Q. I'm Catholic, and I take great exception that you consider praying to saints as idolatry. Our Lord gave us patron saints, beginning with His blessed Mother, Mary. It is through Her that we have access to Our Lord. Patron saints are a gift from God for His Church, that we might have access to the gifts of Heaven!

A. Like you, I was raised Catholic, and understand where you are coming from.

I have two problems with your comment.

I see no place in Scripture where Jesus Christ gives HIs Church "patron saints." I do see in 1 Timothy 2:5 where Paul writes, "For there is One God and One Mediator between God and men, the Man Christ Jesus." One mediator, not many channels to go through to gain heavenly graces.

The idea of patron saints is idolatrous. Look in your hometown newspaper obituary secton. Notice all the devotions and notes of thanks to "the Blessed Virgin" and "St. Jude"? The praises they receive are idolatry. Our God is a jealous God (Exodus 20:5; Deuteronomy 4:24; and 2 Corinthians 11:2), how can we give praises to any other? The instances in Scripture where angels appeared to men, and the men fell at their feet, or otherwise tried to worship (or venerate, or honor) them, the angels stopped them! We are meant to worship, pray to, give thanks to our God and our God only!

Jesus Christ is our Mediator. He took on our nature, died as our substitute, and reconciled us to God. Mary didn't. The apostles didn't. I believe that those saints who are already with the Lord would be grieved if they saw how the Catholic Church requires its faithful to replace whole hearted devotion to Christ with devotion to Christ, Mary, and a host of others.

Praying to saints is not intercession, its interception. Please ask the Lord to forgive you for engaging in idolatry, and to help you turn from the false gods set up by the Roman Catholic Church, to the true God and Mediator, Jesus Christ.

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