In a letter I received from a Catholic friend, he wrote: “The Bible directs us to invoke those in heaven and ask them to pray with us. In Psalms 148 we pray, ‘Praise the Lord! Praise the Lord from the heavens, praise him in the heights! Praise him, all his angels; praise him, all his host!’ (Psalm 148:1-2). In the book of Revelation, John sees that ‘the twenty-four elders fell down before the Lamb, each having a harp, and golden bowls full of incense, which are the prayers of the saints’ (Revelation 5:8). Also we read that ‘another angel, having a golden censer, came and stood at the altar. He was given much incense, that he should offer it with the prayers of all the saints upon the golden altar which was before the throne. And the smoke of the incense, with the prayers of the saints, ascended before God from the angel’s hand." (Revelation 8:3, 4). We see that those in heaven, angels and humans, pray for us.’

The above scriptures are the closest attempts by Catholic apologists to give biblical support to the tradition of invoking dead saints. However, if we carefully look at those scriptures, we quickly discover that they do not support this practice at all.

In the Book of Revelation, the incense represents the prayers of the saints – that is, the prayers of Christians on earth. Twice we are told that the incense is ‘the prayers of the saints.’ Therefore the incense does not represent the intercessory prayers of the angel or the elders in heaven. Moreover, these prayers were addressed to God, and not to the elders in heaven or to the angel, for the incense ascended up before God. The saints on earth were praying to God; they were not asking the angels or saints in heaven to pray for them.

Now take a look at the other scripture. The psalmist expresses his desire that the angels and all creation praise the Lord: “Praise the LORD! Praise the LORD from the heavens; praise Him in the heights! Praise Him, all His angels; praise Him, all His hosts! Praise Him, sun and moon; praise Him, all you stars of light! Praise Him, you heavens of heavens, and you waters above the heavens!” (Psalms 148:1-4).

The psalmist addresses the heavens, the waters, the beasts, the birds, the fire and the snow, and all the people of the earth to praise God. Are we to conclude that this psalm teaches us to invoke the angels? We might as well say that we should be praying to the sun and the moon and the stars! Clearly these passages do not teach us to pray to departed saints or angels, nor that they are interceding for us. If anyone desires to learn from the Bible about prayer, he would be in no doubt to whom he should address his prayers.

In another letter, a Christian wrote: “A Catholic friend recently sent us a book explaining the Communion of Saints. It presents the argument that Christians are the body of Christ and that nowhere in the Bible does it suggest that this excludes Christians in heaven. It reasons that saints really are not dead and are more alive that we are here on earth; that we can ask for their prayers just as we would of our brothers and sisters here on earth. They go on to say that prayer to saints is no more worship than asking a fellow Christian for prayer.”

At first glance this argument sounds convincing but it is not difficult to see that it is really misleading and deceptive. Firstly, we should underline the fact that death disrupts the interaction between saints on earth and saints in heaven. As Christians we also believe in the communion of the saints – whether we are on earth or in heaven, we have a joint participation in the grace of Jesus Christ. However that does not imply that death does nothing to the interaction between us! We all know something of the painful and terrible reality of death separating us from our loved ones. The soul of the departed is alive and conscious – in heaven or hell, but there is no communication between the departed and us. That’s why the Bible forbids us from trying to communicate with the dead. Dead saints remain part of the body of Christ, but there is an effective separation from the living saints. One day the Lord will give His people a glorified and immortal body and gather us all together. Until then we must face the sad consequence of death: separation!

Secondly, we note that praying to the saints in not equivalent to asking fellow Christians for prayer. This excuse may be convincing to some Christians who never had any personal experience of the Catholic religion. Otherwise, every Catholic (and former Catholic) knows that praying to Mary or the saints is completely different than asking a fellow believer for prayer.

Suppose a Christian brother comes and kneels before you, imploring you with great devotion to pray for him. Would you allow him? How would you react if he calls you his advocate, his hope and refuge? What if he thanks you for the many graces you conferred on him and for delivering him from hell? Suppose he tells you that he confines his salvation to your care and pleads with you to stay with him until you see him safe in heaven? Would you call that “asking a fellow Christian for prayer”? Of course not! That kind of prayer and confidence is nothing less than divine worship and it should be directed only to the Lord Jesus Christ. And yet that is exactly the kind of prayer that Catholics offer to Mary and the saints.

Finally, praying to the saints really comes from a distorted view of the goodness of God. Catholics often have a definite (though unspoken) perception that God is distant and difficult to reach. For many God is distant because they do not know Christ who has brought perfect reconciliation, access to God's presence and a sweet communion with the Father. They feel more comfortable praying to Mary and the saints, hoping that they are in a better position to persuade God to grant them the desired graces.

