Question for Catholics

Saviors4us · Feb 3, 2012

Jesus said "I am the way the truth and the light, no one comes to the Father except through me."

Meowzltov · May 16, 2016

chevelledc788 said:
Hey, I am not a Catholic and I have a question regarding the Virgin Mary. Please correct me if I am wrong but is it true that Catholics not only pray to God but to Mary as well? If this is true, then doesn't it break the 1st commandment? "Thou shalt have no other gods before me."

By no means am I trying begin an argument but when I heard this I was concerned and would greatly appreciate an explanation.

God bless!

When we "pray" to Mary, we are not worshiping her, we are just talking to her, and asking her to pray for us to God through Christ. It's no different than asking you to pray for us.

Meowzltov · May 16, 2016

Jeffwhosoever said:
Why is there a need for an intercessor in Heaven? I can understand having another live human being pray for you, but why don't you just pray direct to the Father or to Jesus Christ instead of Mary? I just want to understand the Catholic practices better.

Thanks for any help.

Jeff

We do pray directly to God. But we are also directed to pray one for another, and told that the prayers of a righteous man availeth much. And so we ask the saints to pray for us.

Meowzltov · May 16, 2016

MrPolo said:
A handy chart to dispel misconceptions about praying to saints, which means to ask them for intercession just as you would your neighbor, as Paul did in (Rm 15:30, et al).

In this handy little chart, Person A prays to God. Person A asks Person B for intercession (marked by the red arrow). Person B prays to God for Person A. What some call heresy or worship is the red arrow, where Person A asks Person B for intercession. That is what is meant by asking the saints for intercession, or what is called praying to saints. Some have strangely called this worship (probably because they didn't understand what praying to saints meant). Person B is any member of the Body of Christ, your neighbor, a saint in heaven, Mary, an angel, etc...

So you see, there is no Person B INSTEAD of God. Instead you either have 2 people praying for an intention, which is good. Or you have someone very holy in heaven praying for your intention, which is also good since the prayer of the righteous is very powerful (Jm 5:16, 1 Pet 3:12).

In other words, anyone who refuses to ask saints or angels to pray for them or with them is not utilizing the great graces these members of the Body of Christ have been given!!!

Love your cool little chart.

Meowzltov · May 16, 2016

Angelic_Neon77 said:
why do Catholics worship and pray to saints? Like St. Anthony for protection and so forth.

We don't worship the saints in the modern sense. Worship is reserved for God alone. We ask St Anthony i.e. for protection, but in reality, the only thing St. Anthony can do is pray for us to God through Christ. It is God who answers the prayer by protecting us.

Meowzltov · May 16, 2016

onfire4him77 said:
Ok I am semi-understanding here.
So you are saying that you Pray to Christ, to tell mary, to intercess to him about our prayers?
That doesn't make a whole lot of sense. My point is then why? Why should you call on her when you have Jesus who is God, to go to on your own.
Where in the Bible(or if it is one of your added books) does it state that you should or need to pray to others besides Christ?

I think you got this a weeee bit confused. We ask Mary to pray for us to God through Christ. We are directed to ask others to pray for us.

Meowzltov · May 16, 2016

onfire4him77 said:
why pray to her, when God gave us his son to break down all the obstacles to him.

Because we are directed to ask others to pray for us.

Meowzltov · May 16, 2016

ebia said:
I know, but a more technically accurate phrase got long-winded to keep typing.

Lets say there are 1.3 billion Catholics in the world, and that (on average) they make one request of Mary per day.

That's 1,300,000,000 requests per day she has to deal with.
54166667 per hour
902778 per minute
15046 per second
15 per milli second
or 67 micro seconds to hear and respond to each one - I hope all the good Catholics are keeping the length of their Marian request to less than 50 micro seconds per day so as not to take up more than their fair share of her time!

She is in ETERNITY where time and space do not exist.

Meowzltov · May 16, 2016

ebia said:
If they are 'outside of time' then for them there is no sequence, not time in which to hear and then respond. All our human language, which is thoroughly rooted in time becomes inadequate to discuss them unless we drop back to mathematics (which might be a bit tricky).

