Catholics... Do you pray to Mary or do you ask Mary to pray for you?

Question

Or Both?
How do you decide when you pray to her and when you ask her to pray for you?
"Holy Mary Mother of God, Pray for our sinners now and at the hour of death, Amen."?

*LoL* I was in Catholic elementary school for 8 years and had to recite the prayer it in front of teachers and nobody ever corrected me.... and they taught us that we were praying to Mary.

My "basic Catholic teaching" must of been kind of backwards. I guess that school was not really faith based.
But its ok, I'm learning now about catholicism. ( but I'm not catholic, I'm just interested)

Suzany13-
The Hail Mary Prayer taken from the Bible?
Just parts of it, but it was not recited as a prayer. It is verses, yes, but it was not grouped together.

Answer 1

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.

This is all the Hail Mary prayer does:

Hail Mary Full of grace, the Lord is with you. (These are the words the angel Gabriel said to Mary, a Bible quote.)

Blessed are thou among women and blessed is the fruit of your womb, Jesus. (This is Mary's cousin Elizabeth's greeting, another bible quote.)

Holy Mary, mother of God, pray for us sinners now and at the hour of our death. Amen. (The request to pray for us.)

With love in Christ.

Answer 2

I have seen priests correct people who believe that Mary is a co-redemptress. This is Heresy and not accepted by the church.

You may ask her to intercede for you "together with all the saints" or any other saint. But do not pray to her in the "Worship" sense or as if she has power to change your life or cause a miracle.

I think she may have a little more influence than us ordinary mortals or maybe she just knows the right prayers to pray. All that she does however, points to Jesus and honors Him.

Actually, Aaron, the entire Hail Mary prayer is taken from the Bible.

Answer 3

She can't hear you! She rests in her grave awaiting the resurrection!

On the other hand- Jesus Christ is the one who died for you- He is the mediator between God and men- He is very much alive today- Pray to Him!

And actually, Suzany13, the Mary prayer IS NOT in the Bible! It is purely a Roman Catholic invention and put in THEIR OWN published Bibles! Pick up a copy of any other Bible that's not Catholic made- and the Prayer isn't there!

Answer 4

How often have you gone through a person to get to another person to get something done? I've heard my boys say, "Please do this" and when the other one doesn't want to cooperate right away I hear footsteps down the hallway and suddenly a small voice next to me saying, "Mom, make him do this." Well, prayer and the Virgin Mary are similar to that. It isn't so much that Jesus says "No" but moreso that Mary can encourage Jesus to get your personal business done. It isn't prayer to Mary, it is more like prayer THROUGH Mary. And in regards to one of the other answers saying that we are only to pray to God and not Mary, then that person has done no research on the miracles of the visions of Mary through the ages. And that Mary says to pray for certain things (world peace being one) and that she will intercede for us to Jesus. (To read more on these, see the sources.)

Answer 5

Simple I am a practicing Catholic and we ask Mary to pray with us and for us. Just as I would ask you to pray. Simple and just for kicks the "Hail Mary" is in the Bible. I say that only because at some point some protestant is going to say it isn't.

Peace Be With You,
Debra

Answer 6

Neither. Mary is not God. Since Mary is the Mother of Jesus, She is close to Him, right? So, we just ask her to send the message along to Him.

You have a small typo: "Holy Mary Mother of God, Pray for our sinners now and at the hour of death, Amen."

Is NOT what we say. We actually say: ...Pray for us sinners...

Answer 7

The official Catholic line is that they ask Mary and the Saints to pray for them. But people still refer to it as prayer.

I suppose that it really boils down to what you mean by prayer. If you mean "Talking to" then we can pray to our friends and neighbors as well as saints and gods.

Answer 8

My mum's Catholic and says the spiel you have above, so I assume it's more of a "pray to Mary in hopes that she'll answer your prayer and pray for you" type of deal.

Answer 9

When I pray I talk to her. She does listen and answer your prayers through Jesus name I ask her to help me, it is a personal relationship that I have with the Virgen Mary, I love her.

Answer 10

The wording of the prayer includes "Holy Mary, Mother of God, pray for us sinners, now and at the hour of death." In the prayer, you are acknowledging yourself as among the group of sinners - pray for me and all of us, because we are sinners.

All Christian prayers are to God, but often they are intercessory - directed through someone(s) else. In this prayer, you are asking Mary to intercede for you, to pray for you.

Mary is the best intercessor because of her close relationship with God. At the wedding at Cana, Mary asked Jesus to do something about the lack of wine. He said that it was not yet His time, but still performed one of His best-known miracles (water to wine). He listened to His mother then and will now.

Why would Jesus (who is God) obey Mary? Does that mean Mary is greater? Certainly not. Mary is a human being but she is also Jesus' mother. Wouldn't you expect Jesus to obey the Ten Commandments Himself? One of those commands is, of course, to honor your mother. Jesus honors His mother and listens when she speaks on our behalf.

A less formal way of putting this is simply that each of us needs all the help we can get! We pray and worshop only God, but we can (and should) ask for as much help as we can. Asking Mary to pray on our behalf, then, is not idolatry, its respect for her closeness to Christ.