I watched a young lady (nune) teaching small children to get on their knees and pray to a statue of Mary.I mentioned something like this earlier and got back answers like they don't worship idols. Are you trying to say I diden't see what I saw? Also I don't mean to insult anyone but we've all seen how the preists assult young boys. I don't have any respect for people that follow this kind of practis and then tell me I'm wrong for bringing it up.And that it diden't happen.I can see why people would be reluctant to leave a belief that they've been with (and their family) for hundreds of years , But if its wrong ,its wrong. I know this church has also done a lot of good for a lot of people, but the good people should move on to something thats true. Instead of keep trying to cover it up. I don't mean to be down on anybody but whats going on? What do you exspect people to believe. We All See It.
2007-05-09 14:14:35 · 8 answers · asked by e 2 in Society & Culture ➔ Religion & Spirituality
HI BEN.... TRUE BELIEVE IT AND ITS A SHAME THAT THERE LEADERS TEACH THEM TO DO SO AND TELL THEM THAT THEY ARE SUPPOSE TO PRAY TO MARY PRAY THE ROSARY PRAY TO THERE SO CALL saints WHICH R IDOLS LISTEN IT HAS BEEN HAPPENING FOR HUNDREDS OF YEARS.... I AM ASH AME TO SAY THAT I WAS A CATHOLIC. I WAS ONE CAUSE I WAS BORN FROM A CATHOLIC FAMILY AND NOW THAT I AM A BORN AGAIN CHRISTIANS I'M HATED BY THEM.... [FAMILY] I COULD GO ON AND SAY ALOT MORE .. JUST WANTED TO SAY THAT MILLIONS OF THE CATHOLIC ARE BLINDED , AND DECEIVED BY THERE LEADERS THEY WONT ADMIT IT. THEY PRAY TO IDOLS AND WORSHIP THEM ... I PRAY THAT THEY MAY BE TOUCHED BY THE WORD OF GOD ALMIGHTY AND GET OUT OF THERE BEFORE ITS TO LATE....I LOVE THE CATHOLICS MANY OF THEM ARE GOOD AT HEART THEY JUST FOLLOW CAUSE THERE PARENTS AND THERE PARENTS DO ,, THEY WONT EVEN PICK UP THE HOLY BIBLE TO READ IT... TAKE CARE...AND IF SOMEONE TRYS TO TELL THEM AND SHOW WHERE IT SAYS NOT TO PRAY TO idols THEY GET REAL ANGRY AND YOU... I MEAN SOME GET READ TO FIGHT ... ITS TRUE...
2007-05-09 14:58:56 · answer #1 · answered by yoli b 2 · 0⤊ 3⤋
Catholics do not pray to Mary, they pray through Mary. Have you never asked your pastor to pray for you? This is a typical ignorant belief on your part. If you read the bible, you will find exact measurments for constructing an idol. It was called the Ark of the Covenant. Since you obviously believe, did God make a mistake there? Child molesters should be punished. It is being done. Let the Protestant without sin cast the first stone. I will ask Mary to pray for your soul. Can't hurt.
2007-05-09 14:25:56 · answer #2 · answered by Anonymous · 2⤊ 0⤋
The Catholic Church teaches that worship is reserved just for God on my own. Catholics pray to the saints within the notion that they have got been rewarded with everlasting lifestyles and as a consequence maintain to exist within the Presence of God. Being with God, they're capable so as to add their prayer and worship to our possess. This is why Catholics pray to the saints. As holy guys and females, the saints within the maximum regard as heroic souls whose instance of religion on this lifestyles could also be --and must be-- emulated. This is the veneration --no longer the worship-- of our departed brothers and sisters. Technically, each and every dwelling Christian is a saint, however we will lose that holiness by way of unfaith.
2016-09-05 13:33:54 · answer #3 · answered by ? 4 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Mary is the ultimate example of complete submission to God's will, we pray to (i use the word to, loosely as ultimately our prayers go to God) her (and the saints as well) so that we can look for their inspiration, we do not consider Mary a goddess, but like I said the holiest solo human to ever live. (Jesus was pure human, but he was obviously pure divine as well).
As for the sexual abuse scandal, that issue was magnified via the media, because Catholic priests make the oath of celibacy, your Protestant ministers (I hate to attack other faiths, but you brought it on) most likely have done much worse than the few bad seeds of the Catholic Church.
The Catholic Church is the true Church, it was founded by Jesus, not by someone who wanted a divorce, or someone who was unhappy about this or that. It is ritualistic, but the rituals come back from the apostolic Church, and have basis in the Bible.
2007-05-09 14:32:18 · answer #4 · answered by Anonymous · 2⤊ 0⤋
The original defintion of prayer is to ask or petition. It later took on the definition of worship.
