Is it wrong to worship or pray to the Virgin Mary?

Question

Is it wrong to pray to the Virgin Mary or Saints if it stated in the Bible "Thou Shalt Not Have No Other Gods Before Me"?

Answer 1

Yes, it is wrong to worship the Virgin Mary.

Prayer is communication, not worship.

Catholics and many other Christians believe in the Communion of Saints where all saints are intimately related in the Body of Christ, a family. When you die and go to heaven, you do not leave this family.

Everyone in heaven or on their way to heaven are saints. You, me, my deceased grandmother, Mary the mother of Jesus, and Mother Teresa.

As part of this family, you may ask your family and friends here on earth to pray for you. Or you may also ask the Blessed Virgin Mary, Saint Andrew, or your deceased grandmother in heaven to pray for you.

With love in Christ.

Answer 2

There are a few people who came close. Yes it is a sin to pray to Mary. Why? The Bible says in 1 Timothy 2:5 "For there is one God and one Mediator between God and men, the Man Christ Jesus." If a person prays to Mary they are doing so thinking she is a mediator and she is not the Bible makes that very clear.

Answer 3

Ok, this is a very common question on Catholic Answers all the time because there is a misunderstanding of the meaning of "praying" to Mary or "praying" to Saints. Here's an example of what is actually going on: Let's say that I tell you that my Grandmother is very sick, would you please pray for her? Would you say, No! don't ask me, just pray straight to God--I can't intercede for you with my prayers! Of course you wouldn't say this. Well if we would ask our friends on Earth to pray for us, why wouldn't we ask the Saints in Heaven or Mary to pray for us. "The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much" (James 5:16) Since the Saints and Mary are already in Heaven their prayers to God will as scripture says "availeth much." Another analogy is used in the book "True Devotion to the Blessed Virgin" by St. Louis de Montfort. Let's say you are a peasant and want to give a gift to the King and you are very poor but you have an apple from your trees you would like to give as a gift from your honest work as an apple grower. Now let's say it was a bad year and there are a couple of dark spots on the apple and one little part that isn't so tasty. Now the Queen in the Old Testament Days was actually the Mother of the King--go read about Solomon. She can take your gift, shine it up and remove the little part that isn't so tasty and get one of her golden platters to put it on and then present that to the King. Mary was one at Cana who said to Jesus, they have no wine. When you "pray" to Mary or the Saints they are fellows in the body of Christ in Heaven whom we are ask to pray for us to God Almighty.

Answer 4

Yes; it is idolatry. The irony is that the Catholic church has also made a great deal of effort in creating many graven images of these saints and of the the Virgin Mary and Jesus, and worshipped them just like God said not to also. How far the first church organization has strayed from God and knowing Him.

Answer 5

Absolutely not. I'm not even that religious, but listen to this. My husband and I went to the Basilica in Mexico City to see The Virgen de Guadalupe, in December 2005. Since then, I haven't had a single migraine( I used to have 2 or 3 a month ). The Virgen is OK in my book. End of story.

Answer 6

The Lord taught the disciples to pray to the "Father". John 16;23,
gives us the correct "formula" if you will on how to pray. Verily,
verily, whatsoever ye shall ask the Father in my name, He shall
give it you.
No where in any part of the Bible do we see anybody praying
to the saints in Heaven; not even Mary, or Paul, or anyone else!!!
The Lord Jesus is our example of how we are to conduct ourselves, and we ought to follow that example.
I Corinthians 13;8a, Love never fails!!!

Answer 7

Hmm. . .Here's a simple answer for you.

Luke 11:1-4

"It happened that while Jesus was praying in a certain place, after He had finished, one of His disciples said to Him, "Lord, teach us to pray just as John also taught his disciples."
And He said to them, "When you pray, say: Father, hallowed be Your name.Your kingdom come. Give us each day our daily bread. And forgive us our sins, For we ourselves also forgive everyone who is indebted to us. And lead us not into temptation."

Notice that Jesus did not reply, "Well, it depends on who you're praying to." Don't you think that if God wanted us to, or allowed us to pray to Mary (or other mankind) that He would have mentioned that somewhere? Remember what praying is for: talking with God. The Holy Spirit intercedes on our behalf as we call out to God the Father. Praying to other humans is ridiculous.

May God bless.

Brandon

Answer 8

God's law on this issue is simple "don't have or worship another god besides me" So praying for or worshiping Mary or any so called saint is wrong, that is idolatry. Praying to even Jesus himself is wrong, Jesus himself said we should pray to his father not him. If Jesus wanted us to pray to his mother, he would have said so.

Answer 9

Mary is the Mother of Jesus, and you can pray to her. She can intercede on your behalf to her son. I do not pray to Saints, it is not in my religion. Catholics have saints. I am Charismatic.
By have other Gods before him, he meant graven images, money, things you value more than God.

Answer 10

According to the bible it's a sin to pray to Jesus,. but that doesn't seem to bother the billions of people who do so on a regular basis.

If praying to Jesus is okay, praying to anything or anyone else is okay.