I would love to know why do Catholics believe that when one questions their need to "pray" to Mary?

Question

(Since the consensus is that you do not ‘worship’ her) that they have to defend this with such animosity? Is there anywhere in the Bible that says we are to pray to Mary for anything? And please show me where in the Bible are we to pray to Saints or images! We as Christians are taught not to pray to anything dead and yes, Mary is dead and is no more sitting at the right or the left hand of God than you are I. Praying to the dead is a sin and was not ever condoned to do by the Apostolic Church (the Church led by the Apostles) which teachings completely differs from the Catholic Church’s teachings. The Apostles didn't pray to the mother of Jesus or an image of her or any Saints - nor did they teach such a perversion and wicked sin. The Apostles had no graven images of Mary, Joseph; baby Jesus, Crucifixes, Rosary beads that they said prayers with or Jesus on a cross hanging around their necks or on top of steeples on their churches. So the question is what makes the Catholics think that this is truth? And my second question, why Mary is in any prayer to the God since she never was before the Roman Emperor Constantine’s involvement! And something else to think about; When Mary asked the disciples to go get Jesus for her, Jesus didn’t stop what He was doing and tell anyone to pray to His mother – but one would think that if she was in such a place of high esteem that He would have left strict instructions on how to pray to her (like he did on how to pray to His Father).

God Bless You

Serious answers ONLY!

Answer 1

Billy, Mary’s Assumption or being taken to heaven with body and soul is not found in the Holy Scriptures.

Pastor Billy, There is no statement of the Assumption of Mary in Holy Scripture.

Pastor Billy are taught to pray a prayer to Mary called the "Hail Mary". Technically, it is impossible for Pastor Billy to worship Mary because "Worship" has been defined as applying only to "God". The Rosary is an open and graphic worship of Mary plain and simple.

Don't expect your Pope to warned you of the potential deception when scripture is ignored.

Answer 2

Catholics see Mary as an intercessor. You don't necessarily speak directly to a judge in a courtroom, you let an "advocate" do it for you... Mary's considered an advocate who teaches Catholics how to obey her son, Jesus, she points the way to him, and is considered like a "mommy" figure to some Catholics who can intercede with her son when he's angry... advocate. I've never heard it say that the only religious practice MUST only come directly from some kind of orders in the Bible, because if that were the case, Christians should still be doing burnt offerings to God, taking slaves and so forth, and I hope like heck all women are shutting their mouths and covering in Church! I'm NOT being antagonistic, I'm making a point... I'm hoping you're getting what I'm getting at? I'm Buddhist now, but I used to be Byzantine Catholic, who studied both the Byzantine rite, and Roman Catholicism in great depth before I left the church. _()_

Answer 3

It is a common misconception but catholics do not pray to Mary or the saints, rather with them. We ask them to pray for us, just like if facing a difficult time we sometimes ask others to pray for or with us. We do this because the saints were holy people and we believe that their prayers might be more effective. Also it is comforting to know that even when all might seem lost that there are still people we can turn to. The final reason is that different saints have different interests and we sometimes ask Saints to pray for us based on what it is we are looking for. For example if you lost something you would pray to St. Christopher. Hope that helps.

Answer 4

Excellent Question. I will try to keep this as short and concise as possible. The practice that you mention are found mostly through the rise of dogma. That particular faith is as much the result of dogma as it is of the "real" directives from on high. (If you accept dogma or not is YOUR decision.) As far as Mary and the Saints are concerned, the answer is a little involved. First one has to define them. Simply, they are believed to special individuals touched/guided by divinity. And no one prays to the Saints. Everyone prays to God. The difference is that if you believe in Saints you "ask" for their intercession to God. Hope this helps.

Answer 5

Well, the worship of Mary as the Mother of God is another example of how the Christian Church has co-oped and taken over older pagan beliefs. The images of Mary as Queen of the Universe and images of the Madonna and child are exactly like the Egyptian images of Isis Queen of the Universe and Isis and her child Horus, son of the slain and resurrected saviour god Osiris. This is all part of the evolution of religion that has been mentioned in some other posts.

Answer 6

Sorry, but you fail to understand the Truth about Jesus, as most non-Eucharistic "Christians." Your beliefs are defined by your political leaders. They strip away the mystery of God, and his power over all things. I was once a "Born again Christian." And found that the theology used by the heretics like Jim Jones and David Corresh, is nothing more than God in the image that suits
The Radical Right. Christ is present in place with all the truly faithful who share in his communion. That's not just Catholic, as in your narrow view, but also Orthodox faith, Lutheran, Episcopal.
It just is that Catholics are the easy target for the bigots in the south.