When CAtholics pray to Mary or any of the saints they are asking Mary to pray for them, like you would ask a friend in this life to pray for you.
Statues are reminders of the person. If a person is worshiping the statute they are guilty of idolatry.
2007-05-09 15:59:48 · answer #5 · answered by Shirley T 7 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Your rite I see it all the time too..I had a catholic explain why they pray to the Mary and other saints and they say its b/c its like you askin your mom to pray for (who is alive) or a relative who has die. But the difference is there die and they can't here you when your die and we ask people (who are alive) to pray for us but we go directly to God.
Mary was a wonderful humanbeing...but she sin just like everyone eles. The only person not to sin is Jesus Christ.
You can't pray to a person who is dead.
Do souls die?
"The soul that sinneth, it shall die." Ezekiel 18:20. "Every living soul died in the sea." Revelation 16:3.
According to God's Word, souls do die! We are souls, and souls die. Man is mortal (Job 4:17). Only God is immortal (1 Timothy 6:15, 16). The concept of an undying, immortal soul goes against the Bible, which teaches that souls are subject to death.
Do good people go to heaven when they die?
"All that are in the graves shall hear his voice, And shall come forth." John 5:28, 29. "David ... is both dead and buried, and his sepulchre is with us unto this day." "For David is not ascended into the heavens." Acts 2:29, 34. "If I wait, the grave is mine house." Job 17:13.
People do not go either to heaven or hell at death. They go to their graves to await the resurrection day. King David will be saved in God's kingdom. However, he is in his grave now, where he awaits the resurrection.
How much does one know or comprehend after death?
"The living know that they shall die: but the dead know not any thing, neither have they any more a reward; for the memory of them is forgotten. Also their love, and their hatred, and their envy, is now perished; neither have they any more a portion for ever in any thing that is done under the sun." "There is no work, nor device, nor knowledge, nor wisdom, in the grave, whither thou goest." Ecclesiastes 9:5, 6, 10. "The dead praise not the Lord." Psalms 115:17.
God says that the dead know absolutely nothing!
Since Judgement day hasn't happen..people who die are still in there graves including Mary. There people in the bible who are in heaven right now (Moses Ennoch, Elliah) but no where in the bible it saids Mary is in heaven.
Yes Christian do pray for others but We pray for other people who are alive and they a pray for health or a safe drive etc.but we direct the prays to GOD. We don't pray to people who r dead and don't need to b/c we can go to God directly!
2007-05-09 17:26:16 · answer #6 · answered by Eric T 3 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Mary's just a person they revere. Like in Jesus Camp, they weren't actually worshiping Bush, they were just honoring him (I won't defend that though)... If you're at a loved one's grave and you're praying to them, that's not worship but I could just as easily accuse you of worshiping the dead. Would I be right?
2007-05-09 14:20:49 · answer #7 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
+ 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.
http://www.usccb.org/catechism/text/pt4sect1chpt2art2.htm
+ Graven Images +
Do you have pictures of your loved ones? Have you ever looked at the picture of someone while talking on the phone to them?
Statues and pictures of people we love are not idols.
Statues and paintings of Jesus and the saints are just like pictures of the people we love and respect.
The King James Version of the Bible states in Exodus 20:4: "Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image or any likeness of any thing that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth"
Why were the Jews commanded not to make graven images? Graven images were the standard method of pagan worship. They were representations of false gods.
This is a very clear command.
However God commanded the Jews in Exodus 25:18 and 1 Chronicles 28:18–19, "And thou shalt make two cherubims of gold, of beaten work shalt thou make them"
And in 1 Kings chapter 7 Solomon made bulls and other images out of precious metals.
It seems obvious that the Jews did not worship the cherubims and Solomon did not worship the bulls he had made. These images did not violate the command of God. Therefore, an image not made for worship is acceptable.
In Numbers 21:8-9, "And the LORD said to Moses, "Make a saraph and mount it on a pole, and if anyone who has been bitten looks at it, he will recover." Moses accordingly made a bronze serpent and mounted it on a pole, and whenever anyone who had been bitten by a serpent looked at the bronze serpent, he recovered."
And in John 3:14-15, Jesus says in correlation, "And just as Moses lifted up the [image of a] serpent in the desert, so must the Son of Man be lifted up, so that everyone who believes in him may have eternal life."
How can a statue of our Lord Jesus Christ dead on the cross be considered an idol to a false god? A crucifix is the message of the Gospel without words held up for all to see, a visual reminder of the sacrifice of Jesus, no different from a painting, a play, or a movie.
Catholics do not worship statues but the almighty God, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.
+ With love in Christ.
2007-05-09 17:09:58 · answer #8 · answered by imacatholic2 7 · 0⤊ 0⤋