Spirit in the
Communion of Saints we may give glory to Jesus and through Jesus give
glory to our Heavenly Father. We
ask God to unite our prayer with those of Mary and the Saints. We do not direct prayers to the
deceased directly who cannot hear or respond to our prayer.
What
follows is not a denial of the Communion of Saints or an attack on the
Intercession of the Saints. This
will show the proper manner in which to celebrate the Communion of Saints
and how to properly venerate the deceased souls who live with Christ. It
is through the Communion of Saints and the fellowship of believers in the
Church Triumphant and the Church Militant and in the Church Suffering we
glorify Christ who is head of the Mystical Body and through Christ by the
Holy Spirit we give glory to the Father.
IN
VENERATING AND HONORING THE SAINTS WE
CELEBRATE THE VICTORY OF THE HOLY
SPIRIT IN THE LIFE OF THE DECEASED WHO
NOW LIVES WITH CHRIST IN HEAVEN. GOD
IS THE END OF ALL PRAYER Scripture
teaches us to pray to the Father, through the Son by the action of the
Holy Spirit. We pray to the
Son and through the Son to the Father. The prayer to the Holy Spirit also
terminates in the Father through the Son. Sacred
Scripture in MANY, MANY places warns against praying to Spirits directly
who have left this world, even if that prayer be addressed to spirits of
the souls of the just having been made perfect and are now in Heaven.
The
Catholic Encyclopedia defines "consults"
as used in Scripture to mean 'pray
to'
and the verse quoted below shows how God has warned us not to ‘consult’
(pray to) those who have died, even those who are now part of the church
Triumphant in Heaven. The
article from the Catholic Encyclopedia follows this quote from
Scripture. After the article
from the Catholic Encyclopedia, I explain what that means to us as
Christians and what it means to the Communion of
Saints. Deuteronomy
18:9-15 Detestable
Practices 9 When you enter the land the LORD
your God is giving you, do not learn to imitate the detestable ways of the
nations there. 10 Let
no one be found among you who
sacrifices his son or daughter in the fire, who practices divination or
sorcery, interprets omens, engages in witchcraft, 11 or casts spells, or
who is a medium OR
SPIRITIST
who consults (consults
means to pray to)
the
dead.
12 Anyone who does these things is detestable to the LORD, and because of
these detestable practices the LORD your God will drive out those nations
before you. 13 You must be blameless before the LORD your God.
The
Catholic Encyclopedia THE ADVENT defines "consults" as actually praying to
something or someone. In
MANY places in the Scriptures we are warned against praying to
(consulting) spirits that have gone on before us, even the spirits of the
just having been perfect that now are in Heaven. See 1 Samuel 28:6 as an
example of the word ‘consult’ meaning to pray to. Catholic
Encyclopedia > P > Prayer (Greek
euchesthai, Latin precari, French prier, to plead, to beg, to ask
earnestly). An
act of the virtue of religion which consists in asking proper gifts or
graces from God. In a more general sense it is the application of the mind
to Divine things, not merely to acquire a knowledge of them but to make
use of such knowledge as a means of union with God. This may be done by
acts of praise and thanksgiving, but petition is the principal act of
prayer. The
words used to express it (prayer) in Scripture are: to call up (Genesis
4:26); to intercede (Job 22:10); to mediate (Isaiah 53:10); TO CONSULT (1
Samuel 28:6); to beseech (Exodus 32:11); and, very commonly, to cry out
to. The Fathers speak of it as the elevation of the mind to God with a
view to asking proper things from Him (St. John Damascene, On the Orthodox
Faith III.24); communing and conversing with God
(St. Gregory of Nyssa, "De oratione dom.", in
P.G., XLIV, 1125); talking with God (St. John
Chrysostom, "Hom. xxx
in Gen.", n. 5, in P.G., LIII, 280). It is
therefore the expression of our desires to God whether for ourselves or
others. This expression is not intended to instruct or direct God what to
do, but to appeal to His goodness for the things we need; and the appeal
is necessary, not because He is ignorant of our needs or sentiments, but
to give definite form to our desires, to concentrate our whole attention
on what we have to recommend to Him, to help us appreciate our close
personal relation with Him. The expression need not be external or vocal;
internal or mental is sufficient. By
prayer we acknowledge God's power and goodness, our own neediness and
dependence. It is therefore an act of the virtue of religion implying the
deepest reverence for God and habituating us to look to Him for
everything, not merely because the thing asked be good in itself, or
advantageous to us, but chiefly because we wish it as a gift of God, and
not otherwise, no matter how good or desirable it may seem to us. Prayer
presupposes faith in God and hope in His goodness. By both, God, to whom
we pray, moves us to prayer. Our knowledge of God by the light of natural
reason also inspires us to look to Him for help, but such prayer lacks
supernatural inspiration, and though it may avail to keep us from losing
our natural knowledge of God and trust in Him, or, to some extent, from
offending Him, it cannot positively dispose us to receive His graces.
