Dear Maria:

Sorry for the delay in responding.

The Saints are our brothers and sisters who have gone on before us. Why are their so many of them? Because God is great and has saved them and inspired the Church to give special recognition to them for our benefit. They are our role models of sanctity, they show us that it is possible to be holy, they are family.

As it is with any family we may be closer to some family members more than to others. We may be drawn to a particular uncle or cousin because that particular relative has the personality or the experiences or the charism that we need, that will help us with our own journey. This is why there are "patron saints". A patron saint specializes in a particular area. A patron saint of educators specializes on helping teachers, for example.

The Church is rich with role models, mentors, and counselors in the Saints. No matter what our personality, our interests, our charism, our problems, or our needs there is a Saint to whom we can look to for intercession and guidance. We are a wonderful family.

As for Novenas, we do not "believe" in a Novena, we "do" a Novena. Novenas are merely a prayer form. Novena means "nine" -- a prayer said each hour for nine hours, each day for nine days, each Friday for nine weeks, etc.

Why nine? Well the novena in preparation for Christmas was in commemoration of the nine months our Lord spent in Mary's womb. Also, since ten was the number of God, the number of perfection, and man is imperfect, nine became the custom. There are many possible sources for the development of the custom.

But for every novena of preparation, as also for every novena of prayer, not only the best explanation but also the best model and example was given by Christ Himself to the Church in the first Pentecost novena. He Himself expressly exhorted the Apostles to make this preparation (Acts 1:1-14). He told his disciple that after his Ascension into heaven that they were to pray together in the Upper Room and devote themselves to constant prayer. This time of prayer ended nine days later, on Pentecost, when the Holy Spirit came as the precious fruit of this first Christian novena for the feast of the establishment and foundation of the Church. If one keeps this in mind and remembers besides that novenas in the course of time have brought so many, even Miraculous, answers to prayer, and that finally Christ Himself in the revelation to Blessed Margaret Mary Alacoque recommended the special celebration of nine successive first Fridays of the month (cf. Vermeersch, "Pratique et doctrine de la dévotion au Sacré Coeur de Jésus", Tournai, 1906, 555 sqq.)

If your Protestant friends are disparaging the Novena, then they disparage the Bible and Christ himself. Beside, Protestant have they prayer customs, too. To disparage the Catholic custom, which is derived from Scripture, is hypocritical and merely anti-Catholic animus, for which they should be ashamed.

As for approaching Jesus directly, again Protestants are hypocrites and ignorant of the Bible (of which so-called "Bible Christians" always are). We are commanded in the Bible to pray for each other. It is called Intercessory Prayer (Rom 15:30; Col 4:3; 1 Thess 5:25; 2 Thess 3:1; Eph 6:18-19; Rev 5:8). Even intercession of the saints is based on Scripture. The saints are not dead. They are more alive than we are. (Mk 12:26-27). Jesus is seen conversing with "dead" people -- Elijah and Moses (Mk 9:4). We are surrounded by a cloud of witnesses (Heb 12:1). The departed rich man intercedes for his brothers (Lk 16:19-30), etc.

Jesus is the One mediator, but Jesus asks us to prayer for others (1 Tim 2:17; 1 Pet 2:5).

If they truly believe that they must go directly to Jesus and not through anyone else, then they must stop praying on behalf of others. If they say to their pastors, or to a friend, "Pray for me", then they are hypocrites. Why are they asking others to pray for them for some particular intention? Can't they go directly to Jesus themselves?

The idea that one does not need to go to a doctor but are healed directly by Jesus is not a common belief. Such a belief against doctors is, again, unbiblical. No where does God tell us in His word to avoid doctors and instead rely only on "faith healing". Luke, one of the Apostles was a doctor. This is just one of the aberrations that is caused by man-made religion without an authority.

To protect the faith against such silliness and error God gave us the Church and the Magisterium. God has always had a Magisterium with the authority to represent Him and protect the faith against error. Moses was a pope. Jesus mentioned the Mosaic magisterium in Matthew 23:2 when he refers to the "chair of Moses". "Chair" represents authority. When the New Covenant was established a new chair of authority was established -- the Chair of Peter.

Of course the Protestants will not accept this Biblical evidence because to do so would be to accept that the Catholic Church may be right about something. That is also why they do not accept the clear and black and white teaching of Jesus about the Eucharist in John 6.

Do not try to convince them. Just express your faith and the reasons for your faith. Learn about and use explanations such as what I have outlined above, but do not try to convince -- the Holy Spirit will do that, you and I are only messengers.

I would recommend some websites that can help in dealing with Protestant objections to the Catholic Church:

Catholic Answers Faith Tracts

Scriptural Catholic: Providing Scriptural Evidence for the Teachings of the Catholic Faith

Biblical Evidence for Catholicism

God Bless,
Bro. Ignatius Mary