Why do Catholics pray to the Virgin Mary?

Question

Any answers?

Answer 1

they have been taught that they should do this. (falsely taught) they make statues and they pray before them...

didnt Jesus say, the only way to the Father is thru Jesus? mary was just another vessel that God used to further His kingdom. She was not more important than Jacob or Abraham or Sarah or David.... Peter is rolling over in his grave because of the false teachings of the catholic church...

Answer 2

You should ignore the sarcastic answers from non-Catholics because they either mock the Catholic church or have no idea what they are talking about. Christians should know that judging one another is not what God wants.

You asked a legitimate question ... and here is the answer.

We as Catholics are taught to pray to God. We believe that Jesus is our savior and only through him can we get to the Father. We do not worship marry or put her before God in any way ... We don't pray to statues or saints or any of these anti-Catholic rumors. People often bash what they cannot understand.

Have you ever asked a friend to pray for you when you've have a tough time during your life?? Or asked a family member to pray for you for an upcoming exam?? Have you ever asked someone for prayers when someone you know is dying??

This is what Catholics are doing when we pray to Saints and to Mary. We feel that these are people who are in Heaven and who are close to God and we ask these Saints to pray for us. To help us through tough times just as we ask our friends and relatives to. Catholics believe that Saints in Heaven can hear our prayers and when a family member is dying or a tough exam is coming up ... we ask them to help us pray to God for strength.

We do not worship Mary ... we just honor her. She carried Jesus in her womb ... she is holy ... and we feel that she is in Heaven.

Answer 3

This is what is known as intercessory prayer. What we as Catholics are doing is we are asking the Blessed Virgin Mary to intercede with her son, on our behalf, for either ourselves or some other person or condition that we are concerned about.

What son would refuse a request from his loving mother? At the wedding feast at Cana, Jesus performed His first public miracle. He did this specifically at the request of His mother. His mother came and told Him that the wine had run out. He initially protested and told her "Woman, my time has not come yet to reveal myself". But Mary told the stewards at the feast "Go and do what He tells you". So Jesus went ahead and changed the water to wine - the very best quality wine, much to the surprise of the wine stewards.

Mary will do the same for us, if only we ask her.

Contrary to what some people seem to believe, we Catholics do not worship Mary, or put her on par with God. Think of her as the ultimate disciple of our Lord. She was a very young woman (a teenager actually) when she gave birth to our Lord. So she actually lived among the Apostles for many years after Christ's death and Ascention into heaven. She was undoubtedly a source of comfort and wisdom to the disciples after Christ had left and was finally in heaven. And she totally trusted that He would honor her requests of Him - her faith in Him was that great.

We as Catholics believe that Mary was concieved without stain of original sin (the doctrine of the Immaculate Conception). She had to have been, because she gave birth to God Himself, Jesus Christ, so she could not have been tainted with that sin herself. We as Catholics also believe that Mary was taken up into heaven directly, without her body being subjected to the natural corruption of the grave (the Assumption). The early disciples reported that after she died, they went back to her tomb to visit her one last time, and found it filled with fresh lilies, but her body was gone.

When we pray to the Virgin Mary, we are really asking her to intercede with God on our behalf, and as the true Mother of God, she promises that our prayers will be answered.

Answer 4

Catholics are very aware of the unique position that the Blessed Virgin holds in God`s love and plan,She is in total union with Jesus and reigns in Heaven as Queen of all Angels and Saints, She is the spiritual Mother of all followers fo Christ and as such bears our prayers and petitions to Her Son who is God, Catholics do not however worship Mary as this would be very wrong but instead offer Her the honor that is due to Her.
The Mother of Jesus was honored for 1500yrs by the body of Christ and it is hard to see how all these millions were wrong,Luther himself had a great devotion to Mary and the Rosary and never railed against praying for her intercession.
It is also a great wrong to suppose that Christ would oppose Christians seeking His Mother`s intercession as He desires that we honor Her and gave Her to us from the cross.