Quite true.

Andy centek · Sep 18, 2018

a_ntv said:
Worship is given only to God
If you go to a catholic Mass, you can see that all the prayers are to God. (never been to a catholic mass?)

We ask Mary to pray Christ for us.
We ask also friends and other people to pray for us.
That because we feel the Church like a community where anyone helps the other.
Also in many protestant services sometime the pastor ask all to pray for some particular necessity. This is not against the 1 commanament.
Only God can give the grace. But anyone can ask.

Mary is the first in the Church.
" Hail Mary, full of grace, the Lord is with you. (from Luke)
Blessed are you among women and blessed is the fruit of your womb. (also from Like)
Holy Mary, mother of God,
pray for us sinners now and at the hour of our death"

Orthodoxs attitude towards Mary is exactly the same of Catholic

MrPolo said:
I still think that denying asking saints for intercession fractures the unity of the Body. I also would like to know if you are using Scripture alone, what in the passage tells you that full knowledge comes only after the next resurrection. To me, the "face to face" refers to the beatific vision that many souls experience now, not the new resurrection.

If you want testimony, there are plenty of stories about miraculous healings and such attributed to particular saints implored for intercession. You may deny those many stories, but we believe them to occur.

Andy centek · Sep 18, 2018

If Mary is the first in the Church, Then God is wrong, for He said He set His Son, Jesus Christ at the top in His kingdom next to Himself!

Andy Centek

Just_a_Christian · Jan 21, 2019

Andy centek said:
If Mary is the first in the Church, Then God is wrong, for He said He set His Son, Jesus Christ at the top in His kingdom next to Himself!

Andy Centek

You have to realize that we dont have the full Bible and futhermore the holy spirit is still revealing the truth to the pope....
You may think I'm being mean spirited but that is precisely what I've been told.
I was watching tv this am before church and these people were ridiculing/disrespecting this old native American who was also Vietnam vet. If u haven't seen it, everyone should... i got angry and my wife said everyone needs to be considerate and that made me even more angry...this political correct stuff has got us to where we are now. We need to start speaking up for what's right and speaking against what's wrong. Sorry for the rant.

Stephen3141 · Mar 21, 2023

chevelledc788 said:
Hey, I am not a Catholic and I have a question regarding the Virgin Mary. Please correct me if I am wrong but is it true that Catholics not only pray to God but to Mary as well? If this is true, then doesn't it break the 1st commandment? "Thou shalt have no other gods before me."

By no means am I trying begin an argument but when I heard this I was concerned and would greatly appreciate an explanation.

God bless!

Different Christian groups can use some very different lingo, when talking about the faith.

Technically, Catholic Christians ask Mary, and other saints, and all the angels, to pray for them to the LORD our God.

This is like the Apostle Paul saying "Pray for us". He is not praying TO other christians. He is asking other Christians to pray for him and his outreach team.

2 Continue steadfastly in prayer, being watchful in it with thanksgiving. 3 At the same time, pray also for us, that God may open to us a door for the word, to declare the mystery of Christ, on account of which I am in prison— 4 that I may make it clear, which is how I ought to speak.
The Holy Bible: English Standard Version (Wheaton, IL: Crossway Bibles, 2016), Col 4:2–4.

25 Brothers, pray for us.
26 Greet all the brothers with a holy kiss.
The Holy Bible: English Standard Version (Wheaton, IL: Crossway Bibles, 2016), 1 Th 5:25–26.

18 Pray for us, for we are sure that we have a clear conscience, desiring to act honorably in all things. 19 I urge you the more earnestly to do this in order that I may be restored to you the sooner.
The Holy Bible: English Standard Version (Wheaton, IL: Crossway Bibles, 2016), Heb 13:18–19.

16 Therefore, confess your sins to one another and pray for one another, that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous person has great power as it is working.
The Holy Bible: English Standard Version (Wheaton, IL: Crossway Bibles, 2016), Jas 5:16.

