Do the Dead Saints Read the Newspaper?

A report and comment on religious trends and events being covered by the media.  This week’s item is from the Scranton Times Tribune: You can find them in most any classified section of the local newspaper—prayers of thanksgiving for prayers answered. Different people are putting them in all the time said Susan Shotwell inside sales manager for the Times Tribune newspapers.Their prayers are answered so they feel they have to put in an ad.Many advertisements say that if the prayer is said for three days the prayer request is granted.The prayers are also know as “known to never fail.”In thanksgiving for the prayer being answered publication must be promised.Some are short and contain a thank you to either God or the Blessed Virgin Mary, or St. Theresa, or St. Jude, or St Anne.The identities of the advertisers are usually not known, Susan said, because the ads are prepaid.Most people just walk in with the ad they want and pay cash, she said.We have a ton, she said.They’re really popular in this area.The Reverend John Schemeil, assistant pastor of St. Peter’s Cathedral and secretary to Scranton Diocese and Bishop James C. Timlon said he sees no harm in the advertisements.“I’ve read them,” he said, “and there’s nothing wrong with them.That’s the way some people express their faith.”Father Schemeil likened it to the variety of ways people express their faith such as meditation and silent prayer in church.“It’s not a bad thing,” he said.It’s a public witness to prayer too.”The Reverend Peggy Sue Pfeiffer, pastor of St. Peter’s Lutheran Church said she too believes the ads are harmless, but she’s not sure it is necessary for someone to place an advertisement in a newspaper to thank God for answered prayer.

Tom:

Well Dave this is primarily Catholic but this is not beyond some Protestant ideas that I’ve seen out there.

Dave:

Well Tom I have no objection to people thanking God for answering prayer and if they want to do it publicly, but I think the publication in a paper of the thanksgiving is part of the technique that—

Tom:

Dave let me read one to you.Here’s one: Thank You God, Prayer to God:Say 9 Hail Marys for 9 days.Ask for 3 wishes, first for business, second and third for the impossible.Publish this article on the 9^th day.Your wishes will come true even though you may not believe it.Thank you God.P.S.It really does work!M.M.; Then we have another one: Thank you St. Jude for prayers answered.R.R.So this is a little bit more than—

Dave:

Well as I said this is part of the technique and in order to be assured that the prayer would be answered you have to pledge to put this ad in.Now it has nothing to do with God’s will.It’s just like magic; it’s like voodoo.This is a technique and if you follow this technique it will, as one of the little prayers there says, or one of the little ads there says it will work!You don’t even have to believe it, but you follow the technique and it will work.

Tom:

And Dave in addition to that we have so-called intercessory prayer or as the Catholics would say, invocation to the saints.Now here you’ve got a problem.We are supposedly speaking to the departed, the deceased; holy or not.I mean if they’re saints they are supposed to be holy, but that’s not biblical.Actually it’s out of the Apocrypha, 2 Macabees chapter 15.

Dave:

Well Tom it reminds me of Luke 18 where Jesus presents the Pharisee in the temple and it says: Jesus said “The Pharisee stood and prayed thus with himself…”His prayer didn’t even reach God because trusting in his good works and his fasting and his tithing giving and so forth.And that doesn’t count with God.It’s grace, God’s grace, God’s mercy according to His will.So if you have a technique that you think is going to activate God; that is going to cause God to respond to your will, then you have been deluded by the devil.This is one of the worst lies that you could possibly believe.Now I wouldn’t put it past the devil to answer your prayer to continue to lead you down this path farther and farther away from God and from His truth and true faith. In contrast it says the publican dared not even lift his eyes up to heaven.He beat on his breast and said God be merciful unto me for I am a sinner.So that man went away justified Jesus said.He’s trusting in God’s mercy.These people are imposing their desires upon God.No, you don’t impose your desires upon God.So if you have a technique that works, it could be coincidence or it could be that the enemy of God is answering your prayer in order to deceive you.But this is not godly prayer.This is not what is taught in the Word of God.

Tom:

Right and what we are trying to do here, is we are trying to bring this to the attention of those who may be unwittingly be doing this because it’s just around and they think it is right.But, they are to search the scriptures.This is not according to God’s Word.Simply stated, if it’s not, it’s a problem, not a solution.

Dave:

Right, so Tom prayer itself is supposedly asking God—where do I get the idea of prayer?Where do I even get the idea that God would even listen to me?From His Word.I better search the scriptures to find out what it says.