Are Saints Divine?

In my last post PA asks if saints are divine because of the ability to hear millions of prayers.
Here's my response below:

From very early on, the early Christians believed in "the communion of saints." An interchange of "spiritual goods" merited through Christ. The concept of the intercession of the saints is found very early in the history of the Church as evidenced by the writings of many Church fathers, but I like what Augustine says here:


"A Christian people celebrates together in religious solemnity the memorials of the martyrs, both to encourage their being imitated and so that it can share in their merits and be aided by their prayers" (Against Faustus the Manichean [A.D. 400]).

"There is an ecclesiastical discipline, as the faithful know, when the names of the martyrs are read aloud in that place at the altar of God, where prayer is not offered for them. Prayer, however, is offered for the dead who are remembered. For it is wrong to pray for a martyr, to whose prayers we ought ourselves be commended" (Sermons 159:1 [A.D. 411]).

"At the Lord's table we do not commemorate martyrs in the same way that we do others who rest in peace so as to pray for them, but rather that they may pray for us that we may follow in their footsteps" (Homilies in the Gospel of John 84 [A.D. 417]).

"Neither are the souls of the pious dead separated from the Church which even now is the kingdom of Christ. Otherwise there would be no remembrance of them at the altar of God in the communication of the Body of Christ" (The City of God 20:9:2 [ca. A.D. 424]).

Saints are not divine, only the triune God is . Mary is the archetype for all the saints- heroic faith, obedience to God, but not divine. Sainthood cannot equal divinity, because only God is divine. That is the Church's position on the nature of saints. Humans just like you and me but who had shown heroic faith and lived exemplary lives by God's grace. (Now some saints did some pretty interesting things like levitation and bilocation, but that's another blog post)
Does the ability to hear multiple prayers simultaneously in heaven confer a divine status to a saint? I am not sure that it has to.

Now we see through a glass darkly, but then, we will see clearly, face to face. Perhaps that "clarity" includes the ability to listen to millions of conversations at once. We will be purified and completely sanctified in heaven. The shackles of earth no longer weighing us down and our glorified bodies with abilities that could never be manifest on this side of the veil. I don't think we can put limits on our capabilities once we have "crossed the threshold."
Lorraine Boettner who wrote a book that became a popular source used to refute Catholic beliefs discussed this issue here:(cf. Catholic Answers)


"How, then, can a human being such as Mary hear the prayers of millions of Roman Catholics, in many different countries, praying in many different languages, all at the same time?

"Let any priest or layman try to converse with only three people at the same time and see how impossible that is for a human being. . . . The objections against prayers to Mary apply equally against prayers to the saints. For they too are only creatures, infinitely less than God, able to be at only one place at a time and to do only one thing at a time.

"How, then, can they listen to and answer thousands upon thousands of petitions made simultaneously in many different lands and in many different languages? Many such petitions are expressed, not orally, but only mentally, silently. How can Mary and the saints, without being like God, be present everywhere and know the secrets of all hearts?" (Roman Catholicism, 142-143).

If being in heaven were like being in the next room, then of course these objections would be valid. A mortal, unglorified person in the next room would indeed suffer the restrictions imposed by the way space and time work in our universe. But the saints are not in the next room, and they are not subject to the time/space limitations of this life.

This does not imply that the saints in heaven therefore must be omniscient, as God is, for it is only through God’s willing it that they can communicate with others in heaven or with us. And Boettner’s argument about petitions arriving in different languages is even further off the mark. Does anyone really think that in heaven the saints are restricted to the King’s English? After all, it is God himself who gives the gift of tongues and the interpretation of tongues. Surely those saints in Revelation understand the prayers they are shown to be offering to God."

"There are one billion Catholics and 300 million Orthodox. If one in a hundred of these prayed a daily rosary, Mary would receive 689 million Hail Marys each day! So, even if she could hear the prayers, she’d have to be omniscient to comprehend them all. And where would she get the time?

Since Mary is in heaven, it is literally true that she does not have time to answer all the petitions—she has eternity! Time in the afterlife is not the same as it is here, and so this is not an insurmountable objection.

