If Luther Prayed to the Saints, Why Don't We?
Every Protestant who celebrates the reformation on Halloween must ask himself the title question on the day after Reformation Day, All Saints Day.
Today we Catholics celebrate the wonderful communion of saints! What a blessing to discover that we have all these efficacious prayers of all those who have gone before us. Not only can I ask my friends on earth to pray for me to Jesus, I can ask my friends, the saints, in heaven to intercede for me before the throne of God. When I returned to the Church nine years ago and learned what the Communion of Saints actually means, it was like discovering a long lost family that has always been available to me.
"And when he had taken the book, the four beasts and four {and} twenty elders fell down before the Lamb, having every one of them harps, and golden vials full of odours, which are the prayers of saints." (Revelation 5)
"And another angel came and stood at the altar, having a golden censer; and there was given unto him much incense, that he should offer {it} with the prayers of all saints upon the golden altar which was before the throne. (4) And the smoke of the incense, {which came} with the prayers of the saints, ascended up before God out of the angel's hand." (Rev 8)
"I believe in the Communion of Saints" (Creed 325 AD)
"When in his frailty, a man invokes the saints, he invokes Christ, and without fail he will reach Christ whenever he calls upon their names, for wherever they are, they are in Christ and Christ is in them, and their name in Christ's name and Christ's name in their name." (Martin Luther)
"You Catholics are idolaters and necromancers, there is only one mediator between God and man, Jesus! Dead people can't hear you!" (Modern-day Protestants)
One then must ask: if the communion of saints was an accepted practice of the early church and accepted by the reformer Martin Luther, how do we now justify ignoring it?
Today we Catholics celebrate the wonderful communion of saints! What a blessing to discover that we have all these efficacious prayers of all those who have gone before us. Not only can I ask my friends on earth to pray for me to Jesus, I can ask my friends, the saints, in heaven to intercede for me before the throne of God. When I returned to the Church nine years ago and learned what the Communion of Saints actually means, it was like discovering a long lost family that has always been available to me.
"And when he had taken the book, the four beasts and four {and} twenty elders fell down before the Lamb, having every one of them harps, and golden vials full of odours, which are the prayers of saints." (Revelation 5)
"And another angel came and stood at the altar, having a golden censer; and there was given unto him much incense, that he should offer {it} with the prayers of all saints upon the golden altar which was before the throne. (4) And the smoke of the incense, {which came} with the prayers of the saints, ascended up before God out of the angel's hand." (Rev 8)
"I believe in the Communion of Saints" (Creed 325 AD)
"When in his frailty, a man invokes the saints, he invokes Christ, and without fail he will reach Christ whenever he calls upon their names, for wherever they are, they are in Christ and Christ is in them, and their name in Christ's name and Christ's name in their name." (Martin Luther)
"You Catholics are idolaters and necromancers, there is only one mediator between God and man, Jesus! Dead people can't hear you!" (Modern-day Protestants)
One then must ask: if the communion of saints was an accepted practice of the early church and accepted by the reformer Martin Luther, how do we now justify ignoring it?
posted by Russ Rentler, M.D. | 4:36 PM
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