St. Bernard writes: "It is true, of course, that Jesus Christ is the only Mediator of justice between human beings and God, and that, by virtue of His own merits, He can obtain for us, and wants to obtain, pardon and grace as He promised. But in Christ human beings cannot help recognizing and fearing the Divine Majesty, which belongs to Him as God. So it was necessary to appoint another Advocate, to whom we can have recourse with less fear and with greater confidence. And this second Advocate is Mary" (Quoted in 'The Glories of Mary' by St Alphonsus Liguori). What a distortion of the goodness of God! God is ever near His children, for His Son had bridged the infinite gap which had previously separated us. Contrary to the blasphemous words of man, the Bible assures us that in Christ "we have boldness and access with confidence through faith in Him" (Ephesians 3:12).

God wants us to pray for each other as an expression of our unity and solidarity, and sometimes He does not grant our prayers immediately to teach us faith and perseverance. Yet there is not a shred of doubt in the heart of every Christian on the mercy and the goodness of God. I used to pray to Mary, the saints and the angels as well as to God. Everything changed when I was saved through faith in Christ Jesus. God became my dear Father and communion with Him became the sweetest experience of my life.

A former Catholic wrote to me: “When I practised the Catholic religion, I used to pray to the saints, as did my family and Catholic friends. Who answered the prayers I got answered and who is still answering my friends’ prayers as they still have their favourite saint who never fails them?”

It is extremely dangerous to establish doctrine on the basis of subjective human experience rather than the Word of God. If you pray to the saints and you get some sort of answer, you would wrongly conclude that praying to the saints must be fine. But surely you realize that there may be other causes for ‘the answer’ other than the dead saint hearing your prayers. The pagans pray to a multitude of false deities and they too get 'answers'! Should we then conclude that their pagan gods are real and that they too answer prayers?

The prophet Jeremiah was preaching to the people of Israel and warning them of the coming judgment from God because of their idolatrous practices. But this is how they argued with him: “As for the word that you have spoken to us in the name of the LORD, we will not listen to you! But we will certainly do whatever has gone out of our own mouth, to burn incense to the queen of heaven and pour out drink offerings to her, as we have done, we and our fathers, our kings and our princes, in the cities of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem. For then we had plenty of food, were well-off, and saw no trouble. But since we stopped burning incense to the queen of heaven and pouring out drink offerings to her, we have lacked everything and have been consumed by the sword and by famine” (Jeremiah 44:16-18).

They were praying to a pagan deity named the Queen of Heaven instead of praying to the Lord God, claiming that when they prayed to her they received all their needs, plenty of food and protection and so on. We know exactly who gave them the food and the protection but they ascribed them to a false god. Even worse, instead of repenting of their sins in the face of the Lord’s chastisement, they reasoned that they got into trouble because they stopped praying to this Queen of Heaven! The deception is astounding!

This is exactly what happens when someone rejects the revealed truth of God. The Israelites rejected the truth of God given through the prophets and the Scriptures and they were pitifully mistaken in their interpretation of their religious experiences.

As a Catholic you have heard the Bible read in Church many times. You noticed that the prayers of godly people were always addressed to God and that there is not a single example of Christians praying to dead saints in the entire Bible. You also know that when the disciples asked Jesus to teach them to pray, He taught us to address our prayers to “Our Father in Heaven.” You know these truths and therefore you are responsible to act accordingly. If you choose to ignore these simple facts and persist with the habit of praying to dead saints, then there is nothing to stop you from being deceived like the Jews of old.

From the dawn of human existence, when men begun to call upon the name of the Lord (Genesis 4:26), to the last prayer recorded in the Bible (Revelation 22:20), the consistent example of all God’s people was to address their prayers to the Lord. Jesus teaches us by His example to pray to God (Luke 6:12). The apostles and the disciples prayed to the Lord. We are taught to pray 'for' (not 'to') all saints, that is, we should pray for the needs of the living Christians on earth (Ephesians 6:18). Communication with the dead is the practice of pagan religions and the occult, and not the Judeo-Christian faith as recorded in the Bible. The prophet Isaiah tells us:

“And when they say to you, ‘Seek those who are mediums and wizards, who whisper and mutter,’ should not a people seek their God? Should they seek the dead on behalf of the living? To the law and to the testimony! If they do not speak according to this word, it is because there is no light in them.”

Whoever teaches that we should "seek the dead on behalf of the living" is in darkness and degrades the Christian faith to the level of the occult and superstition. I appeal to every Catholic in the name of the Lord to repent from this pagan practice, and to embrace the truth of the Bible about prayer, and call upon the name of the Lord for your salvation and for every other need.

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