Objects
of prayer Like
every act that makes for salvation, grace is required not only to dispose
us to pray, but also to aid us in determining what to pray for. In this
"the spirit helpeth our infirmity. For we know
not what we should pray for as we ought; but the Spirit himself asketh for us with unspeakable groaning's" (Romans
8:26). For certain objects we are always sure we should pray, such as our
salvation and the general means to it, resistance to temptation, practice
of virtue, final perseverance; but constantly we need light and the
guidance of the Spirit to know the special means that will most help us in
any particular need. That there may be no possibility of misjudgment on
our part in such an essential obligation, Christ has taught us what we
should ask for in prayer and also in what order we should ask it. In
response to the request of His disciples to teach them how to pray, He
repeated the prayer commonly spoken of as the Lord's Prayer, from which it
appears that above all we are to pray that God may be glorified, and that
for this purpose men may be worthy citizens of His kingdom, living in
conformity with His will. Indeed, this conformity is implied in every
prayer: we should ask for nothing unless it be strictly in accordance with
Divine Providence in our regard. So much for the spiritual objects of our
prayer. We are to ask also for temporal things, our daily bread, and all
that it implies, health, strength, and other worldly or temporal goods,
not material or corporal only, but mental and moral, every accomplishment
that may be a means of serving God and our fellow- men. Finally, there are
the evils which we should pray to escape, the penalty of our sins, the
dangers of temptation, and every manner of physical or spiritual
affliction, so far as these might impede us in God's service.
To
whom may we pray? Although
God the Father is mentioned in this prayer as the one to whom we are to
pray, it is not out of place to address our prayers to the other Divine
persons. The special appeal to one does not exclude the others. More
commonly the Father is addressed in the beginning of the prayers of the
Church, though they close with the invocation, "Through Our Lord Jesus
Christ Thy Son who with Thee liveth and reigneth in the unity of the Holy Ghost, world without
end". If the prayer be addressed to God the Son, the conclusion is: "Who
livest and reignest
with God the Father in the unity of the Holy Ghost, God, world without
end"; or, "Who with Thee liveth and reigneth in the unity, etc.".
Prayer may be addressed to Christ as Man, because He is a Divine Person,
not
however to His human nature as such, precisely because prayer must always
be addressed to a person, never to something impersonal or in the
abstract. An appeal to anything impersonal, as for instance to the Heart,
the Wounds, the Cross of Christ, must be taken figuratively as intended
for Christ Himself. (END OF QUOTE) THE
CATHOLIC ENCYCLOPEDIA CORRECTLY TEACHES THAT WE CAN PRAY DIRECTLY TO
CHRIST AS MAN BECAUSE HE IS ALSO DIVINE, THE SECOND PERSON OF THE BLESSED
TRINITY. THE ANGELS AND THE SAINTS ARE NOT DIVINE PERSONS AND WE SHOULD
NOT, THEREFORE, ADDRESS PRAYER DIRECTLY TO THEM THINKING
THAT THEY HEAR US. WE CAN
JOIN OUR PRAYER WITH THEIRS BUT THEY DO NOT HEAR THE PRAYER
DIRECTLY. CHRIST HEARS THE PRAYER AND RESPONDS ACCORDING TO HIS WILL AND
FAVOR. CHRIST CAN LET THE DECEASED KNOW OF OUR PRAYER AS HE WILLS.
