Christocentric character of the Catholic Church

[Spirithound]

Morning y’all! After listening to Peter Kreeft’s “Ecumenism without Compromise”, I asked my Protestant friend (I think he identifies as Arminian?) how I can show him the Christocentric nature of the Catholic Church and her teachings. His first response is to stop praying to Mary. (I know, it didn’t actually answer the question, but as a native speaker of English, and a faithful Catholic, you should be able to turn it so it does). I asked him to define prayer, and he said intercession. This is a good narrowing of the question, I think.

So, my plea for your help is How is asking Mary’s (or other saints’ ) intercession Christocentric?

PS, I’ve already asked him to pray to the Holy Spirit to enlighten me.

 

[FCEGM]

Such prayer is Christocentric because the efficacy of such prayer rests precisely on the union of the Virgin and the Saints/Blesseds with and in Christ. Without Christ they - or we - can do nothing; in Him, however, our prayer as part of the Communion of Saints is filled with His presence by the power of His indwelling Spirit - becoming “partakers of the Divine Nature” (2 Peter 1).

 

[FCEGM]

You might also point out to your friend that if the prayers of the Saints in Christ have no efficacy, then Christ has no power; for what power we have is HIS power in which we participate by virtue of our incorporation into His Body. We, if counted among the blessed, will not be allowed, then, “to share my throne” (Rev. 4:21). Then, St. Stephen, “filled with grace and power” withstanding the Sanhedrin, was divested of that power upon his martyrdom; then St. Peter and St. Paul, who cured people of their spiritual blindness and physical illnesses by virtue of the power of the Lord, lost their power upon their martyrdoms.

If faith gave them (and us) the power to perform such prodigies, what more must sight give? That’s how Christocentric our prayer is.

 

[DebChris]

I like the answer FCEGM already gave.
Does your friend ask his fellow Christians to pray on his behalf? That is all that we are doing when we pray (which means ask) to the saints and to Mary to intercede on our behalf.

I had a non-Catholic friend who saw the Communion of Saints as standing on the sideline cheering us toward the finish line in the race that they have already completed. Using the race analogy, a person who has already run the course knows where the obstacles are and can help direct the person whose life is similar as to how to avoid the same pitfalls he/she stumbled into during his/her life.

As scripture says, “wherever two or more are gathered, there I am.” When our prayers are joined with our friends, whether on earth or in heaven, Christ is in our midst and hears. God is the God of the living and not the dead.

 

[M0nkey]

So, my plea for your help is How is asking Mary’s (or other saints’ ) intercession Christocentric?

A quick answer you should keep under your belt is, there is no Jesus without Mary.

 

[Todd_Easton]

So, my plea for your help is How is asking Mary’s (or other saints’ ) intercession Christocentric?

The Virgin Mary and other saints are members of the Mystical Body of Christ and their intercession is understood to made through Christ, with Christ, and in Christ.

 

[PJM]

=Spirithound;5216349]Morning y’all! After listening to Peter Kreeft’s “Ecumenism without Compromise”, I asked my Protestant friend (I think he identifies as Arminian?) how I can show him the Christocentric nature of the Catholic Church and her teachings. His first response is to stop praying to Mary. (I know, it didn’t actually answer the question, but as a native speaker of English, and a faithful Catholic, you should be able to turn it so it does). I asked him to define prayer, and he said intercession. This is a good narrowing of the question, I think.

So, my plea for your help is How is asking Mary’s (or other saints’ ) intercession Christocentric?

PS, I’ve already asked him to pray to the Holy Spirit to enlighten me.

The answer my friend lies in the fact that everything we Informed, Practicing, Roman, Catholics (IPRC’s) do is factually and truthfully Christocentric. Why is this?

First because the RCC is literally “Christ Church.” Christ founded it, remains in it (The Eucharist), has the Holy Spirit Covet and Protect Her Truths. One can say factually that the RCC is Christ, manifested to us though His Sacraments, His Grace, His Protection, His Enlightenment, His Truth, and His Word, especially the New Testament.

Second because at that we do has as its end goal to join Christ in Heaven. Sometimes the path is very direct such as through the Sacraments. All founded by Christ Himself, and in which Christ Himself is present to us. Sometimes in a less direct manner, when we employ intercessory prayer.

It would be a moral, a theological and a physical impossibility to seperate Christ from His Catholic Church. NOTE: This may not be true for the 30,000+ non-Catholic Sects that proclaim His Holy Name, but select only what they wish to believe and practice. Part of the Bibles teachings BUT never the entire Bible!

What is the purpose of intercessory prayer (besides Lord give me this, Lord give me that)? Correctly used, understood and applied, we ask Saints, especially our BVM, the very Mother of our God, to lead us by their personal example, and by their close proximiry to our Blessed Lord, who loves them very much (or they would not be in heaven) to plead our many causes for us. The End goal is always (or at least should be) to make us more humble, more pious, more holy, more focused and more determined to also get to heaven.

All prayer, all Masses, All Sacraments are in the end Christocentric. They by their very nature, are all from, for, and by Christ. Some directly, some indirectly, but nevertheless they are all for God! A:thumbsup:men!