just wondering because i was raised Pentecostal and i always liked the looks of catholic churches and my moms catholic but we don't talk about it to much?
It's just the western new teachings from the protestants since 1500AD. Prior to that, no one was questioning the praying thru Mary by the Catholic Church [that incl orthodox].
Briefly study the orthodox church and you will see icon of Mother Mary with Infant Jesus at the right hand of Jesus's icon.
Expand your horizon as christianity did not start in 1500 but in 33AD and the only church is the Catholic Church.
Firstly we are not carnivores and therefor we do not Prey, we Pray. Secondly we don't pray to Mary. We ask for her to intercede for us when we need help, after all any person would ask the mother of a son or daughter to ask their child for help or for something we need. We do it all the time in our everyday lives and we don't even notice that we are doing it. Mary is afforded the respect she deserves as the Mother of Christ. But in that breath you should know that not all Catholics are Marionites and therefore do not ask for her to intercede on their behalf. i suggest that you actually talk to your mother and ask her opinion.
Have you ever asked anyone to "pray for me"? Why did you do that?
Our souls do not die when our bodies do. For those that He chooses they become one with God. A "Saint" is a person whom the Church feels confident that because of they way they lived their lives that they are now in fact with God. The Saint we feel MOST confident about that is Mary, the mother of Jesus. We do not pray TO Mary, or any other Saint. We ask them, who although physically dead are still alive with God, to pray for US, just as you might ask someone you know to pray for you. Since they are now with God any prayer directed toward a Saint is to God.
Mary is our defense lawyer of God's court. She intercedes for us, between us and God. But in no way it should be interpreted that Catholics "Worship" Mary, that is a false statement, by those who don't understand her role.
Because they believe Mary can pray on their behalf which is wrong because Mary can't hear the prayers of people on earth. Mary was just a human after all and a sinner like the rest of us.
To ask her to pray for us, the same way we ask fellow members of our church to pray for us. Christians have asked other Christians to pray for them since day one. Why would it matter whether the Christians we are asking to pray for us are currently living on Earth or in Heaven?
Let's FIRST take a step back and clarify some terms. Because often times misunderstandings between religions.. are actually misunderstandings regarding terminology and definitions. Just because both speak English.. does not necessarily mean they have the same definitions for words.
Prayer - what does it mean to you? For many non-Catholic Christians it is defined the same as worship. To many... since we often pray as part of our worship of God, then prayer and worship are one in the same.
From a historical and linguistic perspective... this is actually an incorrect definition or at least a very narrow one.
True that prayer is often times part of Worship, but that does not mean that all prayer IS worship.
Just like All Citizens of Californians are Americans.. but not all Americans are citizens of California
From a Catholic perspective.. the word prayer comes from the Greek "precari" which means 'a sincere petition" In the U.K. english the word "prithy" is a shortened form of "pray thy" And is used in all sorts of situations such as 'may I prithy the court'
So to a Catholic.. prayer and worship are 2 different things. We can use prayer as part of our worship of God, but they are not one and the same.
_______________________________
So now that we have our terminology straight....
The bible tells us to pray for each other, even our enemies. Paul says to pray unceasingly. We see in Revelations that the Saint and Angels in heaven take our prayers as incense to God - So we know that not only are our prayers heard in heaven, but more then just God hears them. God actually involves everyone in heaven because we see in revelation that saints and angels are involved in hearing and taking our prayers to God.
We see also in the bible that Elijiah and Abraham appear before Christ and they briefly talk to him about his crucifixion and encourage him. This shows that those in heaven are aware of what's going on here on Earth.
The Old Testament says that God is the God of the LIVING not the dead. So we shouldn't call those in heaven 'dead' In Judaism the only one's 'dead' were the souls which went to Sheol, the grave, i.e. separation from God.
We also know from very early Christian writings in the catacombs when Christianity was still being persecuted by the Romans.. that Christians both offered prayers for the dead as well as asked those in heaven to intercede on their behalf.
So we know from both history and the bible that it is OK to ask those in heaven for help when we feel we need it.
_____________________________
So why not just go 'directly' to God?
Catholics do.. however, we have additional resources which non-Catholic Christians have cut themselves off from and which reject. So in addition to our prayers to God, we can also ask those in heaven for their prayers as well.
WHY? -- several reasons.
1) have you ever felt embarrassed to ask something..so you go through another person? Ever think that you don't know how to ask your father for something, but know that your mom knows how to break it to him? - same thing with the saints. We may not always know HOW to ask. We may even be asking something selfish. Those in heaven are incapable of being selfish..and they are intimately connected to God.
2) Paul asks us to pray for each other unceasingly, if we never ask for intercession from others.. then we are depriving them of fulfilling that command. We are not a community. Our faith is isolated. So part of the reason we ask our friends, family and even those in heaven, is because we are giving them an opportunity to do their Christian duty.
3) If we pray on our own.. that is but one person seeking God. IF we ask a friend, then 2 are seeking God's help. Asking everyone to pray for us, not only brings the community closer..but actually strengthens our faith.
4) The bible says that the words of a just man availeth much. We see in the bible that WHO is asking DOES matter. We'd like to arrogantly think that we're all equal, but some of us are more intune with God's will then others. By asking those in heaven to pray for us...we make sure what is asked is Godly and not selfish.
_________________________
to vs. through....
Technically... even though many Catholics say "pray to Mary" the more accurate statment is "pray through Mary" -- the 2 terms are interchangeable to a Catholic.. but to non-Catholics they are VERY different. Again, this is where definitions matter. To a non-Catholic.. "pray to" means worship while 'pray through' means ask the person to intercede on your behalf.
Comments
It's just the western new teachings from the protestants since 1500AD. Prior to that, no one was questioning the praying thru Mary by the Catholic Church [that incl orthodox].
