Question about Catholic beliefs, concerning Mary?

Question

First off, I want to say a was raised Catholic and I am very familiar with the Catechism of the church.

My question is this. Why do Catholics claim they do not worship Mary when asked if they do? They will tell you they just pray to Mary for intercession with her son. So she can mediate in behalf for us.
First off, if you don't worship something or someone, why would you pray to it or them. Prayer to me is a form of worship.
Second, she makes intercession on our behalf with her son.
How many mediators do we need? I though Christ was the mediator between God and man. But, now we need a mediator to him. Where does it end? Should we have a mediator between us and Mary as well?

Chante, why would you pray to someone you did not worship. Consolation, hope and release should come from your God.

Answer 1

You have it backwards. Prayer is not a form of worship. Worship is a form of prayer. Prayer simply means "to ask". In older translations of the Bible there are numerous examples of the phrase "I pray thee" being used in conversations between two people - not between a person and God. If I say to my family, "I pray thee, offer prayers about my job interview", I am not worshipping my family. If I say the same thing to a Christian brother or sister who is in heaven, I am not worshipping them either.

Your second big mistake - a common one among those with no authoritative source of biblical interpretation - is confusing the concept of "mediation" with "intercession". Mediation refers to the repair of a broken relationship by the intervention of a third party. Jesus is the only Mediator, for through His death and resurrection He repaired the relationship between God and mankind that was broken by the sin of Adam and Eve. Intercession simply means praying on behalf of someone else, and is the duty of every living Christian person, whether living on earth or living in heaven. Hopefully you pray for your friends and family?? If so, you are an intercessor. If not, you are a very strange Christian. If I can intercede for my family here and now, as an earthly sinner, is it likely I will STOP praying for them once I stand before the throne of God?? Revelation describes those before the throne of God offering him bowls of insense that are the prayers of the saints on earth - that's us! It's amazing how many Protestants recite the Apostles' Creed as a statement of their essential beliefs, yet have no idea what "the communion of saints" means! It refers to the interaction between the saints on earth and the saints in
heaven! The Passage about "the dead" knowing nothing obviously refers to those who have suffered the second death, spiritual death, having been judged as lost. It cannot refer to the saints in heaven, for Jesus said that those who follow Him "will never die". Catholics believe Him. Do you?
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Answer 2

The problem here that your question seems to be implying that there is only one form of prayer: Prayer of Worship. That is simply not true. Yes, Catholics offer prayers of worship to God. But they also offer prayers of intercession to Mary and the saints.

There is no difference between one person asking for another person's prayers and a person asking for a saint's prayers. An intercessory prayer is when you petition another to pray on your behalf. Who is that intercessor praying to? God, of course. So, you see, intercessory prayer is NOT prayer of worship.

Mary, as well as any saint, intercedes on behalf of us. You remember the wedding at Cana, when they ran out of wine. Who did they seek intercession from? Mary. Mary went to Jesus and, even though His time had not yet come, He responded to the intercession of His own mother. This demonstrates the power of intercessory prayer. So, you see, Mary is NOT a comediator. She is a intercessor. You seem to be confusing the meaning of mediator with the meaning of intercessor.

All the saints are ready to intercede on our behalf. All we have to do is ask for their intercession. you don't really have to but ignoring powerful allies in heaven is a foolish thing to do.

Answer 3

Good questions... gimme a sec to finish typing and I'll see what I can do to help.

Prayer and Worship - these can be tricky to distinguish. To me, all worship is prayer, but not all prayer is worship. Asking God for help isn't worship, to me at least. Then there's the basic definition of the word "prayer," part of which includes "entreaty." In older English, it was used almost interchangeably with the word "ask."

So, if you are comfortable with that, why pray to Mary? You are most certainly right, we do not NEED Mary to get to God or Jesus. So why bother? To me, it's a psycological issue. When I pray "to" Mary, what I'm doing is usually working out what I am trying to say to God, as if I'm talking to another woman. Again, I most certainly don't need to do this, but I have a hard time visualizing God as any gender and we all know Jesus was a man. It's hard for me to talk to Jesus about things like pregnancy. Maybe it's a failing on my part, but what does a man know about that kind of thing? Mary, on the other hand, was a real human woman. So I "talk to her" to straighten out in my own head what it is I'm really asking God.

This kind of prayer doesn't work for everyone, and some people put it out of its rightful proportion. But that's humanity for ya.

Answer 4

Your definition of worship seems a bit confused. There are actually two different definitions to the term worship. The first kind is that honor, homage and respect given to God and God alone, which most all of us are familiar with.

