What do you think or know . . . . . .?

Question

What do you think, know, or what to know about the Catholic faith? You other Catholics answer and agree or disagree with the answer please and thank you.

Answer 1

MARY

Many non-Catholic Christians do not understand what Catholics believe about Mary and why. As a result, Catholic Marian beliefs have become a focal point in questions about the Catholic Church. If it can be shown that even one Marian belief is not true, then the Catholic claim of infallible teaching is wrong.

Q. My friends want to know and don't understand why we worship Mary and place her as high as God.
Q. Do Catholics worship Mary above Jesus?
Q. Do Catholics worship Mary?

To non-Catholics, the honor shown to Mary appears to be nothing other than the worship of Mary. This would place Mary on a level with God and be a violation of the First Commandment. Some non-Catholics have even gone so far as to coin the word "Mariolotry" for the Catholic devotion given to Mary. In fact, Catholic worship is reserved only for God. The Catholic Church even has special words for all this: latria is the worship offered and due to God alone, and dulia is the veneration given to the saints, including Mary [although hyperdulia (more than dulia, but far less than latria) is the term applied to the honor given to Mary]. The words "latria," "dulia" and "hyperdulia" can be confusing to the layperson however, even though they come from the New Testament Greek, because we don't commonly use them (and they can appear to be nothing but smoke-and-mirrors to the non-Catholic who has never heard of them before).

The first question puts this whole area of discussion in perspective. Protestants, in their worship services, offer songs and praise and prayer to God; this is their highest form of worship. Since they don't have a priesthood, they have nothing else they can offer. Catholics on the other hand, offer the Sacrifice of the Mass to God. Our offering of sacrifice is made only to God and is our form of worship. This allows us to give lesser things such as songs and praise and prayer to those who can pray in our behalf before God: the saints and especially the Blessed Virgin Mary. When the Protestants see us offering what is their highest form of worship to someone other than God, it appears to them that we are worshiping someone other than God.

Why all this special attention given to Mary? Because she is Jesus' mother, the person who gave Him all His genetically human characteristics. Normally, a person gets their genetic characteristics from both the father and the mother but in the case of Jesus there was no human father to provide the genes which would be combined with Mary's. Mary is honored because God honored her by choosing her to be the mother of Jesus. All Catholic doctrines concerning Mary are related to and emerge from our understanding of her Son. Mary has no significance apart from Jesus. Mary says in Holy Scripture "from henceforth all generations shall call me blessed" (Luke 1:48 KJV).

Finally, let's look at Mary from Jesus' perspective. Jesus was a Hebrew; a perfect Hebrew who kept all the feasts, worshiped in the Temple, and most importantly, kept the commandments. This would have included the commandment to "honor thy father and thy mother" (Exodus 20:12; Deuteronomy 5:16). In Hebrew, the word "honor" means "glorify." Jesus would have glorified not only His Father, but as the perfect Hebrew, He would have honored His mother as well. When a Catholic gives honor to Mary, they are imitating Jesus. After all, Holy Scripture tells us:

"Be imitators of God" (Ephesians 5:1, NIV)

"You became imitators of us and of the Lord" (1 Thessalonians 1:6, NIV).

Answer 2

One thing I know that I disagree with is that they pray to Mary and the saints. I know that you can pray straight to Christ and he acts as an intecessor to God. I live in the South in an area where there are not many Catholics(except for my next door neighbors). Their child didn't even know what a figurine I had of Noah's Ark was. She was thirteen. Maybe because of the priests they don't study the Bible for themselves? I can decide for myself from my own Bible study what I believe without someone else (the Pope,priests) telling me what to believe about birth control, abortion, divorce, etc. I also think they believe in mortal sins that can send you hell. I believe there is forgiveness for anything that you are truly sorry for and turn away from and that you can't get forgiveness for doing something that you know is a sin before you do it. Hail Mary's and the such don't bring absolution. It's a heart thing.

Answer 3

I could write a book on this, as I was a Catholic for about 20 years.

Much too broad a question for this kind of forum.


PS: I'm agnostic now.

Answer 4

Its a simple faith and was more interesting when the mass was done in Latin. But still interesting. you can buy communion books that have the basic simple mass and other concepts if you are interested in going to mass. Amazon.com has them as does e bay.
The church gave itself a bad rap when the bishops and the pope covered up a lot of child molestation cases that went on for decades. If they got complaints they would transfer the priest but not do any thing about it. One priest said he joined the Church because it gave him the ability to molest young boys. I lost faith in the church when they kept covering the molestation cases up. Now the priest are getting their just reward and ending up in jail or prison.

Answer 5

I have said this before, but someone responded with another question about it right after I answered, so I will rephrase.

I don't understand why Catholics pray to Mary? She isn't in Heaven yet!! No one but God, Jesus and the Angels are in heaven yet, and even if she was, she shouldn't be prayed to...only God/Jesus deserves to be prayed to, and would be able to answer any prayer.
I am confused as to why they do that?

Answer 6

I know damn near everything the average Catholic knows about it. For such a broad question, I think a link is in order.

Answer 7

I was raised Catholic (went to Grade school ) and went to church every time we needed to.........Now that I am a bit older, I realize that as long as we HAVE faith, it doesn't matter what religion we are..........

Answer 8

not much at all but i hope to learn more about it. i make it a point to study all forms of religion

Answer 9

nothing...i'm Baptist