"Show me where it says that in the Bible"

L and I had an interesting afternoon on Saturday while mudding and repairing the kitchen ceiling. A former teacher of J's came to visit, dropping off a present for his birthday. She'd hoped to see him, but both guys were at their grandparent's house. She is a sweet intelligent woman who adored J as much as he adored him; she left quite an impression on his life an ours.

Somehow, some way, we all sat in the kitchen talking for 2 1/2 hours. The subject of God came up. Made me cringe a little, because L doesn't practice and I know this woman is a born-again "Bible-believing" Christian. Being Catholic, I smelled a headbutting contest emerging. And I wasn't wrong. She asked me what the Secular Franciscans were about. I told her that we are Catholic Christian men and women who try to follow Christ in the manner and footsteps of St. Francis of Assisi (pretty much right from the website, www.nafra-sfo.org). And then I found myself suddenly on defense...

"See, that's not right. You can't pray to 'saints'. If you're not going directly to GOD, Father Son and Spirit, The Three-in-One, something is wrong. If you're praying to saints like Francis, that's idolatry."

I explained that we ask the saints to pray for us the same way you'd ask anyone to pray for you. The saints carry those prayers to God. She countered that I shoujld be taking my prayers directly to God. This went back and forth until she said:

"OK...you show me where it says it's OK to do that in the Bible, and I'll believe it."

Poor L. She was sitting in between this thing all afternoon. And believe me when I say it wasn't nearly as combative as it may seem from this post. The discussion was lively and agreeable. There was a lot of laughing and believe it or not high-fives throughout the afternoon.

A lot of times she "zinged" me, in that I couldn't tell her where to find a belief or practice in the Bible. However, since Scripture is not the only source and authoritty of the Catholic Christian faith, I didn't feel TOO bad about it. We all hugged and kissed and promised to get together soon.

I may secretly study up on my apologetics in the meantime however.

Daily Mass Readings
Wisdom 2:23-3:9
Psalm 34:2-3,16-17,18-19
Luke 17:7-10