Do Catholics give Mary too high esteem?

[jmcrae]

This is a video of Messianic Rabbi Gennady Livshits explaining who Jesus is (Scroll down to Who is Jesus 1):

houseofdavidministry.org/programming/television-archive/monday-show.html

Starting at 16:00, he tells the story of how he was speaking with a Catholic woman who uplifted Mary very high, and this Catholic woman could not refute him when he used verse John 1 against her.

My guess is that he was telling her that Mary did not create Jesus, since Jesus is the uncreated God. Being a reasonably intelligent woman, she probably said, "Well, no, of course not … " and then got cut off when he started crowing and bleating about how he had “beaten” her.

Instead of using Luke 1 ("Blessed are you among women . . . ") as defense, how can you make a strong biblical defense against his argument?

Just like all other mothers, Mary did not create her Child; she bore Him in her womb.

No mother creates her child; every mother bears a child whom God has already created. In this, Mary is not unique. She is just as much a Mother to Jesus as every mother is to her child.

The only difference in Mary’s case is that her Child came to her from Eternity, and was not created in the same moment that He came into her body; He existed before that time. But she shared her DNA with Him just as every mother does, and she bore Him from the moment of His conception until His birth, just like every other mother does.

 

[Semangelof]

Thanks Abu

 

[roselily]

‘May the Virgin of Virgins herself intercede for us to the Lord.’

Hail Mary!
Full of Grace!

 

[Memaw]

I’m sorry, but I’m with the Church on this one… If being with the Church means in have a ‘lack of knowledge’ as you say, then so be it.

Like I said in my post, I pray the rosary, hold Mary as the new Eve who said yes to God, Is the Mother of God and the first Christian…that’s pretty hefty. What I don’t do (which i have seen other do) is give Mary God-like status or treat her as divine. I think either you or I is confused on the words “too much”…I view it not as a quantity issue…pray to Mary, all day everyday. I think it is instead an issue of how we pray to Mary and the intention because as I said, I have witnessed abuses.

What you consider an abuse in others may very well not be at all. You don’t know whats in their heart. Judge not unless you wish to be judged in the same manner. My mother used to say, " Sweep off your own doorstep before you try sweeping off others." Follow the teaching of the Church and you can never go wrong in loving and honoring Our Blessed Mother. So many Popes and Saints have shown us the way. God Bless, Memaw

 

[Rich]

Without referencing Luke:

Just spend some time reading about the Ark of the Covenant in the OT. Notice the VERY high esteem and honor given the Ark. King David danced before it, there were processions in front of it. The Ark was given a special tent and place in the Israelite camp while in the desert for 40 years, and the Ark was put into the Holy of Holies in the Temple, the most sacred spot in the whole world.

And what made the Ark special? It held the stones which were written the 10 Commandments, the Manna from the desert, and the High Priest Aaron’s staff.

Compare that to Mary. She was given the honor of being the Mother of God Himself!!! She carried in her womb the Word of God! She nursed the Manna from Heaven. She cared for and protected the Great High Priest. She was honored by God Himself.

So to answer the question, no, Catholics do not honor Mary too much. Nothing we could do could come close to the honor bestowed on her by God already.

One thing to keep in mind. They never prayed to the ark. Mary is to be called blessed. But scripture says only to pray to God. All time spent in prayer to Mary or the saints is time not spent with Christ, who by the way lives inside all true believers.

 

[jmcrae]

One thing to keep in mind. They never prayed to the ark. Mary is to be called blessed. But scripture says only to pray to God. All time spent in prayer to Mary or the saints is time not spent with Christ, who by the way lives inside all true believers.

Yes, because you can’t spend time with more than one person at a time.

 

[Memaw]

One thing to keep in mind. They never prayed to the ark. Mary is to be called blessed. But scripture says only to pray to God. All time spent in prayer to Mary or the saints is time not spent with Christ, who by the way lives inside all true believers.

The Ark is not a person and it is not the Mother of our Savior. Remember at the Wedding Feast of Cana when Jesus asked His Mother, What would you have Me to do, woman, and then changed water into wine. Me thinks he listens to her. She brought Him to us and I trust her to bring us to Him. Holy Mary, Mother of God, pray for us sinners, now and at the hour of our death, Amen God Bless, Memaw

 

[Memaw]

Yes, because you can’t spend time with more than one person at a time.

Now you tell me, I do it all the time, God Bless, Memaw

 

[Abu]

We are ALL called to be co-redeemers with Christ in a subordinate sense as instructed by St Paul

St Paul teaches that “supplication, prayers, intercessions, and thanksgivings be made for all men (1 Tim 2:1)…for (because) there is one mediator between God and man, the Man Christ Jesus.” (1 Tim 2:5). “In other words, Christ wants all of us doing our part with Him in the redeeming activity that must go on. We are all called to be coredeemers. To give that title, as the Church occasionally has, to His Mother, is not to make her level with Him, but to see her as the holiest of all those He has redeemed.” [Frank Sheed, *Christ In Eclipse, p 108].

