why do catholics bow down to statues of mary? (first commandment)?

Answer 1

Her soul magnifies the Lord (Luke 1:46-55)! Think of what that means for just a moment.




Everything about Our Lady points straight back to the Father, Whose faithful daughter she is; to the Son, Whose mother she is; and to the Holy Ghost Who overshadowed her. There is no one in all of History whose relationship with God is as complex, fulfilled, and achingly beautiful as Mary's. She is not only the greatest of Saints, she is our Mother, as Jesus is our Brother and Savior. In honoring her, we honor Him -- and imitate Him, as we are admonished to both honor our parents and imitate Christ, Who loved His Mother.


Adam and Eve, immaculate from their first moments, prefigure Mary and Jesus, also without original sin from their conceptions -- the only four people immaculate from their first moments, creating a brillian poetic symmetry in Scripture. And as Eve through her disobedience, was the means through whom Adam brought sin into the world, Mary, the New Eve, through her obedience, was the means through whom salvation entered the world when she gave birth to her Son, the New Adam, our Savior.



Hail, Mary, Full of Grace, the Lord is with thee. Blessed art thou amongst women, and blessed is the Fruit of thy womb, Jesus. Holy Mary, Mother of God, pray for us sinners now, and at the hour of our death.



It just strikes me as evil, this not uncommon attempt to diminish Mary's status and the unceasing accusations against Catholics of trying to raise her status to that of God's. There's something very sinister and ugly in it, and I find it offensive. We Catholics take great care in pointing out that "worship" in the sense of latria 3 is GOD'S alone -- even to the point of having separate terms for the honor and adoration due to God as opposed to the honor and veneration of the Saints -- including His greatest Saint, Mary. They are:


latria: the honor due to God alone
dulia: the honor due to human creatures worthy of respect
hyperdulia: the honor due to Mary as God's greatest creation and our Queen Mother



To love Mary takes nothing at all from Christ, but honors our Blessed Lord by Whose grace she is who she is: His greatest creation, the greatest of Saints, the Queen of Heaven, the Immaculate Conception, the spotless Virgin, the Ark of the Covenant, the New Eve, the mother of God, and the mother of Israel -- our mother who wants nothing more for us than to pray for us and show us her Son.

Answer 2

I have been a life long Catholic and can't remember anyone bowing down to a statue of Mary.

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.

Answer 3

the worship and exaltation of Mary (and no matter what the Catholics call it, it is worship- I lived it) comes directly from the pagans refusal to give up their feminine deities when Rome converted to Christianity. The conversion was basically for political reasons. Most of the pagan feasts, traditions and practices stayed the same. Pagans worshipped Diana and Ishtar- they changed her name to Mary but the worship practice is just the same.
I have not found one priest or nun, since I was a child who could show me where in the Bible it says anything about Mary being a perpetual virgin, where it says anything about Mary ascending into heaven, or where it says anything about Mary being sinless.
As a matter of fact, my mom had a misselette and there was a chapter about "Mary's ascension into heaven" There were about 4 scripture references under the title and I looked them up and not one of the scriptures had anything to do with Mary. I have never gotten an explantaion for this, only chastisement for questioning what I was reading.
Since I have done much research into the origins of different practices- I have to know the foundations, WHY I beleive what I believe and WHY I participate in the traditions and practices I participate in . Every road I have traveled regarding Mary has led me straight to the false pagan godesses, Diana and Ishtar

Unfortunately, in my experience, most Catholics will not research this for themselves, they will not consider it and find out what the scripture says, they will only get defensive and refuse to ask questions or seek the truth- they will continue to repeat what they have been taught and still give no scriptural foundation for what they claim

Answer 4

Images and Statues
Deut. 4:15 - from this verse, Protestants say that since we saw "no form" of the Lord, we should not make graven images of Him.

Deut. 4:16 - of course, in early history Israel was forbidden to make images of God because God didn't yet reveal himself visibly "in the form of any figure."

