Do Mary and deceased saints — the dead in Christ — Pray for us, and can we pray to them? – Greg Albrecht

QUESTION: 

Greg, what are your thoughts about saints, saints in heaven now, saints that can pray and intercede for us. Some of my Catholic friends believe that we can (perhaps even “should”) pray to the Virgin Mary, and she can intercede for us, just as she did for her son Jesus at the wedding in Cana.

RESPONSE:

Nothing I read in the Bible leads me to believe that saints in heaven listen to and answer prayers.  My Christ-centered focus is a methodology that leads me to pray to Father God, then given my belief that the NT supports one God who is united in three divine Persons, I would think that we do well to address our prayers to God alone, Father, Son and the Holy Spirit.

Do departed saints, including Mary, pray for us? I don’t know and while some may believe they do, no one knows. Some may use the word “intercede” to believe-suggest departed family and friends pray for us but that does not prove they do. I read Mary spoke to Jesus at the wedding but he – God in the flesh – turned water into wine. Mary had nothing to with that miracle. 

Specifically, Mary went to Jesus and said that the supply of wine was exhausted. This was bad news for a wedding feast at that time. It is also bad news for anyone who believes, in the guise of Christ-less religion, that one should abstain from alcoholic beverages because God will be happier with them if they do. 

So, one might say that Mary was asking Jesus — “praying” to him if you will, not the other way around. Mary wanted Jesus to “fix” this situation. Jesus then (John 2:4) tells her mother to not involve him — “his hour” of ministry had not yet come. This is not Mary “interceding” for Jesus, enabling him to do something he otherwise could not have done. But Mary then said, to the servants who seemed to be standing by, waiting to do whatever they were told (go to the liquor store and buy more wine — make a call to a door-to-door wine delivery company?!?) seemingly as a way of getting out of a bit of a standoff with Jesus, “do whatever he tells you to do.”

Some commentators feel that Mary (as parents can do) actually “pushed” Jesus into doing something he would not otherwise have been thinking of doing. But pushing someone — encouraging them to do something you would like to see done — that is not even close to the definition of the word “intercede.” Again, Mary had nothing to do with making this miracle happen. Jesus did not ask for her help. Jesus did not pray to Mary — if the word “prayer” works in this context it would be Mary praying to Jesus — asking him to fix things as Mary thought they should be done. But Jesus said, in prayer, we should pray to the Father, “your will be done, one earth as it is in heaven” (Matthew 6:10). 

As that line from the song “Mary Did You Know?” goes “did you know the one you delivered would soon deliver you?” But religion, at least one major denomination turns priorities around suggesting Mary now is in a place of authority and divinity so that Christ-followers might pray to her. But we are Christ-followers, not Mary-followers. 

Whether or not those who are deceased may be prayed to, or whether they pray for us, and whether they hear our prayers to God and thus are more “informed” about our prayers and then pray for us — such ideas and beliefs are peripheral. They are far from the center and core of our faith. 

Some might suggest that departed saints in Hebrews 12:1 are spoken of as “a great could of witnesses” and thus we can pray to them and they pray us on. First, the author of Hebrews seems to speak of this “great cloud of witnesses” as a metaphor/a symbol, of all those who have gone ahead of us. As the context unfolds in Hebrews 12:1-3 the language is not that deceased individuals are actually empowering us, coaching us and training us as we run the race, which is another metaphor being used. We run the race … with Jesus. He runs with us. He has run the race ahead of us. He is the one to whom we look for strength, help and sustenance as we run.        

That said, tongue tucked firmly in cheek, I am happy for anyone, dead or alive, to pray for me. But I have observed that I cannot absolutely prove when a person who is alive tells me “I’ll pray for you” that they actually wind up doing so. I assume that to be true because I confess there have been a few times in the past when I have told others I would pray for them only to realize, later, sadly, I forgot.  

It’s a nice thing to say, dogmatically, that saints in heaven pray for us. It is a comforting thing to believe, but my faith is centered, by God’s grace, in and on the Lord Jesus Christ. He is my reality.  By him, though him and in him. To him be glory forever.  

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