WHY do Catholics pray to Mary? Help please, I'm a little confused.....?

Question

I just dont understand this concept. Can someone please explain? Do Catholics have a different bible that they go by?
Because no where in my bible (King James) does it say to pray to Mary, or anyone else other than the Lord.
Can someone clear this up for me and help me understand where Catholics came up with this?

Answer 1

It doesn't agree with my reading of the Bible although the Catholics may have a point about the "fellowship of the saints" including those in heaven, who perhaps can, there, pray for us - I just don't think she could deal with millions of prayers a day.

We all sin and can get a sense of unworthiness and condemnation; even though we confess them so we know we are forgiven, we can still sometimes 'feel' guilty. Seeing her as human and as a woman compassionate could mean that she seems very approachable.

Answer 2

Catholics put the bible together, King James was Catholic.

the reason most of the NT doesn't mention saints is pretty simply because there was no one to die for Jesus while the books were still being written.

But take a look a Revelations, written last.

there's an interesting passage(acutally a few, but here's one)

"the bowls were filled with incense, which are the prayers of the saints, and went before GOD"

Catholics believe that all believers are united in the Body of Christ. Even if you die, you are alive in Spirit.(all who believe in Him won't die but have everlasting life)

Praying to a saint isn't different than asking a friend to pray for you.

Then there's Mary, filled with grace(KJV says "highly favored one, but the correct tranlsation is "full of grace")

As Jesus' mother, one would think He'd listen to the requests of her, much like how He performed His first miracle at her request.

this should answer your questions better than i could

http://www.olrl.org/apologetics/statueworship.shtml

#30 is your exact question.

Answer 3

They believe that Mary, as a fully human being, can function as intercessor for them, because she will feel human sympathy, empathy, and understanding. The intercessory role started simply because Mary was an emotionally accessible figure, as a human mother. She was easy for people to understand, they could feel close to her in a way that was precluded by all the complex and technical theological discussions of Jesus's human and divine nature, the Trinity, and so forth. Grasping this, the early Church promoted Mary and her intercessory role, until she took on enormous importance. She's not a goddess (though some of the early devotion was possibly transferred from pagan goddess worship), she is not divine, she is simply the most fully human face of Christianity. It was a practical and pragmatic development, and it's important to Roman Catholics. However, the devotion to Mary was one of the things that the Protestant movement criticized and that they more or less abandoned. Such "Mariolatry," they felt, was dangerous and it was indeed non-scriptural.

Answer 4

It's a good question. In the Bible, we are instructed to pray to God.
I was at a mass where the mary statue was as prominent as the cross and we were told to join in a prayer to Mary, our mother (the hail mary).
I hope a Catholic will give an honest answer to this and claim they don't pray to her. They do.
A former Catholic.

Answer 5

Prayer to Mary is under the same category of prayer to saints, since she is a saint. As Catholic Christians, we believe in the communion of saints. We believe that the saints in heaven are our family just like our loved ones here on earth. We ask them to pray for us, and love them just the same.

The Catholic bible has 7 more books than the Protestant bible. This is because the Protestants adopted a new Jewish canon of the Old Testament and threw out the Catholic canon, throwing out THE canon that had been used by all Christians since the beginning of the Church. It was a change made by the Protestants that resulted in the differences between the bibles.

Answer 6

Catholics believe in the intercession of prayers by saints. So they pray to the saints that they pray for them.

And as for Mary, the Catholic priest in my town explained it to me like this "are you more likely to listen to your friend, or to your mother? When we pray to Mary to pray for us(they don't actually pray TO Mary...they just ask her to pray for them) it's like Jesus will listen to His mother more."

That's paraphrasing, but that's what he said.

Answer 7

I am dating a Catholic and Go to Church with him and I still do not know why they pray to Mary

Answer 8

Mary represents mercy (feminine trait) and purity ( she conceived as a virgin) it is a leftover adoption of pagan custom to honor the feminine element of the divine name yud heh vahv heh which is Jehovah/Yahweh
This name represent God (translated as "Lord" in Bible)
The Yud is a jewish letter and it represents the active, masculine part of spirit. The first Heh represents the passive feminine part of spirit. (Ying and Yang) the vahv looks like a yud with a column coming down and represents the Physical material manifestation of active masculine energy and the last Heh represents the physical material manifestation of feminine passive energy.
When you put the hebrew letter Shin in the middle of the 4 letter name (shin represents the holy spirit or "breath of god")
you get the name yeheshuwa. translated into greek as Jesu.
Jesus represents the uniting of the spiritual energies with the material energies of divinity...nice concept, it's almost like a title or state of being almost isn't it?

Answer 9

I will outline Catholic beliefs about Mary :


Mary, as are all who are saved, was saved by the blood of Christ. She is the greatest of Saints and her prayers for us are efficacious. She is a fully human creature and not in any way a goddess.


She is the Immaculate Conception who was filled with grace from her first moments, she is the Ark of the New Covenant and the New Eve


Mary is the "Theotokos," or the "God-bearer,"

the Mother of God


Mary remained both sinless and a virgin her entire life


Mary was assumed into Heaven by the power of God, where she was crowned Queen of Heaven



The Hail Mary Prayer:

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.



Her soul magnifies the Lord (Luke 1:46-55)!

Answer 10

Please realized that praying and worshing are two different thingings. Praying is talking to/communicating with. That's what we do with Mary, we ask her to intercede on our behalf. We do not worship her. That is solely reserved for God (the Father, the Son Jesus and the Holy Spirit). Mary does have a special place in our hearts but Catholics only worship God and mostly empathize Jesus.