Catholics: How is it that praying to Mary isn't idolatry?

Question

As a protestant, I'm just curious as to how it is that the idolization of mary isn't idol worship...I went to my cousin's (who is catholic) first communion, and at the end of the service, they placed a wreath of flowers on the head of a statue of Mary...how is this not the same idol worship that got the Hebrews kicked out of the promised land once Moses came down from the mountain with the 10 Commandments? Serious answers please.

Answer 1

I used to be a Protestant and understand the confusion. I used to have a big hangup about Mary and Confession.

Do you ever ask a friend to pray for you? Do you Pray for other people?

Asking a friend to pray for you does not mean that you are worshiping the friend.

When we say the Rosary, we are asking Mary to pray for us on our behalf, and also Praying to Jesus. Jesus is the perfect example of Love and Peace, why would he not want us to respect his Mother? Who could intercede for us to God better than Mary?

Catholics DO pray to Jesus, we confess our sins to Jesus through the priest, we do not confess to the priest.

There are so many mis-conceptions of the Catholic Faith!

If you are interested in what the Church truly teaches, RCIA classes are starting at most parishes across the country now.

I also have a lot of respect for my Protestant friends!

May God Bless you and your Family!

www.catholic.com
www.catholic.org

Answer 2

I second Julia E. She has the basic principle. However, if you are looking for serious answers I suggest going to websites of Catholic Apologetics. They have the best and most intelligent answer since an apoogist is a defender of faith. These are the people who study the Catholic Faith inside and out. Here are a few to start you off. The first one covers a lot of Mary questions.

Answer 3

I'm afraid that, like many Protestants, you hold a glaring misconception with regard to Mary's role in the Catholic faith.

We Catholics do not pray to Mary. We ask her to pray for us. There's a difference.

Also, we do not worship Mary.

We honor her and hold her in extremely high esteem, of course, but we absolutely do not worship her.

Therefore, there's no idolatry here.

Attend a Catholic Mass -- the high point of Catholic worship -- and you'll find that Mary's name is barely mentioned at all, and never in a way that can reasonably be construed as worship.

Surely, we would be mentioning Mary a lot in Mass, if we did indeed worship her. But we don't.

Answer 4

+ Graven Images +

Do you have pictures of your loved ones?

Statues and pictures of people we love are not idols.

Statues and paintings of Jesus and the saints are just like pictures of the people we love and respect.

The King James Version of the Bible states in Exodus 20:4: "Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image or any likeness of any thing that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth"

Why were the Jews commanded not to make graven images? Graven images were the standard method of pagan worship. They were representations of false gods.

This is a very clear command.

However God commanded the Jews in Exodus 25:18 and 1 Chronicles 28:18–19, "And thou shalt make two cherubims of gold, of beaten work shalt thou make them"

And in 1 Kings chapter 7 Solomon made bulls and other images out of precious metals.

It seems obvious that the Jews did not worship the cherubims and Solomon did not worship the bulls he had made. These images did not violate the command of God. Therefore, an image not made for worship is acceptable.

In Numbers 21:8-9, "And the LORD said to Moses, "Make a saraph and mount it on a pole, and if anyone who has been bitten looks at it, he will recover." Moses accordingly made a bronze serpent and mounted it on a pole, and whenever anyone who had been bitten by a serpent looked at the bronze serpent, he recovered."

And in John 3:14-15, Jesus says in correlation, "And just as Moses lifted up the [image of a] serpent in the desert, so must the Son of Man be lifted up, so that everyone who believes in him may have eternal life."

How can a statue of our Lord Jesus Christ dead on the cross be considered an idol to a false god? A crucifix is the message of the Gospel without words held up for all to see, a visual reminder of the sacrifice of Jesus, no different from a painting, a play, or a movie.

Catholics do not worship statues but the almighty God, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.

+ Saints +

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

Prayer to saints in heaven is simple communication, not worship.

With love in Christ.

Answer 5

I'm Roman Catholic, and at times I receive remarks from nonCatholics which are not only ignorant, but deeply offensive. This topic is the basis of so many of them, but I'm not one to say you're being rude. I'll explain the best way I can though...

We don't worship Mary; she is not our Savior. She is not the Son of God, though she did bring the Son of God into this world. Because of this, we do what other religions don't--we actually acknowledge her for being the chosen one by Angel Gabriel that night to be the Mother of Jesus. We honor her in such a way that she should not be forgotten, including the fact that she is clean of all sin. She is the only person that was and ever will be of the sinless.

Worship is related towards a god-like figure, or God himself. Honor means to only hold in high reguard--of which we as Catholics do. I hope you understand the difference.

Answer 6

My family was raised Roman catholic and I don't believe that way. I do believe that praying to Mary is Idoltry and praying to all the other saints. But you may want to study more in church history and you will find that the Catholic church has had more effect on organized religion than what you think. Read Acts 2:38 and study church history and you will find that the Catholic church had its hands in Baptism.Also on a doctrinal note. The fist church taught a monotheism belief. A belief in the oneness of God. Compare the Catholic church and see that they changed this also. I'm not a religious man but church history can teach you alot. Hope I was a help.

Answer 7

I agree110% they call the pope holy father, they have pagan God's in there Church, It is a false religion,They get there priests to pray to God for them, Read the great Controversy by Ellen G White I am sorry i am not knocking catholics they do not know better they have all been brain washed,They do not go by the Holy Bible they re did 2 of the commandment's,and they have all the satin's on top of the Vatican, It is sad that they be live in the saints and they pray to them they are all dead and not hearing a thing they say.I know they believe in their hearts that it is all good and i know there are true follower's of Christ in the Catholic Church but come on people wake up, You have to ask God yourself for forgiveness's, Mary was just the vessel that carried Christ yes she should be respected as well but not prayed to.

Answer 8

I can only sigh everytime I read this question, or the hundreds of similar ones. It kind of saddens me that people are so unknowing about what they're trying to attack.

Fact: CATHOLICS DO NOT WORSHIP MARY.

Mary is an honored figure, because she is the Virgin mother of God. Therefore, we do such things because it reminds of of what a special person she was to us- being our mother as well. Don't you leave flowers at the grave of someone you loved dearly? Is that idolatry? I don't think so.

Second, we have prayers such as the "Hail Mary" not because we are worshipping Mary as we do God, rather we are asking for her intercession. You ask your friends and family to pray for you during hard times, right? We ask Mary and the saints to pray for us just as we would ask anyone living to pray for us- just because they are gone from the earth doesn't mean they can't still pray. I personally, also ask my deceased relatives to pray for me and my family- not really idolatry, is it?

Answer 9

Didn't Moses reject cococted worship of a form - they were worshipping a bull as God? Christians revere the symbol of the cross - is the cross an idol and is that reverence worship?

Answer 10

Fundamentalists 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).