While the above post emphasizes the importance of asking the saints to intercede for us with the God to Whom we pray, we must remember that one “direct” prayer was given to us by no less an authority than the Second Person of The Trinity:
“Our Father, Who art in Heaven, hallowed be Thy Name. Thy Kingdom come, Thy will be done, on earth as it is in Heaven. Give us this day our daily bread and forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us. Lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. Amen.”
We see a both a distinction and a mathematical relationship between this prayer, which is also included in The Catholic Rosary, and the Intercessory Prayers, like the Hail Mary, of Catholics, in which we ask for an actual Saint to intercede for us so that what we request may be granted.
The Lord’s Prayer is a General Prayer. In The Rosary, it occurs 8.83 times less frequently than the Hail Mary. That indicates we should consider saying 8.83 times as many specific, Intercessory Prayers as General Prayers. It may also mean that if we say a lot of Novenas, which are heavy on the Intercessory Prayers, we should balance them out with some General Prayers so that we at least attempt to provide God with the impression that we’re at making some effort to demonstrate an interest in things beyond our own needs.
Prayers that request more specific Programming Assistance are best handled by the Heavenly specialists in the various departments. Catholic Fundamentalists believe that the process of asking and receiving, for instance, St. Anthony’s help in finding something that we’ve lost, takes no “earth time” at all, since “Heaven Time” operates on totally different clocks.
The Programmer appreciates those of us who follow “the chain of command” when requesting Programming Assistance. Doing so indicates that we respect not only His authority, but also, the authorities that He has put in place to handle things for us. Such an admission accrues favor for us.
How often should we pray?
Some monasteries and convents have holy men and women within them who pray nearly all day. Most of us are not so fortunate, and struggle to say a daily Rosary, often left unfinished and caught up later. We may progress to the point that we’re saying several Novenas every hour for the nine hours prescribed for many of them.
Googling “daily readings of the Catholic Church” leads us to web sites we can read every morning. Before noon, we should also say the St. Joseph’s prayer. It’s one of the oldest, dating from the 1st Century, and has the most remarkably complicated sentence structure many have ever seen. It’s a powerful prayer, and can be “loaded up” with lots of requests for intercession.
Prayers requesting St. Joseph’s help are effective because he sustained God when He took human form on earth. He saved Jesus from Herod and did all for Him that a father could do. In that way, Joseph is our father, too, and he loves his children enough to ask His Son to help us.
