Why does everyone still think that Catholics worship Mary????

Question

OK....I just asked a question a few minutes ago. And I stated that Catholics DO NOT worship Mary!!! Why are you all so thick-headed? And Esther, or whoever you are, who keeps answering questions about Catholicism, you are clueless and have no right to be answering questions about a faith you obviously know nothing about. Asking Mary to intercede for us is not worshiping her!!!!! Worshiping is giving glory and praise to God, no one else. Someone asked why we would ask Mary to intercede for us when we have Jesus. Jesus is God (Haven't you heard of the Trinity?) We believe that through understanding more about Mary, we can grow closer to God. Someone also asked if we communcate with the dead. Technically if you look at it that way, it's evil for us to communicate with Jesus too. Catholics are Christians!!! Catholics were the FIRST Christians. So stop picking on them.

Answer 1

Well, we must admit in some times and cultures it does appear to outsiders that some people do "worship" Mary. But we Catholics (and many other Christans) honor Mary for the role she played and as an example of giving herself over to the will of God.
The problem is simple. There are a lot of people who need something to hate. Many churches actually preach about how bad other churches are. They need enemies and scapegoats. If it's not our "worship" of Mary, it's something else (like saying that the Vatican invented and provide mustard gas to the Germans in WWI...yes, I've seen that in a tract left on my windshield).
For the record, in my 50 years I have never heard a priest (or nun) badmouth another church.
If we believe in the communion of Saints, and that in eternity there is no dimension of time, there is no conflict with praying with those already in heaven.
The thing is that you won't win an argument with those people who want a simple answer to everything and who have a psychic need for others to be wrong.

THERE WAS ONLY ONE CHURCH FOR OVER A THOUSAND YEARS. CHURCHES ARE FULL OF HUMANS, IMPERFECT (AND WO NDERFUL) THOUGH WE ARE

If these other bible-thumpers are so convinced that the Bible is literally clear, why are there thousands of competing "literal interpretation" churches who badmouth each other.

because they all need something to hate to make themselves feel better

Answer 2

That is the wrong interpretation of the catholics to Mary. While I accept that Mary is the mother of Jesus Christ, I do not believe that she could intercede on prayers because Mary is a human being like us. She was only chosen by God to be the mother of Jesus because she was very obedient to God but did not give her power to intercede on our prayers to God. And as human being Mary have long been died and was buried and have return to dust. A dead person cease to know about things happened. She do not know what had happened after her death. Mary is not as God who has power over us.

Answer 3

They're dumbasses. Jesus is God and God is Jesus, so if Mary is Jesus's mother doesn't that mean she is also God's mother. We have to respect the Trinity and remember that God was made man in Mary's womb. Mary is the mother of Jesus who is King of heaven, that is why prayers to her are important because she has the attention of Jesus and the saints are his entourage. I like to think of it as a family in heaven watching over us and if wer're good we will be reunited with them.

Answer 4

People think that Catholics worship Mary because they see Catholics kneel and pray in front of a statue of Mary. They see us do these things and they make assumptions about what we are doing based on their own way and understanding of worship.

To many non-Catholics, kneeling and praying are synonymous with worship. To them, if we are kneeling and praying, then we must be worshiping. While kneeling and praying are gestures that can be used in worship, it does not always mean that we are worshiping.

Kneeling is a gesture of submission and acknowledgment that the person who is standing is greater than the person kneeling. Mary and the saints led holy lives of faith and obedience to God and because of the lives they led, they ARE greater than us. They are not greater than God, but they are greater than us.

Prayer is not always about worship. Even in our relationship with God, prayer is not always about worship. When we pray to God, sometimes it is as an act of thanks, petition, or contrition. These actions are not worship. When we pray to Mary and the saints, it is to ask them to pray on our behalf. This is the same as asking friends and family to pray on our behalf. Catholics consider those in Heaven to be part of our friends and family.

Answer 5

First
Look at your Rosary. Most of it is prayer to Mary.
According to all bibles we are to pray to God the father through Jesus. Where in the bible does it say to pray to the dead saints? Wouldn't Paul or Mathew or John have had something about praying to them? They knew Jesus.
John knelt to an angel in Revelation and ****he***** said do not do that!
Jesus was given "A" God's life by his father when he gave up his earthly life for us as was ***prearranged***.
He refused a Kingdom on earth because he already had one in Heaven.

Your getting angry with people's opinions. Take pity on ignorance....The sheep Jesus sent us out to find will be with us. The goats Jesus called them, will be destroyed by God in his own due time.
Try our website for answers. I cannot write them all out here.
Keep your anger Christian! Godly anger

Answer 6

Ultimately, as long as the shed blood of Jesus is what you trust for remission of sins, you're all right. BTW, I'm a pentecostal, so people think I'm a snake handler. :-) I feel your pain.