The
New American Bible (Catholic Bible) St. Joseph
Edition Published
by Catholic Book Publishing Co., New York has a footnote under Chapter 18
Of Deuteronomy explaining verse 10-11 as follows: “Three
forms of superstition are listed here: Augury…. and
necromancy (by one who consults ghosts and spirits or seeks oracles from
the dead.” In
this same Bible Edition, the footnote for 1 Samuel 28:12 says Human
Beings
cannot
at will communicate with the spirits of the deceased. This is true. Prayers addressed to a deceased
person is an attempt at will to communicate with the spirits or the souls
of the deceased. This
same Bible Edition goes on as an expansion of the footnote to remark that
(and to this we have no objection or difference in opinion) God can at HIS
will send a departed soul to communicate with the living and even reveal
something not known to the living person. It
is GOD who initiates any contact with the souls of the deceased and those
still living in this world. WE
PRAY WITH MARY, THE SAINTS AND
ANGELS, NOT TO THEM. It
is God pleasing that we should have recourse to the prayer support of the
Angels and Saints, especially Mary who is queen of all the Saints, but not
that we should try and communicate with them directly. God is glorified in the victory of
the Holy Spirit in the lives of His faithful and it returns glory to God
when the fellowship of believers in Heaven and on earth unite their
prayers together. Trying to
communicate directly opens the door to the devil who is the Father
of Lies.
In
the COMMUNION OF SAINTS we are one with the souls in Heaven who still live
but now live to God. God can
and has sent these spirits to minister His Will to us on earth to the
glory of His Name, but that has to be initiated by God and not by us. We venerate them and unite with
them, but pray to the Triune God. The
Saints in heaven (the Church Triumphant), the Saints on earth (the Church
Militant) and the souls of the just being made perfect (the Church
suffering) are all one in the sight of God. God is glorified by the communion
of all members of the church in prayer. However, only those on earth can
we address directly to petition their prayer
support. By
the work of the Holy Spirit in the Body of Believers, Christ is glorified
and through Christ glory given to our Heavenly Father. Spiritism
is
the name given to the heresy
that
says
we have direct contact with a Saint or Angel.
The Bible
in
many places condemns
this heresy as an abomination before God. Trying
to communicate with a deceased person, even Mary the greatest of all
Saints and our Mother in faith opens the way for the devil to fool mankind
and teach a new doctrine not known to the Apostolic church. PRAYING
DIRECTLY TO A SAINT IS AN EXERCISE IN FUTILITY AS
THEY CANNOT HEAR YOU
“For the living know
they will die, but the dead know nothing; and
they have no more reward, for the memory of them is forgotten and also
their love, hatred, and envy have now perished; And they have no portion
forever in all that is done under the sun. (Ecclesiastes 9: 5-6)
Saint
Augustine says (De Cura pro mortuis XIII) The
dead “even the Saints, know not what the living, even
their own children, are doing.” (GOD
CAN, AT HIS PLEASURE AND ACCORDING TO HIS WILL, LET A DECEASED PERSON KNOW
WE ARE THINKING OF THEM WITH LOVE AND ARE ASKING FOR THEIR PRAYER
SUPPORT. THE DECEASED KNOW OF
OUR ACTIVITY AND REQUESTS ONLY FROM GOD, NOT FROM ANY CONTACT OR ATTEMPTED
CONTACT BY US)
Origen on Prayer XX, AD 233 “And
again: In neither case is a need seen to ask the departed to pray for us –
for it is assumed that they already do, or are thought
to.” Irenaeus
wrote: St.
