Praying to the Saints and the Intercession of the Saints in Catholicism

DAY 268 CHALLENGE “Catholics shouldn’t pray to the saints. Prayer is an act of worship, which is due only to God.” DEFENSE This involves a confusion of terms based on how the English language developed. In contemporary American English, “pray” indicates an act of worshipping God. However, Catholics do not give divine worship to the saints. The root of the confusion lies in the fact that the English word “pray” is derived from the Latin word precare, which meant “to ask/ implore/entreat.” By the 1300s, the English phrase “I pray thee” was used as a way to make a polite request—i.e., “I ...