Briefly study the orthodox church and you will see icon of Mother Mary with Infant Jesus at the right hand of Jesus's icon.
Expand your horizon as christianity did not start in 1500 but in 33AD and the only church is the Catholic Church.
Firstly we are not carnivores and therefor we do not Prey, we Pray. Secondly we don't pray to Mary. We ask for her to intercede for us when we need help, after all any person would ask the mother of a son or daughter to ask their child for help or for something we need. We do it all the time in our everyday lives and we don't even notice that we are doing it. Mary is afforded the respect she deserves as the Mother of Christ. But in that breath you should know that not all Catholics are Marionites and therefore do not ask for her to intercede on their behalf. i suggest that you actually talk to your mother and ask her opinion.
Have you ever asked anyone to "pray for me"? Why did you do that?
Our souls do not die when our bodies do. For those that He chooses they become one with God. A "Saint" is a person whom the Church feels confident that because of they way they lived their lives that they are now in fact with God. The Saint we feel MOST confident about that is Mary, the mother of Jesus. We do not pray TO Mary, or any other Saint. We ask them, who although physically dead are still alive with God, to pray for US, just as you might ask someone you know to pray for you. Since they are now with God any prayer directed toward a Saint is to God.
Because the Catholic church realized that to attract pagans into the church they needed to replicate the idol worship they were used to!
The bible forbids the worship of graven images but that did not stop them!
It also says "You shall have no other gods but me" but they worship Mary and the saints as minor gods!
Mary is our defense lawyer of God's court. She intercedes for us, between us and God. But in no way it should be interpreted that Catholics "Worship" Mary, that is a false statement, by those who don't understand her role.
Because they believe Mary can pray on their behalf which is wrong because Mary can't hear the prayers of people on earth. Mary was just a human after all and a sinner like the rest of us.
To ask her to pray for us, the same way we ask fellow members of our church to pray for us. Christians have asked other Christians to pray for them since day one. Why would it matter whether the Christians we are asking to pray for us are currently living on Earth or in Heaven?
she intercedes for us at certain times , i bet your mother prays to mary to help you.
Let's FIRST take a step back and clarify some terms. Because often times misunderstandings between religions.. are actually misunderstandings regarding terminology and definitions. Just because both speak English.. does not necessarily mean they have the same definitions for words.
Prayer - what does it mean to you? For many non-Catholic Christians it is defined the same as worship. To many... since we often pray as part of our worship of God, then prayer and worship are one in the same.
From a historical and linguistic perspective... this is actually an incorrect definition or at least a very narrow one.
True that prayer is often times part of Worship, but that does not mean that all prayer IS worship.
Just like All Citizens of Californians are Americans.. but not all Americans are citizens of California
From a Catholic perspective.. the word prayer comes from the Greek "precari" which means 'a sincere petition" In the U.K. english the word "prithy" is a shortened form of "pray thy" And is used in all sorts of situations such as 'may I prithy the court'
So to a Catholic.. prayer and worship are 2 different things. We can use prayer as part of our worship of God, but they are not one and the same.
_______________________________
So now that we have our terminology straight....
The bible tells us to pray for each other, even our enemies. Paul says to pray unceasingly. We see in Revelations that the Saint and Angels in heaven take our prayers as incense to God - So we know that not only are our prayers heard in heaven, but more then just God hears them. God actually involves everyone in heaven because we see in revelation that saints and angels are involved in hearing and taking our prayers to God.
We see also in the bible that Elijiah and Abraham appear before Christ and they briefly talk to him about his crucifixion and encourage him. This shows that those in heaven are aware of what's going on here on Earth.
The Old Testament says that God is the God of the LIVING not the dead. So we shouldn't call those in heaven 'dead' In Judaism the only one's 'dead' were the souls which went to Sheol, the grave, i.e. separation from God.
We also know from very early Christian writings in the catacombs when Christianity was still being persecuted by the Romans.. that Christians both offered prayers for the dead as well as asked those in heaven to intercede on their behalf.
So we know from both history and the bible that it is OK to ask those in heaven for help when we feel we need it.
_____________________________
So why not just go 'directly' to God?
Catholics do.. however, we have additional resources which non-Catholic Christians have cut themselves off from and which reject. So in addition to our prayers to God, we can also ask those in heaven for their prayers as well.
WHY? -- several reasons.
1) have you ever felt embarrassed to ask something..so you go through another person? Ever think that you don't know how to ask your father for something, but know that your mom knows how to break it to him? - same thing with the saints. We may not always know HOW to ask. We may even be asking something selfish. Those in heaven are incapable of being selfish..and they are intimately connected to God.
2) Paul asks us to pray for each other unceasingly, if we never ask for intercession from others.. then we are depriving them of fulfilling that command. We are not a community. Our faith is isolated. So part of the reason we ask our friends, family and even those in heaven, is because we are giving them an opportunity to do their Christian duty.
3) If we pray on our own.. that is but one person seeking God. IF we ask a friend, then 2 are seeking God's help. Asking everyone to pray for us, not only brings the community closer..but actually strengthens our faith.
4) The bible says that the words of a just man availeth much. We see in the bible that WHO is asking DOES matter. We'd like to arrogantly think that we're all equal, but some of us are more intune with God's will then others. By asking those in heaven to pray for us...we make sure what is asked is Godly and not selfish.
_________________________
to vs. through....
Technically... even though many Catholics say "pray to Mary" the more accurate statment is "pray through Mary" -- the 2 terms are interchangeable to a Catholic.. but to non-Catholics they are VERY different. Again, this is where definitions matter. To a non-Catholic.. "pray to" means worship while 'pray through' means ask the person to intercede on your behalf.
You can pray about it but not too much.