Irenaeus calls praying to deceased persons a wicked curious art and says
the church addresses prayer to the Lord directly, rather than to a
deceased Saint.
Clement
of Alexandria defines prayer as communication with God. He refers to
Christians "passing over the whole world" in order to commune with God
alone in prayer. He describes it as a form of worship to God. Apparently,
he had no concept of praying to the dead: "But
if, by nature needing nothing, He delights to be honored, it is not
without reason that we honor God in prayer; and thus the best and holiest
sacrifice with righteousness we bring, presenting it as an offering to the
most righteous Word, by whom we receive knowledge, giving glory by Him for
what we have learned....For the sacrifice of the Church is the word
breathing as incense from holy souls, the sacrifice and the whole mind
being at the same time unveiled to God. Now the very ancient altar in
Delos they celebrated as holy; which alone, being undefiled by slaughter
and death, they say Pythagoras approached. And will they not believe us
when we say that the righteous soul is the truly sacred altar, and that
incense arising from it is holy prayer?...Prayer
is, then, to speak more boldly, converse with God. Though whispering,
consequently, and not opening the lips, we speak in silence, yet we cry
inwardly. For God hears continually all the inward converse. So also we
raise the head and lift the hands to heaven, and set the feet in motion at
the closing utterance of the prayer, following the eagerness of the spirit
directed towards the intellectual essence; and endeavoring to abstract the
body from the earth, along with the discourse, raising the soul aloft,
winged with longing for better things, we compel it to advance to the
region of holiness, magnanimously despising the chain of the flesh. For we
know right well, that the Gnostic [believer] willingly passes over the
whole world, as the Jews certainly did over Egypt, showing clearly, above
all, that he will be as near as possible to God." (The Stromata, 7:6-7)
ALL
PRAYER IS TO CONFORM TO THE OUR FATHER FORMAT: Tertullian
takes The Lord's Prayer to be representative of all prayer. The object of
all prayer, then, is God: "God alone could teach how he wished Himself
prayed to. The religious rite of prayer therefore, ordained by Himself,
and animated, even at the moment when it was issuing out of the Divine
mouth, by His own Spirit, ascends, by its own prerogative, into heaven,
commending to the Father what the Son has taught." (On Prayer, 9)
Notice
Tertullian refers to "the religious rite of prayer", meaning that he's
referring to all prayers, not just some. All prayers are "commended to the
Father", following the pattern of The Lord's Prayer, according to
Tertullian. THIS
SHOWS THAT TERTULLIAN IN THE SECOND CENTURY BELIEVED, AS DID THE CHURCH AT
LARGE, ALL TRUE PRAYER IS DIRECTED TO THE FATHER THROUGH HIS
CHRIST. He
explains that prayer is a sacrifice to God, which would exclude praying to
anybody else: "We
are the true adorers and the true priests, who, praying in spirit,
sacrifice, in spirit, prayer,-a victim proper and acceptable to God, which
assuredly He has required, which He has looked forward to for
Himself! This victim, devoted
from the whole heart, fed on faith, tended by truth, entire in innocence,
pure in chastity, garlanded with love, we ought to escort with the pomp of
good works, amid psalms and hymns, unto God's altar, to obtain for us all
things from God." (On Prayer, 28) Hippolytus
comments: "And
in them [the Psalms] we have 'prayer,' viz., supplication offered to God
for anything requisite" (On the Psalms, 8,
Origen
comments that Christians pray only to God:
"For
every prayer, and supplication, and intercession, and thanksgiving, is to
be sent up to the Supreme God through the High Priest, (Jesus) who is
above all the angels, the living Word and God. And to the Word Himself
shall we also pray and make intercessions, and offer thanksgivings and
supplications to Him, if we have the capacity of distinguishing between
the proper use and abuse of prayer. For to invoke angels without having
obtained a knowledge of their nature greater than is possessed by men,
would be contrary to reason. But, conformably to our hypothesis, let this