In regard to the number of petitions, if the number were infinite, then an omniscient mind would be required. So long as the number is finite, then the hearer requires a finite expansion of knowledge, which God could certainly grant to a glorified soul in heaven." (cf Catholic Answers)



To sum up:
Saints are created beings just like you and me, except better!
But they will never be divine.
There are some things that occur in heaven that are beyond our limited view of space and time.

For me, the communion of saints is one of God's many great gifts to his body and their ability to intercede for us is only through the merits of the Lord Jesus. We are to worship the Creator only and not his creation. Mary and the other saints deserve our honor and we have the ability to ask them to pray for us, but divinity is for the triune God alone.

Why I Need the Saints In My Life

Often Catholics are asked: why do you need saints when we have Jesus? I have blogged about this many times before and the simple answer is that we benefit from their intercession for us. God has provided members of His body to intercede for one another. Since we don't believe saints are dead, they can and do intercede for the other members of the body of Christ who have not yet crossed the veil.
But another reason for saints is to inspire us by their holy lives and heroic faith. When I read this prayer of St John Vianney, I hope and pray that God will grant me the grace to love Him in such a way as this:

"I love You, O my God, and my only desire is to love You until the last breath of my life. I love You, O my infinitely lovable God, and I would rather die loving You, than live without loving You. I love You, Lord and the only grace I ask is to love You eternally....My God, if my tongue cannot say in every moment that I love You, I want my heart to repeat it to You as often as I draw breath."

I have to honestly say that my heart doesn't always resonate with this prayer on a daily basis, but I do desire it to be so. Knowing that there are those who have gone before me that did indeed have a love for God like gives me hope that someday I too can attain a faith like this. This is yet another reason why I need the saints in my life.

St John Vianney, I ask you to pray for me today that I will love God more and more as you do.
In the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, Amen.

Saint Padre Pio

Today the Church celebrates the modern saint Padre Pio. (1887-1968)
He joined the Capuchin Franciscan monks and became a priest in the early 1900's.
He received the stigmata in his hands feet and side after seeing a vision of Jesus after Mass.
Padre Pio said Mass at 5 AM daily and spent the rest of the day hearing confessions and blessing the sick. He had the gift of discernment and often had insight in the confessional that was regarded as supernatural. His popularity grew to the point that busloads of people came to his Masses and confessional and items of his clothing were often torn off him as happened to St. Frances of Assisi.
The Church curtailed his public ministry for almost ten years until they were convinced of the authenticity of his stigmata. (I love the way our Church has the most stringent and cautious approach to apparitions, miracles etc. It may be seen as stern and controlling by outsiders, but I see it as the divine way Christ guards his children from getting into error)

In 1962 An archbishop, Karol Wojtyla, from Poland wrote him a letter asking him to pray for a friend's wife who had throat cancer. Two weeks later she was healed.

In 2002, Pope John Paul 2 through the authority of the Catholic Church canonized Padre Pio.
He said at his Mass:

"The life and mission of Padre Pio testify that difficulties and sorrows, if accepted with love, transform themselves into a privileged journey of holiness, which opens the person toward a greater good, known only to the Lord.”

I live about 17 miles from one of the largest shrines to Padre Pio in the US. It is nestled in the rolling hills of eastern Pennsylvania. It is a beautiful place to pray, worship and thank Jesus for the work he has done in His body, the Church, through the life of this Saint. When I go there, I ask Padre Pio to pray for me for some of my gravest concerns knowing that the "effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much." You may argue and say that folks in heaven can't hear you but follow this logic: If the angels in heaven rejoice over one sinner that repents, clearly the lines of communication are open between heaven and earth. Since Scripture teaches that we will judge angels, I don't think it's a stretch to believe that those in heaven can hear the prayers of those on earth. The Church has always taught this and the writings of the Fathers bear this out.
Just to make one point clear though: I don't worship him or prostrate myself before his statue or picture. I don't say "Oh praise you Padre Pio" for that would be breaking one of the first commandments! Instead, I honor this fellow christian who radically followed the call of Christ in his life and was obedient. He followed Jesus on His terms, not his own.
I know that my devotion to Padre Pio will only increase my love for Jesus more and more. That's the whole purpose of the Communion of Saints and I am thankful for such a great cloud of witnesses that have gone before me. What did I do before I had you guys? Oh, that's right, you were praying for me, I just didn't believe it!

