Did you know?
- Heaven and hell are not physical places, but are states of union. Heaven is the state of being perfectly and eternally in union with God, and hell is the state of being eternally separated from God. God doesn’t send people to hell as a punishment for being “bad” people. Rather, people become "bad" when they choose to live a life separated from God. Hell is simply these people continuing to make this choice for eternity.
- Sometimes people die wanting to chose to be with God, but still have attachments to sins that don’t allow them to fully be with God. Sin restricts our free will. We call the purification of their souls, that gets rid of all the “junk” purgatory.
- After death, we are no longer able to pray for ourselves, or to merit grace. It is important to pray for those who have died in order to help them through the purification process and be fully united with God.
- Saints (whether named by the Church or not) are people who are fully united with God in Heaven. On November 1 we celebrate ALL these Saints, particularly those who don’t have a named feast day on the liturgical calendar.
- We believe that Saints are fully alive in Heaven. When we “pray to Saints” we are actually asking for these people who are incredibly close to Jesus to pray for us. Just as we ask particularly holy people here on Earth to pray for us in times of need, the Saints are happy to bring our intentions to Jesus.
Why ask Saints for Prayers?
- We believe that humans were created to live eternally. When we leave this earthly life we are either eternally with Jesus in Heaven, or eternally separated from Him in Hell.
- We come across people in our lives that seem to exude holiness. When we have trouble it is natural to ask these people to pray for us. It is natural to ask those who seem to be close to Jesus to pray for our problems.
- We believe that Saints are in Heaven with Jesus. No one on Earth can be closer than that! We aren’t praying to dead people, but people who are more fully alive than we can imagine. So just as you ask your holy friend to pray for you here on Earth, consider asking our Heavenly friends to pray for you as well.
- We don’t believe that Saints are “magic.” All help and goodness always come from God. But imagine that you are having a bad day and a friend comes at the right moment with a hug or coffee. God, at that moment, is working through your friend to give you what you need. He also works through the Saints to give us what we need.