Deut. 4:17-19 - hence, had the Israelites depicted God not yet revealed, they might be tempted to worship Him in the form of a beast, bird, reptile or fish, which was a common error of the times.

Exodus 3:2-3; Dan 7:9; Matt. 3:16; Mark 1:10; Luke 3:22; John 1:32; Acts 2:3- later on, however, we see that God did reveal himself in visible form (as a dove, fire, etc).

Deut. 5:8 - God's commandment "thou shall not make a graven image" is entirely connected to the worship of false gods. God does not prohibit images to be used in worship, but He prohibits the images themselves to be worshiped.

Exodus 25:18-22; 26:1,31 - for example, God commands the making of the image of a golden cherubim. This heavenly image, of course, is not worshiped by the Israelites. Instead, the image disposes their minds to the supernatural and draws them to God.

Num. 21:8-9 - God also commands the making of the bronze serpent. The image of the bronze serpent is not an idol to be worshiped, but an article that lifts the mind to the supernatural.

I Kings 6:23-36; 7:27-39; 8:6-67 - Solomon's temple contains statues of cherubim and images of cherubim, oxen and lions. God did not condemn these images that were used in worship.

2 Kings 18:4 - it was only when the people began to worship the statue did they incur God's wrath, and the king destroyed it. The command prohibiting the use of graven images deals exclusively with the false worship of those images.

1 Chron. 28:18-19 - David gives Solomon the plan for the altar made of refined gold with a golden cherubim images. These images were used in the Jews' most solemn place of worship.

2 Chron. 3:7-14 - the house was lined with gold with elaborate cherubim carved in wood and overlaid with gold.

Ezek. 41:15 - Ezekiel describes graven images in the temple consisting of carved likenesses of cherubim. These are similar to the images of the angels and saints in many Catholic churches.

Col. 1:15 - the only image of God that Catholics worship is Jesus Christ, who is the "image" (Greek "eikon") of the invisible God.

Answer 5

I'm catholic and I don't do that. Why do protestants smoke crack? (k, sorry that wasn't a good comparison). Some catholics venerate images, meaning they venerate the person the image represents since the statues represents Mary who we venerate a catholic might kiss the statue as to feel like they're kissing Mary herself as a sign of reverence. The first commadment talks about bowing down to worship the idol as a god which catholics don't do. The only thing we worship is God, we don't even worship images of him because nothing can be graven to look like almighty God.

Answer 6

Simple. In the 4th Century the Romans were adopting the Christian faith and moving away from over 10 centuries of paganism. This was no easy task and the Roman citizens were reluctant to change. So many pagan practices were "Christianized" and adapted into Catholicism. Pick up any History book on Christianity or any World History book. You can find out more about that.

Answer 7

There's a difference between worshipping someone and "asking them to intercede" on behalf of some prayer need. Some Catholics, more so than other denominations, ask saints and other ascended individuals that they presume to live in heaven to basically "talk to God for them", generally on the presumption that maybe someone already in heaven has God's ear a little more than we do down here.

Answer 8

we're not bowing down unto her, that just happens to be one of the only places in the church to kneel down without being in a pew.

Answer 9

THE FIRST COMMANDMENT SAYS:
"YOU SHALL WORSHIP THE LORD YOUR GOD AND HIM ONLY SHALL YOU SERVE"
THE KEY WORD HERE IS WORSHIP(the object of adoring reverence or regard)
CATHOLICS DO NOT WORSHIP STATUES OF MARY THE VENERATE(Profound respect)
IF U LOOK AT BOTH DEFINITIONS THEY DIFFER DRAMAMTICALLY WHEN IT COMES TO WORSHIPPING GOD.
JUST REMEMBER THAT SAINTS AND VIRGINS ARE VENERATED NOT WORSHIPPED, BCUZ THE ONLY ONE FOR WORSHIP IS GOD

Answer 10

Asked like a person that knows nothing at all about Catholicism. They don't.