osition, to judge whether Christ's religion be divine or human from its effects, result in its disfavor?"
But whilst the Catholic Church practises and recommends the veneration and invocation of the saints, she does not teach us to honor and invoke them as we do God, nor to pray to them as we do to Him. She makes a great distinction.
The veneration of the saints differs from the worship of God in the following:
1. We adore God as our supreme Lord. We honor the saints as His faithful servants and friends.
2. We adore God for His own sake. We honor the saints for the gifts and prerogatives with which God endowed them.
Therefore there is a difference between the prayer to God and the invocation of the saints. We pray to God asking Him to help us by His omnipotence: we pray to the saints to help us by their intercession with God.
Our veneration of the saints should consist, primarily, in the imitation of their virtues. It is truly profitable only when we are intent upon following their example; for only by imitating their virtues shall we share their eternal bliss in heaven. A veneration which contents itself with honoring the saints without imitating their vir-
