I was reading some of the replies you had given to emails and i got the distinct impression that you speak with honesty and from your heart. There are a couple of things that have always bothered me about catholicism, prayer to or through saints?? and purgatory.
1)What does praying to saints entail and why is it done when Jesus died for us that we may be brought back into a personal relationship with God without any barriers??
2) From my understanding of purgatory, it is a place where people go after death for a little while before being transferred to heaven after they have done time for their sins. How is it possible for any time that we can do in any place, to ever match the sacrifice that the son of God made for us on the cross. If it were possible for us to work our own sin off, then in the Garden of Getsemane wouldn't have God spared his son when he asked?? why was it necessary for Jesus to die for us if it was possible for us to be made right with God in other ways??
Yours sincerely,
Chrishan J.
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Dear Chrishan,
Thank you for writing and your sincere questions. You are completely correct that nothing we do could ever match the sacrifice of Jesus. Catholic Answers has some excellent tracts which explain how your questions fit in with that basic teaching. I would especially like to recommend the one on Purgatory.
In a correspondence I offer some of my own reflections on our relationship to the saints.
Prayers always. God bless,
Fr. Phil Bloom