It makes sense.  Prayer, in that sense, is not worship, but simply spiritual communication.

Definitely!
Prayer is not limited to words or actions, but emotions, feelings and learning to commune with God and with one another.
Its not just because I'm Catholic as well.
I know that Spirits that have passed have not lost 'their touch' in this world; it's not just the Saints of the Church either.
I believe that my close family that has passed away, (grandparents) are still praying with me to this day.

I agree with harmonyminusmelody@xanga

@harmonyminusmelody@xanga - well considering prayers go directly to God, no it doesn't make sense.

If one considers that God is family and that he created us in his image and that we have eternal life then it does make perfect sense.

Family always pulls for one another.  Praying in community is most pleasing to God our Father.  Understanding the nature of things makes communal prayer something as natural and right as rain.

Does it really make sense to pray to dead saints? Here's what God says in Deuteronomy 18 about communicating with the dead:

There shall not be found among you anyone who burns his son or his daughter as an offering, anyone who practices divination or tells fortunes or interprets omens, or a sorcerer 11 or a charmer or a medium or a wizard or a necromancer, 12 for whoever does these things is an abomination to the Lord. And because of these abominations the Lord your God is driving them out before you. 13 You shall be blameless before the Lord your God, 14 for these nations, which you are about to dispossess, listen to fortune-tellers and to diviners. But as for you, the Lord your God has not allowed you to do this.

Notice it's listed among child sacrifice and sorcery, and it's also called an abomination to the Lord.

@scrambledmegzntoast@hardestlevel - Ohhh, I don't know. It seems pretty half and half so far with people who agree and disagree, or possibly more people who agree with it than not.

As for me, I also agree with harmonyminusmelody@xanga. I don't know too personally the Catholic faith, though I do have a few friends who are Catholic, but it seems to me that praying directly to a saint didn't make too much sense. I used to ask God to tell a relative who had died that I loved them, and wished I could have met them, but as far as praying directly to the person, it seems a little.. um... off to me?

But it's like, we're humans. We can't really talk mind to mind. I think praying has a lot less to do with us /sending/, and a lot more to do with God /listening/.

And, I suppose, that's just me. I think we'll all understand when we get to the other side.

Personally, I don't agree with the whole concept of praying to saints or to anyone dead (or anyone alive, for that matter). I believe prayers should be to God alone. I know that Romans 8:26-27 says that the Holy Spirit intercedes for us, and Romans 8:34 says that Jesus Christ intercedes for us. I do not believe that the practice of praying to the dead (or asking the dead to intercede for you) lines up with the Bible. However, I believe that at the end of the day, we're all accountable to God. So do what your own conscience permits and what you believe is in line with the word of God. 

@chilled_roses8523@xanga -  I believe that the saints in heaven are inteceding for us, praying for us as the "cloud of witnesses" spoken of in Hebrews.  However, can they hear my prayers?  I'm not sure there's any Biblical evidence or Biblical support for that.    I think that @musterion99@xanga brings up a good point ---- God is the only ONE who is omnipresent, omniscient and allpowerful.     Humans aren't ....even the glorified saints aren't.  So that said, how could they process the prayers of even a few prayers let alone hundreds or even thousands of them?

@nicolevw@xanga - Amen.

@nicolevw@xanga - 
i agree with your statement, God definitely has the upperhand in 'hearing?' prayers; but views on the afterlife and the lives of people when they pass is still very much a mystery, that still allows endless amount of debate, wonder and (my favorite) dreaming. So with our without biblical support, its still a fact that really anything is possible with a Spontaneous God that has slowly, but surely revealed himself/herself? through the years.

@xsimplepleasuresx@xanga - However from my perspective I view the
bible as a book that has been translated and retranslated several
times, which calls into question the veracity of it.

I agree with your statement as well. That is a very sensitive, but true statement about the Church and its history in its interpretation and views on God. A fact that is not only true in Christianity, but in all of the great faiths

One would really have to ask, 'What's a Christian without a Bible?' What's a Muslim without the Qur'ran? What's a Hindu without the Bhagavad-Gita?"

Nothing?

It's a question that relies on faith beyond the borders of the Great Books; a faith that finds that the most important answers are found in the questions asked.

