But what about praying to God for the saints departed, as we do in the communion service?
This is different. We certainly do not believe we should pray for those saints who have gone before us so that they will be delivered out of Purgatory, which is a lot of the kind of praying that has been done for the saints in the past. But there is no reason why we cannot pray for God’s blessing on those for whom we have prayed all their lives beforehand. They are still finite creatures, dependent on the mercy and grace of God, and we can pray for their enjoyment of the blessings of God as a way of identifying with them and continuing to express our love and care for them to God.
We pray for all the saints and, in a way that is real, we all meet together before the same throne in prayer. It’s a way of experiencing what the creed calls the Communion of the Saints. Even though we are in two different places, we are still all one in Christ, sharing His life, and concerned for His glory in all the Church.
As Bishop N. T. Wright puts it: Once you get rid of all the abuses that have pulled prayer out of shape, there is no reason why prayer should not stop just because the person you are praying for happens now to be “with Christ, which is far better”. Why not simply celebrate that fact? (For All the Saints p. 75). That is all we are doing.
This is different. We certainly do not believe we should pray for those saints who have gone before us so that they will be delivered out of Purgatory, which is a lot of the kind of praying that has been done for the saints in the past. But there is no reason why we cannot pray for God’s blessing on those for whom we have prayed all their lives beforehand. They are still finite creatures, dependent on the mercy and grace of God, and we can pray for their enjoyment of the blessings of God as a way of identifying with them and continuing to express our love and care for them to God.
We pray for all the saints and, in a way that is real, we all meet together before the same throne in prayer. It’s a way of experiencing what the creed calls the Communion of the Saints. Even though we are in two different places, we are still all one in Christ, sharing His life, and concerned for His glory in all the Church.
As Bishop N. T. Wright puts it: Once you get rid of all the abuses that have pulled prayer out of shape, there is no reason why prayer should not stop just because the person you are praying for happens now to be “with Christ, which is far better”. Why not simply celebrate that fact? (For All the Saints p. 75). That is all we are doing.
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