For Catholic and Orthodox Christians, the act of prayer is not identity with worship of God. That is, we believe that we can ask the souls in Heaven to pray for

For Catholic and Orthodox Christians, the act of prayer is not identity with worship of God. That is, we believe that we can ask the souls in Heaven to pray for us, just as we can ask other persons living on earth to pray for us. Such requests for intercession do not preclude prayers offered to one God in three Divine Persons — Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Christian prayer is generally understood to have four ends, sometimes overlapping, sometimes distinct, depending on how a person prays at any given time: adoration (worship), confession, thanksgiving, supplication (intercession, petition). Beliefs and practices concerning relics, excluding uninformed superstitious ones, relate to the concept of instrumentality in the οἰκονομία (economy, dispensation) of salvation, predicated on the Incarnation. See also 2 Kings 13:21, Acts 5:15, Acts 19:12, and the Relics[+] article in the 1913 Catholic Encyclopedia. [+] http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/12734a.htm http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/12734a.htm