Let no man beguile you of your reward in a voluntary humility and worshipping of angels, intruding into those things which he hath not seen, vainly puffed up by his fleshly mind (Col 2:18)
Roughly translated: if you pray to angels (or anyone else for that matter), you are disclaiming Christ, who is the ONLY mediator between man and God! It is an insult to Jesus, who is head of the Church (not denominational - the Church of Christ as a whole), to use any intercessor other than Him!!!
I was raised to pray to others. If my troubles were heavy - pray to St. Jude. If my pets were lost or sick - pray to St Francis. If I wanted to sell my house - get a statue of St. Joseph, bury it in the ground upside down and pray to him. The list goes on and on! The other fallacy that was ingrained in my head was "patron saints". There is a saint for everyone and an everything. St. Michael is the guardian of law enforcement. St. Raymond is the patron saint of pregnant women (I know that because I would joke about that with my ex-husband - whose name is Raymond). Everyone knows of St. Christopher - the patron saint of travelers. I do recall a time when the Church in Rome "uncanonized" him and people began to sell and purchase "Mr. Christopher" medals to wear and statues for their cars. I do believe he's been recanonized - but I couldn't tell you in absolute certainty.
Satan's presence in the certain denominations of churches is so apparent, so sly and deceptive, that those who worship there do not even see it - they truly believe they are acting and performing in the manner that God would have them perform! How can anything that takes away FROM God be OF God??? Remember, He is a jealous God and tells us so! He wants us to come to Him and ONLY through Jesus!!! All our prayers should reflect praise and honor before petition and must be sent only through Jesus to intercede to the Father on our behalf. We do not get anywhere praying to a dead person. All those ritualistic mumblings, all those self-serving blatherings are distasteful in the eyes of the Lord. The notions upon which these practices are grounded were merely the inventions of men, and not by divine revelation. Any church whose rituals include praying or honoring anyone other than God frightens me!
Pray to the Father, through Jesus. Offer praises and thanksgiving to the Father, through Jesus. It is through the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ alone that we come to be in the presence of the Father - not angels, not martyrs and not saints. Through Christ alone are we redeemed!!! A very high price was paid for our immortal and eternal souls - honor and respect the one who shed His blood for it!
