Dear Michael:

We are a family. That family includes those in Heaven and in Purgatory. We as a family here on earth routinely ask each other for prayers. God wants us to be a family and to act as a family. Thus, He is pleased when we help each other and when we ask each other to intercede with Him for our needs. This is how families work.

The classical archetype for praying to the Blessed Mother is when the Queen Mother, Bathsheba, interceded with her son, the King, Solomon (1 Kings 2: 13-21).

The Protestant view that we can pray directly to God and do not have to go to Saints, is a typical anti-Catholic assertion that has not been given any thought.

Each time we ask a friend to pray for us, we are asking for their intercession. Yes, Christ is thee  Intercessor, but we can be intercessors for our family and friends by offering our prayers on their behalf. If we ought to only ask God, then why ask a friend to pray for us?

It should be noted that when we ask a friend to pray for us we are praying to that friend. Prayer does not only mean an act of worship, as anti-Catholics assert. The word also means "to petition." If I ask you to pass the salt, I have just prayed to you, that is, I have asked you (petitioned you) to pass the salt.

Shakespeare used the word "pray" to mean "petition." In legal documents before the court, there is a section called "The Prayer." As my lawyer friends says, "I guarantee you I am not worshipping the judge."

But, Protestants will protest, those in heaven are dead; we cannot, therefore, ask them to pray for us. Wrongo. The saints in heaven are more alive than we are as they are perfected, fully sanctified, and are the fullness of what God intended us to be.

When I converted from a Baptist clergy to Catholicism, one of the realizations I had that helped me in answering this question is that, if those in heaven are part of the Body of Christ, which every genuine Christian admits, then why can we not communicate with them as God wills? If this part of the family is utterly cut off from us, what does that say about the Body of Christ?

Let us say that my right arm represents the part of the Body of Christ who are in heaven. What is it called if I have no communication with my right arm? Paralysis. Thus, are we to say that the Body of Christ is not whole, that part of the Body is paralyzed and thus cannot connect with the rest of the Body? God forbid.

The Bible tells us, "the prayer of a righteous man has great power in its effects" (James 5:16b). If a righteous man here on earth can offer prayers with "great power in its effects", how much more will that be the case of our brothers and sisters in heaven who are perfected?

On the question: "How would/should we know who/why got our prayer answered, or not?"

First, it is God who grants or denies any petition we make to Him directly or to a Saint. In fact, a Saint cannot grant or deny a petition that is not in the full will of God.

But, how do we know who facilitate the answer to our prayers? Well, if we pray to a Saint and got an answer to our prayer (positive or negative), then that Saint must have helped. This is how the Church answers that question when they are investigating a potential canonization to Sainthood. If a person prays to that candidate for Sainthood to be healed, the the Church, after investigation, sees that the miraculous healing is verified, then that miracle is consider by the behest of the candidate for Sainthood.

I hope this helps.

God Bless,
Bro. Ignatius Mary