Prayers to the Saints

When we pray, can we pray to the saints? Or should we focus our attention solely on Jesus? Fr. Josh explains what it means to pray to the saints and when to ask for their prayers.

The saints are the Body of Jesus Christ, just as we are the Body of Christ.

Glory Story (2:01)

This Episode’s Question (6:47)

I often feel confused about whom I should pray to: Our Lady or one of the saints or Jesus. I feel like I'm hurting Our Lady if I turn to one of the saints and disappoint Jesus if I turn to Our Lady instead of Him. Please can you explain why and when we might pray to one instead of the other?
-Anonymous

Saint Story: Venerable Rafael Cordero y Molina (18:48)

Venerable Rafael was born in 1790 in St. John Puerto Rico into a poor black family. Though his family was not enslaved, because he was black he was allowed to attend school. He learned what he could from his parents and studied on his own. Eventually he was able to become a teacher.

No matter what he taught, be it literature or math or science, people were drawn to him and drawn to Jesus. Using his own money he had from tobacco farming, he founded a school for children in poverty of all races. Under his direction they grew spiritually and intellectually. They grew so much, children in the more affluent parts started to notice and longed for what the children in poverty were experiencing. Soon the wealthy parents started to send their children to his school--which was against the law! Despite it being against the law, the government allowed the school to continue because they too saw the fruit of the school.

In 2004 the process of Rafael Cordero’s canonization was begun. On December 9, 2013, Pope Francis declared that he had lived a life of “heroic virtue” and was worthy of the title Venerable.