Stephen3141 · May 22, 2023

onfire4him77 said:
5The living at least know they will die, but the dead know nothing. They have no further reward, nor are they remembered. 6Whatever they did in their lifetime--loving, hating, envying--is all long gone. They no longer have a part in anything here on earth
Ecclesiastes 9: 5-6

If that is so, then explain the catholic interpretation of this verse.

I am not saying that you worship Mary, I go to catholic school, and have been in it my whole life, so I know that is not the case.
My problem is that you pray to her or any other person who is dead, the bible says they are apart of nothing here on this earth, so why pray to her, when God gave us his son to break down all the obstacles to him. Numerous times it says we can go to Jesus DIRECTLY, it never says he is too busy so you can pray to Mary to get to him.
I understand why you honor her, and that is fine with me. But praying to her is crossing the line.

Look at all the advice that Job's frenemies gave to him. They were all wrong, with respect to Job.

Stephen3141 · May 22, 2023

Just_a_Christian said:
You have to realize that we dont have the full Bible and futhermore the holy spirit is still revealing the truth to the pope....
You may think I'm being mean spirited but that is precisely what I've been told.
I was watching tv this am before church and these people were ridiculing/disrespecting this old native American who was also Vietnam vet. If u haven't seen it, everyone should... i got angry and my wife said everyone needs to be considerate and that made me even more angry...this political correct stuff has got us to where we are now. We need to start speaking up for what's right and speaking against what's wrong. Sorry for the rant.

I don't understand your post. The canon of Scripture is fixed. This does not mean that all truth, was revealed in Scripture.

Michie · May 22, 2023

chevelledc788 said:
Hey, I am not a Catholic and I have a question regarding the Virgin Mary. Please correct me if I am wrong but is it true that Catholics not only pray to God but to Mary as well? If this is true, then doesn't it break the 1st commandment? "Thou shalt have no other gods before me."

By no means am I trying begin an argument but when I heard this I was concerned and would greatly appreciate an explanation.

God bless!

If you’d like Catholic answers, you should ask here:

One Bread, One Body - Catholic

www.christianforums.com

Michie · May 22, 2023

My bad. Zombie thread from 2006.

Lost4words · May 22, 2023

Mary interceded at Cana. As Catholics, we ask her to intercede for us, friends, family etc. Its not worship. I dont know of ANY Catholic who worships Mary.

We all belong to ONE church. That means the Saints in heaven and the saints on earth. They are very much ALIVE in the presence of God as much as we are alive on earth.

Posted for anyone who enters this old thread.

Lukaris · May 22, 2023

There were a few highly disputed writings like the book of Enoch and it seems clear that aspects of it became accepted tradition. One is the intercessions of the saints which lines up with Revelation 8:1-4 and Enoch was written probably over 200 years before Revelation.

From Enoch re the intercession of the saints:

Chapter 39]

1 [And it shall come to pass in those days that elect and holy children will descend from the 2 high heaven, and their seed will become one with the children of men. And in those days Enoch received books of zeal and wrath, and books of disquiet and expulsion.]

And mercy shall not be accorded to them, saith the Lord of Spirits.

3 And in those days a whirlwind carried me off from the earth,

And set me down at the end of the heavens.

4 And there I saw another vision, the dwelling-places of the holy,

And the resting-places of the righteous.

5 Here mine eyes saw their dwellings with His righteous angels,

And their resting-places with the holy.

And they petitioned and interceded and prayed for the children of men,

And righteousness flowed before them as water,

And mercy like dew upon the earth:

Thus it is amongst them for ever and ever.

The Book of Enoch, Section II

Stephen3141 · Jun 8, 2023

Michie said:
If you’d like Catholic answers, you should ask here:

One Bread, One Body - Catholic

www.christianforums.com

As the apostle Paul says, "Pray for us!"
Paul is not praying to other Christians. He is asking them to pray for him.

25 Brothers, pray for us.
The Holy Bible: English Standard Version (Wheaton, IL: Crossway Bibles, 2016), 1 Th 5:25.

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