There is a second kind, which is a very old definition that most of us haven't heard of, is a respect given to people. This one refers to honoring your parents, or an elder. This kind is mostly found it lots of old writings. To the lay person, confusion would mostly likely result if they didn't understand the difference before hand.

And so, with regards to Mary, our prayers to her are not worship, as we understand worship in the traditional sense, but respect. They are also prayers of request. The misconception that Catholics worship Mary when we pray to her abounds, but if closely examined, the prayers are really nothing but requests. The easiest and most common explanation is that most of us ask for prayers from family members and/or friends in times of need. Though earthly, these are still prayers of request - prayers asking someone to intercede on our behalf with God. The only difference with Mary or any other saint is that they happen to be in heaven.

This link has great information: http://catholic.com/library/Praying_to_the_Saints.asp

http://catholic.com/library/Saint_Worship.asp

God bless, and take care.

Answer 5

I grew up Catholic and have, as an adult with abilities to make my own choices, now consider myself to be Christian, who believes in the Trinity, that is, the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit (who resides inside each believer that Jesus is their Saviour).
It sounds like you are a thinking person. I've felt the same way about worshiping idols, which by the way, is a no no according to the Ten Commandments. I hate to raise controversy, but , altho Mary was a sacred person whom God chose to bear His Son, she was nothing more than a vessel to bring hope into the world.
She wasn't meant to be an intercessor. Jesus is the way to Gods heart. Its written in the New Testament.

Answer 6

There is no answer for your question. Catholics pray to many different patron saints but dont consider themselves to be worshipping them. Mary is the mother of Jesus and so a central figure to the catholic faith.

The immaculate conception and the ressurection are the two events that are most sacred to catholics. So I would say that the reason catholics pray to mary is because she was chosen by God to be the mother of his Son.

I think that your questions have too much secular basis and that such questions cannot be answered. Only your faith can answer those kinds of questions, you either believe or you dont. There is no question about why or how. Thats why its called faith.

Answer 7

First of all the word 'pray' has different meanings.

1 : ENTREAT, IMPLORE -- often used as a function word in introducing a question, request, or plea
2 : to get or bring by praying
intransitive verb
1 : to make a request in a humble manner
2 : to address God or a god with adoration, confession, supplication, or thanksgiving

Have you ever asked a friend to pray for you when you were in any kind of trouble? Did you talk to the friend and say 'Please pray for me . I'm in trouble'. You did and the friend prayed for you. You prayed(asked) to your friend and he/she interceded on your behalf to God. Your friend interceded for you because he/she loves you.

Mother Mary and the saints are not dead but alive and are our extended friends and family in heaven. Since the saints are pure souls and Mary the purest of them all, their prayers are very powerful before God. Catholics are intelligent enough to realise that and thus implore the Virgin and the saints to pray for them. It is a matter of humility." I am a poor sinner but you Mary, the Mother of God are flawless. Please speak to the Lord and ask Him to grant me this favor."
"I am a poor sinner, but you O Saints in heaven stand before the throne of God Almighty. Put in a word there for me."

That doesnt mean that Catholics cant go directly to God with their prayers . We do that too and also use every other means possible to get God's attention.:)

Thanks and hope you have your doubts cleared.

Answer 8

You said that, "for you, prayer is a form of worship." Does the catechism say that? Just because you may personally believe something doesn't make it Truth. Atheists "believe" things that aren't true. Praying to Mary is just as if we were to ask anyone here on earth to pray for us. As Catholics we don't believe that death separates us as children of God. Hence, since Christ is the vine and we are the branches (whether it be branches on earth or in heaven) we are not separated. As fr. John Corapi says, "If she's good enough for Jesus, she's good enough for us."

Answer 9

Christ was so close to his mother on earth and trusted her so much, sometimes I look at it as that if I ask Christ's mother, she can convince him to give me my request. It's kind of a little girl's way to look at it, but doesnt Christ say in the Gospel that we must be like children? If we believe and are simple like children, understanding and accepting that we can't wrap our minds around everything and that God has everything figured out, we'll be fine. In the mean time, keep praying to Mary. Christ could never really say "no" to his mother. Look at the Wedding at Cana!

Answer 10

Many people beleive that Catholics worship Mary, but that would make them wrong. We hold Mary in "high esteem". Anyone who points to the first line of the Hail Mary as evidence, hasn't read the gospels. When Gabriel first appeared to Mary, he says "Hail, Full of grace, the lord is with thee".