knowledge of them, which is something wonderful and mysterious, be
obtained. Then this knowledge, making known to us their nature, and the
offices to which they are severally appointed, will not permit us to pray
with confidence to any other than to the Supreme God, who is sufficient
for all things, and that through our Saviour the
Son of God, who is the Word, and Wisdom, and Truth, and everything else
which the writings of God's
prophets and the apostles of Jesus entitle Him....And being persuaded that
the sun himself, and moon, and stars pray to the Supreme God through His
only-begotten Son, we judge it improper to pray to those beings who
themselves offer up prayers to God, seeing even they themselves would
prefer that we should send up our requests to the God to whom they pray,
rather than send them downwards to themselves, or apportion our power of
prayer between God and them....Celsus forgets
that he is addressing Christians, who pray to God alone through Jesus"
(Against Celsus, 5:4-5, 5:11, 8:37)
AGAIN
SPEAKING OF THE OUR FATHER PRAYER, CYPRIAN IN THE 4TH CENTURY SAYS: Cyprian
wrote a treatise on The Lord's Prayer, a treatise that addresses prayer in
general, even though it focuses on that one prayer in the gospels. He
describes prayer as something done "in God's sight", something directed to
God, not to people: "Let us consider that we are standing in God's sight.
We must please the divine eyes both with the habit of body and with the
measure of voice. For as it is characteristic of a shameless man to be
noisy with his cries, so, on the other hand, it is fitting to the modest
man to pray with moderated petitions." (On the Lord's Prayer, 4)
HERE
CYPRIAN ADDRESSED THE NATURE OF TRUE PRAYER AND RELATED THE FORM OF PRAYER
SHOULD ALWAYS BE THAT WHICH IS FOUND IN THE "OUR FATHER" AS TAUGHT BY
DIVINE INSTITUTION AND
COMMANDED BY SAVING PRECEPTS
Later
in the treatise, Cyprian explains that The Lord's Prayer addresses "all
our prayer", which implies that we're to pray only to God, since The
Lord's Prayer is addressed only to God: "What wonder is it, beloved
brethren, if such is the prayer which God taught, seeing that He condensed
in His teaching all our prayer in one saving sentence? This had already
been before foretold by Isaiah the prophet, when, being filled with the
Holy Spirit, he spoke of the majesty and loving-kindness of God,
'consummating and shortening His word,' He says, 'in righteousness,
because a shortened word will the Lord make in the whole earth.'" (On the
Lord's Prayer, 28) In
other words, Cyprian considers The Lord's Prayer to be an outline for all
prayer, which necessarily excludes praying to anybody but God. Later,
Cyprian
tells us
that we direct our prayers to God and to
“NOTHING
BUT THE LORD”, TO “GOD ALONE”: He
continues "Moreover, when we stand praying, beloved brethren, we ought to
be watchful and earnest with our whole heart, intent on our prayers. Let
all carnal and worldly thoughts pass away, nor let the soul at that time
think on anything but the object only of its prayer. For this reason also
the priest, by way of preface before his prayer, prepares the minds of the
brethren by saying, 'Lift up your hearts,' that so upon the people's
response, 'We lift them up unto the Lord,' he may be reminded that he
himself ought to think of nothing but the Lord. Let the breast be closed
against the adversary, and be open to God alone" (On the Lord's Prayer,
Lactantius,
an early
church writer:
"it is manifest that those
who
either make
prayers to the dead,
or venerate the earth, or make over their souls to unclean spirits,
do
not act as becomes men,
and that they
will suffer punishment for their impiety and gult,
who, rebelling against God, the Father of the human race, have undertaken
inexpiable rites, and violated
every sacred law.”
(The Divine Institutes, :18) Tertullian
writes of "Paradise, the place of heavenly bliss appointed to receive the
spirits
of the saints, severed from the knowledge of this world”
(The Apology, 47). The teaching seems clearly to be that deceased
believers wouldn't be able to receive our prayers. I have no doubt the
deceased do know certain things happening on earth as the Lord wills but
it is not a direct knowledge.
