Catholic devotion to the Saints: here are the misunderstandings explained!

Catholic devotion to saints is sometimes misunderstood by other Christians. Prayer does not automatically imply worship and can simply mean pleading with someone for a favor. The Church has outlined three categories that distinguish the way in which we pray to the Saints, to Mary or to God.  dulia is a Greek word that means honor. It describes the kind of homage due to the Saints for their profound holiness.  Hyperdulia describes the pre-eminent honor paid to the Mother of God due to the high status God Himself has granted her. L atria , which means worship, is the supreme homage given to God alone. No one but God is worthy of worship or of latry.

Honoring the saints in no way diminishes the honor due to God, in fact, when we admire a magnificent painting, it does not diminish the honor due to the artist. On the contrary, admiring a work of art is a compliment to the artist whose skill produced it. God is the One who makes Saints and raises them to the heights of holiness for which they are venerated (as they would be the first to tell you), and therefore honoring the Saints automatically means honoring God, the Author of their holiness. As Scripture attests, "we are the work of God."

If asking the saints to intercede for us were contrary to Christ's one mediator, then it would be just as wrong to ask a relative or friend on earth to pray for us. It would even be wrong to pray ourselves for others, placing ourselves as intercessors between God and them! Clearly, this is not the case. Intercessory prayer has been a fundamental characteristic of the charity that Christians have exercised towards one another since the foundation of the Church. 

It is commanded by Scripture and both Protestant and Catholic Christians continue to practice it today. Of course, it is absolutely true that only Christ, fully divine and fully human, can bridge the gap between God and humanity. It is precisely because this unique mediation of Christ overflows so abundantly that we Christians can pray for one another in the first place.