catholics?

Question

hi im not been rude or judging your faith im interested
and want to know .....
1 why do you have statues of mary?
2 and cross yourself with holy water?
3 what translation of bible do you have?
4 why is there statues of jesus still on the cross?

im not asking to offened at all, i just want to know.
thanx for your time

Answer 1

good question! I don't take offense at all!

1. Statues of Mary and the saints are used to honor and remember them. That is why we have statues of them. Think of it this way. Why do we have tombstones in cemetaries: not only to mark the place where our loved ones are buried, but also to remember them and the life they lived. that is essentially the same principle with statues, as well as crosses and crucifixes. We don't worship them. the statues have no powers to help us. the saints essentially have no power either, but they are close to God, and so we have statues to remember them and ask them to pray for us, just as we may stand at a gravesite and talk to a dead loved one, or ask a living friend to pray for us.

2.Crossing ourselves with holy water is to remember our baptism.

3. I have the "New American Bible For Catholics". There is also a translation called "The Douay-Rhiems Bible"

4. The reason for the crucifix or cross: to remember that Jesus died for us. Protestants tend to focus on the resurrection, while we Catholics focus more on remembering his suffering, but the principle is essentially the same.

Answer 2

1. Mary is the mother of Christ,we are praying for intercession. catholic uses statues as symbols.
2. holy water is a symbol of cleansing, making a sign of a cross is an act of purifying yourself. (usually done when entering the church)
3. there are many different bible translations, different languages and dialects, depending on what part of the world you are. but the most common is the Gideons International.
4. Jesus on the cross reminds mankind that He died for us.

i am not a strict catholic, but i hope this helps. there's nothing wrong with asking these questions. respect to each others religion is the key.

Answer 3

1) When Jesus was dying on the cross He looked at John the Beloved Disciple and said, "Son, behold your Mother." And at Mary and said, "Mother, behold your son." Catholics take it that because Paul teaches we are all a part of the Mystical Body of Christ and Mary was His Mother, by that action Jesus confirmed, through John that Mary is OUR Mother in the spirit as well. We keep her statue around to remind us of her, just as you'd keep a photo of a loved one now gone from you. You love, you want to remember. Simple, huh?

2) Holy water is another reminder. It recalls our Baptism and the promises we made then. By using it in a cross we remind ourselves that we were saved by the Cross and death of Christ.

3) The original translation of Scripture from Hebrew, Aramaic and Greek (those languages in which the various books were originally written) was completed by St. Jerome in the 4th century. He translated the whole thing into Latin; the version called the Vulgate. It stayed that way for Catholics until the late 16th century when the Pope authorized a new translation. This was done and was called the Douay-Rheims. It was translated into French, German and English at that time. In the early 20th century another English translation was authorized. It is called the New American. But if you know your languages, there's no difference in the words EXCEPT the language. The meanings remain the same as they did when Jerome first put quill to papyrus.
4) We Catholics are perhaps a bit inclined toward drama. Seeing Our Precious Lord hanging from the Cross is a daily reminder of just how horribly He suffered and it's ALL OUR FAULT! Shame on us for being baddies when He wants so much for us to be goodies. The crucifix keeps us on our toes, at least those of us who love Jesus.

Answer 4

There are some questions that I will not address because you do not truly want to know the answer for but, we use the original translation of the Bible that Jesus and the Apostles used it is called "The Septuagint" but the actual name differs -- The Jerusalem Bible is a good one. It has an additional seven books of the Bible that prooves Scripturally things that Catholics believe. The Protestants decided that they knew more than God so they tossed these out.

The Crucifix (The Body of Christ on the Cross) is used for several reasons. To me the best explaination goes back to the Old Testament where Moses intervened for the people who were being bit by snakes in their camp. God told Moses to fashion a bronze snake and nail it to a post and put this post up in the middle of your camp and when a person was bit they were to look at this snake nailed to the post and they would be healed but if they did not they would die. Notice-- he did not say to fashion a snake and affix it to a pole -- then take it down and look at the pole. He said to look at the snake on the pole!!

Statues and things they are just reminders of our family but, everyone who gets upset about these and the Commandment for not making graven images has no understanding because at the time there was no human in Heaven so we were not to describe Heaven at all in this manner but it is clear that certain things in Heaven were to be described in Holy worship because God had them make the Cheribim and Seriphim for the top of the Ark -- these are images what about them ? It is now that Jesus and his Mother are in Heaven that we can put their image there to remind us of them there. Also all the Saints. There are more in Heaven than just the Seriphim and Cheribim now.

Answer 5

I grew up as a catholic but i have since recognized that those are all superstitious relics...the stations of the cross, the tabernacle...all symbolic tribal worship devices that are quite elaborate, but help us no more to understand the universe than chicken bones for a voodoo witchdoctor, or runes to a pagan worshipper...or even a sacred dreamcatcher to a traditional american indian...just material worship symbols...and if you ask the catholics, that's just what they will tell you. They will say they are symbols. My question is, why do we need symbols to do what's right? The obvious answer is we don't, they are just superstition. And by the way...I have basically comitted blasphemy by saying this which is a mortal sin according to them...but then why does god not strike me down?...I'll tell you why...because these are superstitious devises not based on any objective scientific fact...very primitive...

Answer 6

I am a Catholic. Will try and answer.

1. We have statues of Mary because she is the son of God's mother (Jesus's mother) and we pray for her intercession to her Son for us.

2. We cross ourselves (i think) to remind ourselves that Jesus died on the cross and to bless ourselves with the Holy Water and to remind ourselves that God is three in one - Father, Son and Holy Spirit.

3. I don't know what translation it is.

4. To show that Jesus died on the cross to redeem our sins.

God bless!

Answer 7

They are all laws made up by the Catholic Church that have nothing to do with the Bible.

1. There is only one intercessor between God and man, and that is through Jesus Christ. "praying to Mary or any other saint is fruitless"

2. Annointing oneself with "holy water" is not biblical anyplace.

3. They use the same Bible most Christian Churches use, King James, NIV or American Standard.

4. Jesus is a risen savior and should not be still on the cross.

Answer 8

As a disillusioned Catholic, I really have no good answers as to why these things are practiced. Having statues that people pray to goes against a commandment of "thou shall not have graven images of me." As for the Catholic bible, like all other bibles, they have a base translation from the King James Version. The Catholic bible has some books in it that other bibles do not have. A man made decision at best. Other practices are traditional practices given by the Catholic authorities, kind of like performing certain dance steps to express a song. Of course, the majority of these practices are not biblical, but since many people are brought up in the faith and taught not to question why, they just continue to do these things like good Sheeple. Those that question and find out the truth, become disillusioned and leave the practice.

Answer 9

the same reason you take pictures of your loved ones, for rememberance. About Mary, we don't adore Her, we venerate Her, theirs a difference. Jesus has His family too. What if I visited your home and ignored your mother, that would be rude. Its much more rude to ignore She who bore Our Savior. The authentic bible is called (Douay-Rheims). Why do we have statues of presidents, famous sportst stars, posters of rock musicians etc???? , and its wrong to have statues of Jesus, Mary , and the saints????

Answer 10

they have statues of Mary and other saints as they are reminders of those who were close to jesus and act as intermediates in prayer

i am not catholic but thought id help with one that i know of lol