Why do Catholics pray to Mary, when Christ teaches us to pray The Lord's Prayer?

Question

The Lords Prayer :
Matthew 6:10-14 This, then, is how you should pray: Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name, your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Give us today our daily bread. Forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one. For if you forgive men when they sin against you, your heavenly Father will also forgive you. But if you do not forgive men their sins, your Father will not forgive your sins.
Luke 11:2-4 He said to them, “When you pray, say: ‘Father, hallowed be your name, your kingdom come.
Give us each day our daily bread. Forgive us our sins, for we also forgive everyone who sins against us.
And lead us not into temptation.’ ”

Mary is no longer living. The bible speaks against speaking to ghosts, or the dead.

Lev. 19:31
Do not resort to ghosts and spirits, nor make yourselves unclean by seeking them out. I am the Lord your God.

Answer 1

Catholics have the erroneous notion that revelation comes not just from the scriptures (as we would affirm), but also from the Pope and tradition. It suggested by them that the latter gives warrant to all the idolatry of Mariology. Prayer is to be made to the triune God alone. No doubt you will get responses from them saying that they do not pray to her, but through her. This is a deceptive distinction and isn’t true. I have been around enough Catholics and Catholicism to know they do indeed pray to and even worship, Mary, and a whole host of others. Praise God for the Reformation!

Answer 2

According to Vatican II, Mary is a co-savior with Christ. This is contrary to Scripture and is not the traditional position of the church for the first several hundred years.

Traditionally, however, it makes some sense. Coming out of an ancient era, a lot of the traditions of that time came with religious rites. Like not coming directly before a king and having to go through an intermediary. Thus the practice of confession through the conduit of a priest.

Answer 3

Catholics share the belief in the Communion of Saints with many other Christians, including the Eastern Orthodox, Anglican, and Episcopal Churches.

The Communion of Saints is the belief 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 and prayers in Christ.

Answer 4

I agree with some of the answeres when they say that we ask Mary and other saints to help us get to the father. God wants us to be his children and like children often do.., to get what they want..say the "like" another child, what do they usually do? They ask someone who knows that person to speak for them.. We live in a world where in some instances, the way we act here is how heaven is also in a sense.

Answer 5

Jesus also says that his Father's name should be sanctified.But is it?How many professed Christians actually hallow God's name.How many professed Christian even know that God's name is Jehovah?
They also pray for God's kingdom to come.But how many know what God's kingdom is or what it is doing or what it will do in the future?
Too many today,rattle off the model prayer without any thought about what they are praying for or about.

Answer 6

Mary was important because she gave birth to Jesus. She was a sinner just like everybody else.
I would never pray to anybody else but Jesus.
But as long as they prayed their prayer for forgiveness, thats the most important thing.

Answer 7

One charge made against it is that Mary and the saints in heaven cannot even hear our prayers, making it useless to ask for their intercession. However, this is not true. As Scripture indicates, those in heaven are aware of the prayers of those on earth. This can be seen, for example, in Revelation 5:8, where John depicts the saints in heaven offering our prayers to God under the form of "golden bowls full of incense, which are the prayers of the saints." But if the saints in heaven are offering our prayers to God, then they must be aware of our prayers. They are aware of our petitions and present them to God by interceding for us.

Some might try to argue that in this passage the prayers being offered were not addressed to the saints in heaven, but directly to God. Yet this argument would only strengthen the fact that those in heaven can hear our prayers, for then the saints would be aware of our prayers even when they are not directed to them!

In any event, it is clear from Revelation 5:8 that the saints in heaven do actively intercede for us and Mary is a saint. We are explicitly told by John that the incense they offer to God are the prayers of the saints. Prayers are not physical things and cannot be physically offered to God. Thus the saints in heaven are offering our prayers to God mentally. In other words, they are interceding.

Answer 8

Catholics see that Mary is close to God and simply ask for her help in praying. They do not pray TO Mary. It's just like having a prayer group for someone.

Hail Mary, full of grace, the Lord is with thee.
Blessed art thou among women and blessed is the fruit of thy womb, Jesus.
Holy Mary, Mother of God, pray FOR us sinners, now and at the hour of our death.
Amen

Don't all Christian groups respect Mary as someone pretty important in the faith?

Answer 9

Fundamentalists (non-Catholics in general) challenge the Catholic practice of asking saints and angels to pray for us. But the Bible directs us to invoke those in heaven and ask them to pray with us.

Thus in Psalm 103, we pray, "Bless the Lord, O you his angels, you mighty ones who do his word, hearkening to the voice of his word! Bless the Lord, all his hosts, his ministers that do his will!" (Ps. 103:20-21). And in Psalm 148 we pray, "Praise the Lord! Praise the Lord from the heavens, praise him in the heights! Praise him, all his angels, praise him, all his host!" (Ps. 148:1-2)

Not only do those in heaven pray with us, they also pray for us. In Revelation, John sees that "the twenty-four elders [the leaders of the people of God in heaven] fell down before the Lamb, each holding a harp, and with golden bowls full of incense, which are the prayers of the saints" (Rev. 5:8). Thus the saints in heaven offer to God the prayers of the saints on earth.

Angels do the same thing: "[An] angel came and stood at the altar [in heaven] with a golden censer; and he was given much incense to mingle with the prayers of all the saints upon the golden altar before the throne; and the smoke of the incense rose with the prayers of the saints from the hand of the angel before God" (Rev. 8:3-4).

Jesus himself warned us not to mess with small children because their guardian angels have guaranteed intercessory access to the Father: "See that you do not despise one of these little ones; for I tell you that in heaven their angels always see the face of my Father who is in heaven." (Matt. 18:10).

Because he is the only God-man, Jesus is the only Mediator between man and God (1 Tim. 2:5), but this in no way means we cannot or should not ask our fellow Christians to pray with us and for us (1 Tim. 2:1-4), including those Christians in heaven, who have already had their sanctification completed, for "[t]he prayer of a righteous man has great power in its effects" (Jas. 5:16).

**
Mary is no longer living? Really?

Read John 3:16 - doesn't it say something about "everlasting life"?

Also consider - if one is not living, why would they be able to pray to God in Heaven? - Rev. 8:3-4

Ps. 148:1-2 says to Praise him "from the Heavens". How can that be done if one is dead?

Answer 10

There is scriptural foiundation for the above; I will try to illustrate it, since it is in implicit not explicit form..
Jesus is King of Kings.
Mary is the Mother of the King.
Bathsheba was the mother of the king (Solomon).
Adonijah asked Bethsheba to talk to the king Solomon for him.
(1 Kings 2).