Sainthood - your opinions?

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My faith does not have canonized saints -- like the Lutherans (as mentioned earlier) all people who are practising Christians are saints.

I have to say, though, that for the most part I like the Catholic version of Saints. They are people who faced similar problems to the ones the everyday man faces, and they rose above them. As they are portrayed by the Catholic church, they are excellent examples for the faithful to try to live up to. It's also kind of fun to pray to a patron Saint, I imagine -- this guy has had FIRST HAND knowledge of a situation like mine!

I think that both Mother Theresa and Pope John Paul II are excellent role models. If the Catholic church wishes to canonize them, I say go for it!

 

I've allways felt that sainthood goes against the second commandment. I'm sure the Catholics have some fine explanation for this but I'm also quite sure that I won't buy it. To me praying to saints and sainthood in general is a breach of the commandment.

 

Without looking, I'm going to guess either No other gods before me or no Graven Images. Now to check--It's the Graven Images. No otehr Gods before me is the first. Basically, I am in favour of putting people up as examples for what they've done, but remember that when it comes to worship, God is the Almighty Father and these people were simpply our Brothers and Sisters who've done a very good job in this world. Of course we tell the tales of the early members of the Church and how they journeyed through hardship, but we do not worship them in place of God...

 

It's not like saints have power separate from God and they go using it without God's consent. It's more like intercessesion. If we can ask family and friends to pray for us, we can ask the saints as well.

If you want a more technical explanation, Chev or Khemsa might be better sources.

 

I am aware of this of course, but raising those individuals in a special place beside God and Jesus just seems wrong to me.

If you ask some saint to guide you then why won't you go straight ahead and ask God to guide you? Why do you go through the saints?

 

Especially Saints such as Brigid, who was an Irish god. Why pray to her, when she did not exist?

 

In Job, several people asked something of God. He told them to go to Job and ask him to pray for them. It's possible to go straight to a powerful figure with a request, but then why do people seek a more powerful intercessor to back their claims?

It isn't much different in Catholicism. All people in heaven are saints. You probably could say the same about people who are currently in the state of grace (free from mortal sin), but that state may be lost. In this sense, people may become saints and stop being saints at many points in their lives. When we were called to be saints, and in Christianity we all are, we weren't told to work on our future canonisation. We were simply told, "be holy as I am holy". I can't find the exact term, but the Orthodox have the concept of being filled with God's presence with the notion of gradually getting closer to one with God.