THE
COUNCIL OF LAODICEA IN PHRYGIA PACATIANA 364
A.D.
CANON
XXXV.
THE
ABOVE CANON DOES NOT PROHIBIT REQUESTING OF GOD THAT WE SHOULD HAVE A
SPECIAL SHARING IN THE FRUITS OF THE INTERCESSION OF A SAINT OR ANGEL BUT
IT DOES PROHIBIT DIRECT
PRAYER TO THEM
and calls direct prayer to them as COVERT
IDOLATRY.
Not
only do those in heaven pray with us, they also pray for us. In the book
of Revelation, John sees that "the twenty-four elders fell down before the
Lamb, each holding a harp, and with golden bowls full of incense, which
are the prayers of the saints" (Rev. 5:8). Thus the saints in heaven unite
their prayers with the prayers of those on earth. Angels
do the same thing: "[An] angel came and stood at the altar [in heaven]
with a golden censer; and he was given much incense to mingle with the
prayers of all the saints upon the golden altar before the throne; and the
smoke of the incense rose with the prayers of the
saints from
the hand of the angel before God" (Rev. 8:3–4). Jesus
himself warned us not to offend small children, because their guardian
angels have guaranteed intercessory access to the Father: "See that you do
not despise one of these little ones; for I tell you that
in heaven
their angels always see the face of my Father who is in heaven" (Matt.
18:10). As
the following passages show, the early Church Fathers not only clearly
recognized the biblical teaching that those in heaven can and do intercede
for us, but they also applied this teaching in their own
daily prayer
life. WE
PRAY WITH THE DECEASED WHO ARE ALIVE IN HEAVEN AND WE PRAY WITH THE ANGELS
BUT WE DO NOT PRAY DIRECTLY TO THEM. Hermas "[The
Shepherd said:] ‘But those who are weak and slothful in prayer, hesitate
to ask anything from the Lord; but the Lord is full of compassion, and
gives without fail to all who ask him. But you, [Hermas,] having been strengthened by the holy angel
[you saw], and having
obtained from him such intercession, and not being slothful, why do not
you ask of the Lord understanding, and receive it from
him?’" (The
Shepherd 3:5:4 [A.D. 80]). Clement
of Alexandria "In
this way is he [the true Christian] always pure for prayer. He also prays
in the society of angels, as being already of angelic rank, and he is
never out of their holy keeping; and though he pray alone, he has
the choir
of the saints standing with him [in prayer]" (Miscellanies 7:12 [A.D.
208]). Origen "But
not the high priest [Christ] alone prays for those who pray sincerely, but
also the angels . . . as also the souls of the saints who have already
fallen asleep" (Prayer 11 [A.D. 233]). Cyprian
of Carthage "Let
us remember one another in concord and unanimity. Let us on both sides [of
death] always pray for one another. Let us relieve burdens
and afflictions
by mutual love, that if one of us, by the swiftness of divine
condescension, shall go hence first, our love may continue in the presence
of the Lord, and our prayers for our brethren and sisters not cease in the
presence of the Father’s mercy" (Letters 56[60]:5
[A.D. 253]).
Hilary
of Poitiers "To
those who wish to stand [in God’s grace], neither the guardianship of
saints nor the defenses of angels are wanting" (Commentary on the Psalms
124:5:6 [A.D. 365]). FOR
AN EXAMPLE OF COVERT IDOLATRY IN THE MODERN CHURCH SEE: http://www.celticorthodoxy.com/bkceltic-orthodox-church/mediatrix.html Please
pray for me a repentant sinner, worker in the vineyard of Christ and His
unworthy Priest. Bishop
+Brian J. Kennedy, O.S.B.
Home
page http://www.celticorthodoxy.com/bkceltic-orthodox-church/
|