Answer 7

She is not worshipped, she is considered the blessed virgin!

Please get your facts right about the 'facts' and comments you have written by actually reading up about the subject.
Thank you.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mary_%28mother_of_Jesus%29
http://www.bbc.co.uk/religion/religions/christianity/
http://www.bbc.co.uk/religion/religions/christianity/catholic/catholic_1.shtml

Answer 8

Thank you Julia. I hear your frustration. But - take it down a notch. For the rest of Lent - be at peace, slow down.

Pax tecum!

Answer 9

From Vatican Collection Volume 1, Vatican Council II, The Conciliar and Post Conciliar documents. General Editor Austin Flannery, O.P. New revised edition 1992; Costello publishing company, Northport, New York. 1992 pages 420-421 (par. 65)

65. But while in the most Blessed Virgin the church has already reached that perfection whereby she exists without spot or wrinkle (cf. Eph. 5:27), the faithful still strive to conquer sin and increase in holiness. And so they turn their eyes to Mary who shines forth to the whole community of the elect as the model of virtues. Devoutly meditating on her and contemplating her in the light of the Word made man, the Church reverently penetrates more deeply into the great mystery of the Incarnation and becomes more and more like her spouse. Having entered deeply into the history of salvation, Mary, in a way, unites in her person and re-echeos the most important doctrines of the Faith: and when she is the subject of preaching and worship she prompts the faithful to come to her son, to his sacrifice and to the love of the Father. Seeking after the glory of Christ, the Church becomes more like her lofty type, and continually progresses in faith, hope and charity, seeking and doing the will of God in all things. The Church, therefore, in her apostolic work too, rightly looks to her who gave birth to Christ, who was thus conceived of the Holy Spirit and born of a virgin, in order that through the church he could be born and increase in the hearts of the faithful. In her life the Virgin has been a model of that motherly love with which all who joined in the church's apostolic mission for the regeneration of mankind should be animated.



IV. THE CULT OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN IN THE CHURCH1



66. Mary has by grace been exalted above all angels and men to a place second only to her Son, as the most holy Mother of God who was involved in the mysteries of Christ: she is rightly honored by a special cult in the Church. From the earliest times the Blessed Virgin is honored under the title of Mother of God, whose protection the faithful take refuge together in prayer in all their perils and needs. Accordingly, following the Council of Ephesus, there was a remarkable growth in the cult of the people of God towards Mary, in veneration and love, in invocation and imitation, according to her own prophetic words: "all generations shall call me Blessed, because he that is mighty hath done great things to me," (Luke 1:48).

No where in Scripture are we told to put our eyes upon anyone other than the Lord himself. We are told to fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfect of our faith (Heb. 12:2).
In addition, is Jesus who is the model of virtue, not Mary. Though she was greatly blessed, and undoubtedly a godly woman, she still needed a savior. Mary said, "And my spirit has rejoiced in God my Savior," (Luke 1:47). Contrary to the Roman Catholic teaching that Mary was sinless, Mary herself admitted that God was her savior. A sinless person does not need a savior. It is in the person of Jesus said grace and truth (and virtue) our best exemplified and our eyes should be kept on him.
"spouse"? Still researching to discover what is meant.
The only proper object of preaching and worship is God. Jesus said, "...You shall worship the Lord your God, and serve Him only," (Matt. 4:10). The incredible danger of getting Mary the subject of both preaching and worship is warned about in Exodus 20:4-5, "You shall not make for yourself an idol, or any likeness of what is in heaven above or on the earth beneath or in the water under the earth. "You shall not worship them or serve them; for I, the Lord your God, am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children, on the third and the fourth generations of those who hate Me." God clearly warns against creating any idol before which anyone should bow. It goes without saying that the countless images of Mary strewn throughout Catholic churches all over the world, our most assuredly shrines of idolatry since thousands of times a day, Catholics over the world break the commandment of God by bowing before these images in worship.
We should look to Christ alone. When you take your eyes off of Jesus and put them on anything else, or anyone else, you will be led astray.
It where is this taught in Scripture? Where does it say that Mary was exalted above angels and men second only to her son? This would mean that Mary is just under Jesus, the creator of the universe, in position. I assumed his place is a place of authority, holiness, etc. Vatican II's comments are not biblical. This teaching can not be found in Scripture and should be abandoned.
This is a misleading term. Mary is not the Mother of God in the sense that God, the created the universe, had a mom. This would be far too close to Mormon theology. Rather, Mary is the mother of the human nature of Jesus, not the mother of the divine nature.
However, it can be said in some sense that she is the Mother of God if what is meant is that her womb carried the incarnate Word. This incredible privilege does not mean that God, the holy and infinite being, was nursing at her breast after his birth. But, it does mean that the person of Jesus was. It was the human nature that nursed, not the divine.

Answer 10

Joey, that is the best answer anyone could give to this question. Kudos!!