Answer 5

Catholic pray to Mary to ask her to pray for us to God. Look at what Mary did at the wedding feast at Canna and you will see that she is a caring compassionate person who will go to Jesus on our behalf when we need help.

Fair inquiry could not be more wrong in his answer. His answer and his understanding of Catholicism is what is really stupid

Answer 6

As you can see by the answers you received...many people are confused on this issue. Their confusion comes from their misunderstanding of Catholicism and their misinterpretations of just a "few" bible verses.

We pray to Mary because she is the Mother of Jesus. We honor her as his mother and as our own spiritual mother. Jesus "gave" her to us when he was on the cross.

Jesus would have "honored his Mother and Father" and this means that he honored Mary as his mother. She is due honor...she, of all the women in the world, carried and bore God incarnate. Jesus' flesh was her flesh. She gave him her humanity and God the Father gave him his divinity.

We ask her to pray for us as you would ask any person to pray for you. We know she is alive, the Mother of God is certainly in heaven...and she can pray and intercede on our behalf. If you are having problems or a family member is having problems...you may ask a friend to pray for healing or help...what is the difference in asking a friend or asking Mary, the Mother of God. Actually, given those two choices I think asking Mary would be better.

Mary was and always will be the Mother of Christ. This means she has the rights of a mother. She is our mother as well and due all the honor and respect of that role. She always shows us the way to Christ. He is her son...she does not compete with him nor he with her. She said "my soul magnifies the Lord." Think about this...this means she makes him clearer to us...she shows him to us. ''

Answer 7

Many people 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).

Answer 8

+ 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 is communication, not worship.

+ The Blessed Virgin Mary +

"Hail, full of grace, the Lord is with you" (Luke 1:28)

"Blessed are you among women,
and blessed is the fruit of your womb" (Luke 1:42).

In Luke 1:48, Mary prophesied: "From henceforth all generations shall call me blessed."

A question for Christians who take the Bible literally: Do you call Mary "blessed"? If no, why?

The Hail Mary prayer simply recites Bible passages (the Word of God) and asks Mary to pray for us:

Hail Mary Full of grace, the Lord is with you. (These are the words the angel Gabriel said to Mary, a Bible quote.)

Blessed are thou among women and blessed is the fruit of your womb, Jesus. (This is Mary's cousin Elizabeth's greeting, another bible quote.)

Holy Mary, (The angel Gabriel said she was full of grace and Elizabeth said she was blessed.)

Mother of God, (the Bible says Mary is the mother of Jesus Christ, God the Son)

Pray for us sinners now and at the hour of our death. (A simple request to pray for us.)

Amen.

+ With love in Christ.

Answer 9

For the same reason that we ask our earthly brethren to pray for us. We also ask our heavenly brethren to pray for us. It's amazing how many Protestants say the Apostles' Creed as a statement of their basic beliefs, yet have no idea what "the communion of saints" means. This phrase refers to the interaction between the saints on earth and the saints in heaven. One of their principle functions is to pray for us, and to present our prayers to God, as described in Rev 5:8.

Answer 10

Very simply, to release my problems to someone who cares.

Mary said, " from now on, all generations will call me blessed because God has done great things for me. He has lifted up the lowly and dispersed the proud in their conceit."

...and who are we? we hope to be a part of all those generations she forsaw.

Answer 11

As Sentinel points out Catholics have mixed pagan worship of Ishtar with Mary.

>She is in total union with Jesus and reigns in Heaven as >Queen of all Angels and Saints

Jer 7:18 The children gather wood, and the fathers kindle the fire, and the women knead [their] dough, to make cakes to the QUEEN OF HEAVEN, and to pour out drink offerings unto other gods, that they may provoke me to anger.

Jer 7:19,20 Do they provoke me to anger? saith the LORD: [do they] not [provoke] themselves to the confusion of their own faces? Therefore thus saith the Lord GOD; Behold, mine anger and my fury shall be poured out upon this place, upon man, and upon beast, and upon the trees of the field, and upon the fruit of the ground; and it shall burn, and shall not be quenched.