@LoBornlite@xanga - The problem with the assumption that being a part of the body of Christ making you family means you should be praying even after your dead means that you receive no rest. Plus, God says prayer is our personal communication with Him because he can't be in our presence as we are sinful. God's presence in this world is known as the Holy Spirit. Jesus is seated at the right hand of the Father and they send the Holy Spirit to do the work, this is what Christ tells us as he is leaving. He says he is leaving so that God can send us the great helper which is the Holy Spirit who will teach us all things and interpret our prayers to God. He alone interceeds on our behalf. This is why Christians pray to God the Father the Son and Holy Spirit, not just God the Father and the Son. Yes we are family but no, the dead aren't ours to ask to pray for us because they are at rest and they are not watching us from heaven. they may be aware of what is going on, but not ways we can understand. They have no concern for the living because we are still wrapped up in earthly things. They are enjoying the rest of God, separation from the pains of this world. If your grandma was in heaven and saw you going through cancer or rape or something, do you not think it would effect her? It would be a horrible thing. To say God would put the dead through having to monitor the living would be terriblely trying and grevious for them, which doesn't line up with the idea of heaven and rest.Even Solomon was quoted when he was raised by a King Saul on the outs "why have  you awaken me from my slumber." 

The other problem is that if we are praying to them so they can pray for us, we are insisting that they are listening to us, monitoring us, watching us. Since all Catholics are praying to the same saints for help at the same time, it insinuates that they can hear everyone at the same time, be at every church at the same time, and process each need and interceed at the same time! God says HE watches over us and each hair on our head. Do you think that the saints are equal to God? Do you think that even now, before we are going to be brought into perfection of the second body on the day of the resurrection of the saints, that they have been given equal abilities to those of God, even assuming they were actively running around in heaven right now? 
The only reason God hears us is because he loves us enough to interact with us and he not only hears our prayers but also our every word, which we will all be accountable for some day. Satan cannot read our minds but he can hear our words if he is listening which is why he has various demons he scouts over us to keep track of what is going on. Satan, demons, men, and dead men are not Omnipotent or Omipresent which is what praying to saints is implying.(that the saints were all those things too in order to listen to everyones prayers at the same time.) We should pray, a deed that God created for us to communicate to him our problems and concerns, to Him. On earth, we don't pray to the people we ask to pray for us, asking them to pray.

While intercession here on earth is a valid point because we are all men and all living in the lesh God requires us to pray . In heaven if you really believe they are resurrected and actively living, they would have to pray still to talk to God? Doesn't the Word say that heaven is going to be a marriage and that every one would be able to have a marriage relationship with the omnipotent Omnipresent God? He would be able to be with us in his actual presence because we would be without sin, so WHY on earth would He continue to limit us to having to pray? Worship I could understand, but still having to pray to talk to him?
It also says that God is not a respector of persons and that no man is greater than any other but that of Christ who sits on the right hand of God. Every man has completely equal access to God through Christ. Saints are simply men who have died after following Christ to the finish, as have many martyrs of this that and other generations inbetween.They don't have an equality with God and won't even equal with Christ until  until we all will be resurrected at the Judgement Seat of Christ where he judges the living and the dead believers. Also, the Word tells us that we have the Great High Priest of Machelsideck which clears us of having to have a priest to come in intercession between us and God, so saying Peter as Paytron saints of the Jewish catholic church and Paul as the father of the Gentile catholic church, isn't validation to say we need to pray to them for help getting redemption, help, or special attention. If you add it saying you just want to get some help through prayer, it makes no sense because you then bypass God as being all powerful and instead create a chain of "prayer" to other people (yes people, not even god, though we elevate them to that stature by praying to them). Instead of a prayer to Him being sufficient you are simply implying that he needs help by getting the saints to convince Him your prayers need action taken or that you are worthy of being listened to.

@Samaritan74@xanga - Since you are learning I'll give  you a big inside tip. The Catholic church isn't Christian. They actually denouce Christianity as not having acknowelded the Papal authority as the higest in the Spiritual rank which is basically that He is the Holiest man on earth, some even say he is equal to Christ while on earth. They (these are terms specifically given to us by the vadicant) also say that they think we don't have the lineage to even present a valid claim to the priesthood. They claim our salvation can't be true because we don't have the approval of any major Apostolic lineage. -'Dominus Iesus' (2000), "Responses to Some Questions Regarding Certain Aspects of the Doctrine on the Church.(2007), Nihole Winfield, "Pope: Other Christians Not True Churches," Associated Press, 2007-JUL-10, at:http://www.washingtonpost.com/, William Cardinal Levada, "Responses to Some Questions Regarding Certain Aspects of the Doctrine on the Church," Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, Vatican, 2007-JUN-29, at:http://www.vatican.va ,
Richard Owen and Ruth Gledhill, "If it isn’t Roman Catholic then it’s not a proper Church, Pope tells Christians," The Times Online, 2007-JUL-11. at: http://www.timesonline.co.uk"