When Catholics pray to Saint Teresa...

[brooklynite]

...how does god know which one?

Teresa of Ávila (1622)
Teresa of Calcutta (Mother Teresa) 2016
Teresa of the Andes (1993)

[TygrBright]

1. And don't forget The Little Flower... Therese of Lisieux n/t

[Dorian Gray]

16. I love The Little Flower

Showing kindness to people she finds annoying is something I strive to do every single day. (I usually fail.)

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

2. He's God. He's supposed to know; that sort of thing comes with the job.

[brooklynite]

5. But then, he knows what you want so you don't have to pray for it...

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

7. Well, there's that.

[delisen]

3. telepathic imaging

[Pendrench]

4. Hi brooklynite - Excellent question! In some cases, there are specific prayers for each saint, for

example, here is a prayer to St. Teresa of Ávila:

O Saint Teresa, seraphic Virgin, beloved spouse of thy crucified Lord, thou who on earth didst burn with a love so intense toward thy God and my God, and now dost glow with a brighter and purer flame in paradise: obtain for me also, I beseech thee, a spark of that same holy fire which shall cause me to forget the world, all things created, and even myself; for thou didst ever avidly desire to see Him loved by all men. Grant that my every thought and desire and affection may be continually directed to doing the will of God, the supreme Good, wheter I am in joy or in pain, for He is worthy to be loved and obeyed forever. Obtain for me this grace, thou who art so powerful with God; may I be all on fire, like thee, with the holy love of God. Amen.


And I imagine there are similar prayers for the others that you mentioned.

Personally, when I pray, I tend not to recite "official prayers" with the exception of the prayers associated with the rosary. Usually I just pray/talk as I would to someone right in front of me...but I know other Catholics who prefer the written prayers.

Thank you for a chance to discuss this - wishing you well and peace!

Tim

[Major Nikon]

8. I'd think the hard part would be getting past the spam filter

One has to wonder why there's boilerplate authorized by the dudes with pointy hats unless there's a good reason for it. If you think about it, the dudes with pointy hats are the ones who anointed the saints to begin with. If you're going to go off-script, you might as well just pray to anyone. Surely there has to be some problems Elvis could help you with, assuming he was able to get through the gates stoned out of his mind. Given all of it has no efficacy, I don't really see how it makes a difference.

[Pendrench]

9. Hi Major Nikon - Thank you for taking the time to respond to my post.

I imagine that for some, there is a comfort in the repetition of written prayers - as I mentioned, I myself pray the rosary on occasion. Speaking only for myself, I tend to prefer a more conversational type of prayer.

In fact, usually when I pray I rarely invoke the names of the saints that have been officially recognized by the church. Most of the time my prayers are directed toward my father, grandparents, aunts/uncles, cousins, and friends who have passed away. And when I pray, it's usually to ask them for strength to get through a difficult time, or to share my happiness with them when things are going well (such as my son getting married next year).

Thanks again for the opportunity for discussion!

Wishing you well and peace.

Tim

[Thomas Hurt]

6. God is all knowing and all powerful per christian theology.

[Major Nikon]

11. Then why prey to begin with?

An omnipotent divinity would already know what you want before you were even conceived and would have already decided whether or not to grant you any favors. So what purpose would begging serve?

[Thomas Hurt]

13. Exactly, and why have elablorate wedding ceremonies in churches with all the blah, blah

about a godly marriage sanctified by god blah, blah.

God knows whether two people love each other or not.

Creationism is pointless and only for man. An all powerful God could have created all of the universe 10 minutes ago and provided us all with pasts that we never really lived.

Better yet God could recreate the universe when ever it suits God or every 15 seconds or created billions of years ago.

organized religion is 95% about the social institution of whatever flavor of religion to which you subscribe.

[Major Nikon]

14. Pretty much every aspect of most organized religion defies logic and reason

In order to believe in not just a creator, but an interventionist creator, one must create an elaborate mythology of why because as humans we are naturally curious as to the why. Then when you start asking why questions that are too difficult to answer, the canned response is god is simply too complex and we as inferior entities can't even begin to understand the why. All of this turns into one big circular fallacy in which the answer relies on the question.

At least those who attempt to answer the why questions are more honest than those who claim to retreat to some middle ground between deism and theism where they don't have to answer the why questions, but still get to claim moral superiority based on unspecified divine imperatives of a supreme arbiter of what's good and evil.

[Dorian Gray]

17. Prayer benefits the person praying... not God.

I don't pray to ask for things, usually. When I pray, it's more a meditation and a practice of gratitude.

[Major Nikon]

18. Sounds like a contradiction

If you acknowledge there is no benefit to the metaphysical entity in question, then why express gratitude? Seems as if it would be like thanking the air you breathe for providing you with oxygen.

[Dorian Gray]

19. Not a contradiction...

It's like having gratitude in life. I'm grateful to my parents for many things. I try to remember those things. And I tell them those things.

I'm sure it makes them feel good, but the gratitude probably does more for me than it does for them. (It keeps me humble and thoughtful and wanting to do for others what I've had done for me.)

Blah blah blah blah.

If you believe in a higher power, it wouldn't be abnormal to do the same thing in quiet moments of reflection (or prayer). Obviously, if you don't believe in a higher power, this wouldn't be your cup of tea. But it helps me to be reflective and appreciative and confident and pretty zen. And it's a daily practice, much like any other type of meditation might be.

[Major Nikon]

20. If you thanked the air for its oxygen, would you still benefit?

If the answer is yes, then I could see the lack of contradiction.

[Dorian Gray]

21. Sure...

gratitude is beneficial to your health.

https://time.com/5026174/health-benefits-of-gratitude/

(various studies about gratitude are included in the article.)

[Major Nikon]

22. The "various studies" don't say that

It could very well be the causation works exactly the opposite or not at all as all that was studied was the correlative factors. Similarly the decline of the pirate population is correlated with global warming. While a perfectly accurate statement, it doesn't mean the decline of the pirate population is the cause of global warming. For further reading see...
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Correlation_does_not_imply_causation

[Karadeniz]

10. Belief aside, I think it was Avila that I read this about and it's always struck me as the

Epitome of what someone is willing to do in order to satisfy the calling of the soul. Avila was distressed by the poverty and sickness all around her. The sick especially tugged at her heart, lying in the street, open wounds, infection stench, flies thick around them. She longed to clean their wounds to feed them. Unfortunately, the poor souls were covered with crawling, wiggling maggots. She wanted to throw up and couldn't bring herself to carry out her souls orders. But she refused to give in to weakness and searched for a way to overcome her fastidiousness. She hit upon a course of action that would guarantee she could cope with the maggots that were hampering her soul work. She would eat them, figuring that would cure her disgust. Cleaning off maggots would be a breeze compared to eating them. So, every day she ate maggots until she could stand their nastiness. She won.

Whenever I hear someone say, "I couldn't foster animals; I'd get too attached to them," or any such snowflake excuse for not being brave enough to help solve a problem, I think to myself, "yeah, well there was once a woman who didn't let anything block her helpfulness. She ate maggots to help."

[Major Nikon]

12. She also allegedly flew around the church during mass

It’s worth pointing out the stories about these people are often manufactured by the church, ostensibly as a PR move. Believing they are actually true is more of an act of faith rather than historical accuracy.

[Act_of_Reparation]

23. He doesn't.

Because he's not real.

Next question.