Answer 7

+ The Communion of Saints +

Before Jesus Christ died for our sins and opened the gates of heaven there were no saints in heaven. Therefore there are no Old Testament writings that would mention them.

Very few of the new Christians died before most of the New Testament was written. Therefore there is little in the Bible about asking saints to pray for us.

However the last book of the Bible does talk about the saints in heaven praying.

Revelation 5:8: Each of the elders held a harp and gold bowls filled with incense, which are the prayers of the holy ones.

Revelation 8:3-4: He was given a great quantity of incense to offer, along with the prayers of all the holy ones, on the gold altar that was before the throne. The smoke of the incense along with the prayers of the holy ones went up before God from the hand of the angel.

The Holy Spirit guided the early Church in many things not explained in the Bible including how does the Body of Christ (believers) living on Earth relate to the Body of Christ (saints) living in heaven. We are still one Body.

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 living here on earth to pray for you. Or, you may also ask the Blessed Virgin Mary, Saint Andrew, or your deceased grandmother living in heaven to pray for you.

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

http://www.usccb.org/catechism/text/pt1sect2chpt3art9p5.htm#946

+ Sources of Doctrine +

The Catholic Church does not use Holy Scripture as the only basis of doctrine. It could not. The early Catholic church existed before and during the time that the New Testament was written (by Catholics).

There were hundreds of Christian writings during the first and second centuries. Which New Testament writings would become official was not fully decided until about 400 AD.

Catholics believe that the Holy Spirit was guiding the early church (and is guiding the church today) to make the correct choices about things like:
+ The Holy Trinity (which is also only hinted at in the Bible)
+ Going to church on Sunday instead of Saturday (which is actually directly against one of the Ten Commandments)
+ The Communion of Saints
+ Which writings include in the New Testament?

Things that are even more modern like
+ Slavery is bad. Slavery is never declared evil in the Bible. This was one of the justifications for slavery in the Confederate States.
+ Democracy is good. The Bible states that either God should be the leader of the nation like Israel before the kings or kings should be the leader, "Give to Caesar that which is Caesar's." This was talked about a lot during the American Revolution.

This second source of doctrine is called Apostolic Tradition.

http://www.usccb.org/catechism/text/pt1sect1chpt2.htm#80

+ With love in Christ.

Answer 8

You miss out on so much when you use scripture alone as your primary guide. Mary mother of God is honored not worshiped
She acts as a broker if you will interceding on our behalf. There is nothing wrong with going to Jesus directly but going through Mary is just smarter as Jesus never denies Marys requests. God Bless.

Answer 9

Pastor Billy says: the reason we defend this with such verve (animosity is the wrong word) simply because God created One Body and Mary is still a member of it!. Let me ask you something do you consider yourself already "saved"? and if so aren't those who die physically but are saved still members of God's one body, the Church? The earliest Christian Creeds affirm this Oneness of the Church you might even call it our spiritual oneness which is known as 'the communion of saints' and therefore we can pray for one another and ask for pray from others in the one body.

Let me be clear here and explain there is nothing in Catholic doctrine that demands Catholics to pray (ask) Mary to pray for us to Jesus, however it is a good thing to do simply because Jesus instructed us to pray for one another as St. Paul prayed for the dead Onespherius. We all understand from Revelations that the saints are praying for us here in heaven as they offer our prayers to God in bowls of incense at the altar. Be mindful that those in heaven are not asleep in a way that makes them useless to prayer like some smaller newly created sects like to claim ie. the Seventh day Adventists.

God is a god of the living correct and he is also a God of Abraham, Issac and Jacob who are not dead and sleeping but......alive as are Mary and Peter and Paul. When you start to decide the church in heaven isn't in spiritual union with the church on earth you actually create 2 separate bodies of Christ.
Christ is the one head and there is one body once you divide the body you turn Christ into a monster. Try to remember not everything the Apostles did or said is........in the bible. For you to claim they did not pray to one another or pray to Mary meaning asking prayers to Jesus be said is something beyond your current limited knowledge. I know early Christians did this because they wrote about it later see the writings of the Early Church Fathers disciples of the disciples who do not write additional inspired scripture but do write bible commentary much like modern day pastors do today. They also write what are basically biographies of the early Church in action and are like a window into the past.

Answer 10

I completely agree with you. I pray only to God.
I was raised in a Catholic church, left it when I knew better