Can Mary Hear Multiple People Recite the Hail Mary Simultaneously?

Question

Greetings

As a bit of an introduction, I am both a former Muslim and a former Atheist (I went from Islam to Atheism) who is contemplating converting to Catholicism. I have been studying a number of Catholic doctrines controversial among Protestants, have pretty much felt most of them can be fairly well defended. Regarding the Hail Mary specifically, I have concluded that most of it is Biblical, and there is nothing sinful about it within the Christian paradigm, since it is, essentially, asking Mary to pray for us (cf. James 5:16), and her being the Mother of the Believers (Revelation 12) makes her a good person to ask such.

Anyway, to refine my understanding of this issue (and other issues I have been studying), I have specifically seeked out debate with anti-Catholics. One objection by an anti-Catholic struck me as interesting: how can Mary hear mutliple requests (e.g. thousands, if not millions) which are uttered simultaneously? Can Catholic apologists address this issue for me?

Answer 1

That argument became popular with Loraine Boettner - a rabid anti-Catholic.

If being in heaven were like being in the next room, then of course these objections would be valid. A mortal, unglorified person in the next room would indeed suffer the restrictions imposed by the way space and time work in our universe. But the saints are not in the next room, and they are not subject to the time/space limitations of this life.

This does not imply that the saints in heaven therefore must be omniscient, as God is, for it is only through God’s willing it that they can communicate with others in heaven or with us. And Boettner’s argument about petitions arriving in different languages is even further off the mark. Does anyone really think that in heaven the saints are restricted to the King’s English? After all, it is God himself who gives the gift of tongues and the interpretation of tongues. Surely those saints in Revelation understand the prayers they are shown to be offering to God.

The problem here is one of what might be called a primitive or even childish view of heaven. It is certainly not one on which enough intellectual rigor has been exercised. A good introduction to the real implications of the afterlife may be found in Frank Sheed’s book Theology and Sanity, which argues that sanity depends on an accurate appreciation of reality, and that includes an accurate appreciation of what heaven is really like. And once that is known, the place of prayer to the saints follows.

Answer 2

I don't know that we think of Mary as "hearing" prayers as we hear things. She is not subject to the limitations of human hearing.

This has not been taught to me by the Church it is just my thinking on the subject...but I would think that the prayers said on the Rosary are more like something she absorbs. They are not reaching her ears but reaching her entire being. She is always offering our petitions to her Son. She says in the Bible "my soul magnifies the Lord" this makes her a focal point. A point of magnification...think about a magnifying glass...it makes things larger, more visible. This is her purpose in heaven...to magnify the Lord to us. To offer our petitions to him and to intercede for us.

I am a convert to Catholicism...I have found that the more I learn the more amazing I find God to be. Catholicism has opened such an understanding for Christ and shown me a path to deeper faith. A really good place to ask questions is on the forums of http://www.catholic.com the people there are very knowledgeable and I've learned a lot.

Answer 3

Mary was the first one to overcome the forces of evil in the world, by fully cooperating with the grace of God.

In the Book of Revelation, Jesus makes a number of promises to all those who overcome the world through him.

This particular promise may be useful for our purposes here:

Rev 3:21 To him that shall overcome, I will give to sit with me in my throne: as I also have overcome and am set down with my Father in his throne.

Enthronement indicates power and authority. Jesus likens that authority to that which has already been given to him by God the Father.

In this way, Jesus holds out the distinct possibility that he will SHARE the power he has been given, with those of us who prove worthy, with the help of his grace.

Because intercession with the king, for the people, has always been the traditional role of the queen mother of the House of David (see 1st Kings 2:16) and because we know that Mary has interceded for others with Jesus before (see John 2:4) the supernatural power to simultaneously process multiple prayer requests, would be a logical and very practical one for Jesus to share with his mother.

The Catholic Church teaches this, as dogma. Excerpt from the official Catholic Church document MUNIFICENTISSIMUS DEUS:

40. Hence the revered Mother of God, from all eternity joined in a hidden way with Jesus Christ in one and the same decree of predestination,[47] immaculate in her conception, a most perfect virgin in her divine motherhood, the noble associate of the divine Redeemer who has won a complete triumph over sin and its consequences, finally obtained, as the supreme culmination of her privileges, that she should be preserved free from the corruption of the tomb and that, like her own Son, having overcome death, she might be taken up body and soul to the glory of heaven where, as Queen, she sits in splendor at the right hand of her Son, the immortal King of the Ages.[48]
41. Since the universal Church, within which dwells the Spirit of Truth who infallibly directs it toward an ever more perfect knowledge of the revealed truths, has expressed its own belief many times over the course of the centuries, and since the bishops of the entire world are almost unanimously petitioning that the truth of the bodily Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary into heaven should be defined as a dogma of divine and Catholic faith-this truth which is based on the Sacred Writings, which is thoroughly rooted in the minds of the faithful, which has been approved in ecclesiastical worship from the most remote times, which is completely in harmony with the other revealed truths, and which has been expounded and explained magnificently in the work, the science, and the wisdom of the theologians-we believe that the moment appointed in the plan of divine providence for the solemn proclamation of this outstanding privilege of the Virgin Mary has already arrived.

Answer 4

My first reaction would be that Mary is outside of time now. She doesn't have to hear them all simultaneously because she isn't restricted in that way. Also, it would be helpful to keep in mind that all prayer is ultimately to God so as long as she is interceding (which she is) and we are praying, then God is hearing and answering. I sincerely hope this answer proves to be helpful. Welcome home in advance.

Answer 5

First of all we Catholics fully believe that Mary is in Heaven and not the grave and being so it is through God to Whom all things are possible that She hears the prayers of all who call on Her intercession, who can limit the power of God and His great blessings, and who can say that God has not given Mary great grace and power as well.

Answer 6

mary is dead..has been dead for years on end. now how can dead people hear anything like prayers. her being the mother would be a good reason to ask her to pray for us, but maybe when she was alive. im a former catholic--1 day i just woke up & was like why am i praying and asking alll these dead saints for things; they're dead. so what it comes down to i believe in a creator, a higher being...end of story.

Answer 7

being a former muslim means u study issues superficially, or get informations from wrong resources, sorry man!
if u prefers alcoholics than god (as u write in ur photo), i think u r not qualified to compare between religions, as alcoholics masks ur brain
u shd b sorry u wrote something bad replacing god's holy name!

Answer 8

why you go from one dead religion to another? Why don't you seek God and He will tell you who He is.