Catholics pray to God. Catholics also pray to the saints. Many non-Catholics claim that it is “unbiblical” to pray to anyone other than God. But a closer look at Scripture reveals that this is not the case. Instead, it is quite “biblical” to pray to others, in addition to praying to God.
Part of the issue is one of language. “To pray” simply means “to ask.” Protestants typically use the word “pray” in a restrictive sense, limiting it to requests made only to God. Catholics sometimes use the word “pray” in a less restrictive sense, allowing its use for requests made to God, but also to other people and to angels. When we pray to God, there is an aspect of worship combined with the asking. When we pray to others, it is merely asking, with no element of worship.
The less-restrictive usage of “pray” is what we find in the Bible, most apparent in the older English translations, like the Protestant King James Version. (The Catholic Douay-Rheims Bible has similar passages, but for this article, I’ll limit citations to the KJV.)
Several verses in the KJV record people praying to God (no surprise there!), but also people praying to other people, people praying to angels, people praying to others asking them to pray to God for them, and even an occurrance of God praying to man. Let’s take a look: Continue reading