St. Padre Pio, continue to pray for us so our hearts will burn with the love of Christ .

A Jew, then Atheist, then Saint. St. Teresa Benedicta (Edith Stein)

Today the Catholic Church celebrates the life and death of Edith Stein. She was an extremely brilliant young women born to a Jewish family in Poland in 1891. She became an atheist as a teenager, but later felt drawn to the Catholic faith by reading the writings of St. Teresa of Avila.
She went to university and studied philosophy earning her Ph.D. She taught at a university in Munich until being forced out by the Nazis. She later became a Carmelite nun and entered a Carmelite Monastery in the Netherlands.
When the Nazis took possession of the Netherlands, they arrested any Jews who had converted to Catholicism as retaliation for the Dutch Catholic Church denouncing the Nazis. She and her sister, also a convert, were captured and deported to Auschwitz and killed in 1942.
A few days before her deportation, Edith Stein argued against being rescued from her upcoming fate. ‘Do not do it! Why should I be spared? Is it not right that I should gain no advantage from my Baptism? If I cannot share the lot of my brothers and sisters ,my life, in a certain sense, is destroyed.’” John Paul 2 canonized her in 1998 for her heroic life and faith. Her translated writings fill over 15 volumes.

Her relentless pursuit of truth led her to the Church and I thank God that He continues to raise up believers like her, even in this generation. A saint is not someone worshipped, but a model for Christian living to encourage us to press on in spite of our daily adversity. I also can ask St. Teresa Benedicta (her new name given by the Carmelites) to intercede to Jesus for me for friends and family who have an intellectual bent but have not yet discovered the Truth. She knows what the journey is all about so she can pray with real fervor and understanding. She also can pray for us for strength in times of severe testing as she had before she died.

St. Teresa Benedicta, pray for our loved ones who are pursuing truth but as yet don't realize that all Truth leads to Jesus.

I Love the Saints

Did you ever have a Christian friend who you looked up to for wisdom and advice in helping you to follow the Lord? Did you ever have someone in your life who was so close to Jesus you just wanted to be like them and loved spending time with them?
I sure did as a young Christian and now since returning home to the Catholic Church I have found many precious examples of folks who lived and walked so very close to the Lord. I love to pray the prayers of these saints so that Jesus can transform me more and more into His image as He did for them. Saint Faustina has become a favorite of mine as she was for the late John Paul 2 . (He may have been a little partial since she was from Poland also)
May this be the prayer of all of our hearts:

"I want to be completely transformed into Your mercy and to be Your living reflection, O Lord. May the greatest of all divine attributes, that of Your unfathomable mercy, pass through my heart and soul to my neighbor.

Help me, O Lord, that my eyes may be merciful, so that I may never suspect or judge from appearances, but look for what is beautiful in my neighbors' souls and come to their rescue.

Help me, that my ears may be merciful, so that I may give heed to my neighbors' needs and not be indifferent to their pains and moanings.

Help me, O Lord, that my tongue may be merciful, so that I should never speak negatively of my neighbor, but have a word of comfort and forgiveness for all.

Help me, O Lord, that my hands may be merciful and filled with good deeds, so that I may do only good to my neighbors and take upon myself the more difficult and toilsome tasks.

Help me, that my feet may be merciful, so that I may hurry to assist my neighbor, overcoming my own fatigue and weariness. My true rest is in the service of my neighbor.

Help me, O Lord, that my heart may be merciful so that I myself may feel all the sufferings of my neighbor. I will refuse my heart to no one. I will be sincere even with those who, I know, will abuse my kindness. And I will lock myself up in the most merciful Heart of Jesus. I will bear my own suffering in silence. May Your mercy, O Lord, rest upon me .

O my Jesus, transform me into Yourself , for you can do all things."

From the Diary of Saint Faustina 1930