Further, St. Paul, teaches: “I fill up in my flesh what is still lacking in regard to Christ’s afflictions, for the sake of his Body which is the Church.” (Col. 1:24). What is lacking in Christ’s suffering is precisely what only we can do – take up our cross and suffer, repent and ask forgiveness, following the dictates of our conscience, as Christ was acting for the whole human race, not as a substitute.

‘Actually, the sweep of the Marian teaching of Vatican II is magnificent. It tells us she was eternally united with Him in the decree for the Incarnation, and then goes through every one of the mysteries of His life and mission, and shows her association at each point, even on Calvary. After that, she "was taken up, body and soul, to heavenly glory, and was exalted as Queen of the universe . . . so that she might be more fully conformed to her Son, the Lord of Lords."24

‘So from eternity before time began, to eternity after the end of time, and in every mystery of His in between, she is His Mother and inseparable associate!

‘The Council rightly drew the logical conclusion from this breathtaking doctrinal picture of her constant union with Jesus. It admonished all "that they should cultivate devotion, especially liturgical devotion, towards the Blessed Virgin, and that they should consider of great importance the practices and devotions toward her that were recommended by the Magisterium over the course of centuries."25 In fact, Vatican II went farther in teaching about her, and in urging devotion than all previous councils combined. So it could rightly be called the Marian Council.26’
Notes:
24 Note in Context: Vatican II, On the Church #59.
25 Note in Context: Ibid. #67.
26 Note in Context:
Cf. Fr W. Most, Vatican II, Marian Council, St. Paul Publications, Athlone (Ireland), 1972.

Frank Sheed points out that “what all of us may do according to our imperfection, Our Lady did perfectly…Our Lady had no sins, and whatever she suffered could be wholly for the sins of mankind.

“But when Our Lady did perfectly what we must do in our own fashion, she was suffering not simply as one of us, even as the best one, the one closest to Christ, but as our representative. We shall not see her clearly if we do not grasp this representative function of hers.” Theology And Sanity, p233-5].

 

[zz912]

One thing to keep in mind. They never prayed to the ark. Mary is to be called blessed. But scripture says only to pray to God. All time spent in prayer to Mary or the saints is time not spent with Christ, who by the way lives inside all true believers.

Please give chapter and verse for this claim of yours. I know I have several that say otherwise.

1 Tim 2:1 First of all, then, I ask that supplications, prayers, petitions, and thanksgivings be offered for everyone, 2 for kings and for all in authority, that we may lead a quiet and tranquil life in all devotion and dignity. 3 This is good and pleasing to God our savior, 4 who wills everyone to be saved and to come to knowledge of the truth. 5 For there is one God. There is also one mediator between God and the human race, Christ Jesus, himself human, 6 who gave himself as ransom for all.

Here is an example of St. Paul praying/asking others to pray for everyone.

And how about here:

Rom 15:30 I urge you, [brothers,] by our Lord Jesus Christ and by the love of the Spirit, to join me in the struggle by your prayers to God on my behalf,

I have more if you would like them.

 

[jmcrae]

Now you tell me, I do it all the time, God Bless, Memaw

Rock on, Memaw!

 

[PRmerger]

But scripture says only to pray to God.

What Scripture actually says is to worship only God. But pray in the Catholic sense is not only worship. Prayer can be asking. And there’s lots of places in Scripture where folks ask for the intercession of others.

All time spent in prayer to Mary or the saints is time not spent with Christ, who by the way lives inside all true believers.

If you believe that, then you must believe that any time you spend here on the CAFs is sinful in that it, too is time not spent with Christ.

 

[godisgood77]

What Scripture actually says is to worship only God. But pray in the Catholic sense is not only worship. Prayer can be asking. And there’s lots of places in Scripture where folks ask for the intercession of others.

If you believe that, then you must believe that any time you spend here on the CAFs is sinful in that it, too is time not spent with Christ.

On your first point, you are correct as long as the “asking” is for prayers to God and not granting of requests. On the second point, I believe you are misinterpreting what the poster meant… He/she was referring to time in prayer, not every moment of every day. By your representation of the comment, going to the bathroom would be sinful…which would of course be absurd…

To answer the threads original question…some Catholics do, some don’t give Mary too high esteem. She is a creature, the first Christian who said yes to God, the Mother of God and the ark of the new covenant…she is not divine, nor does she have any power without God. An overly sophomoric way to look at it is that she “has God’s ear” by virtue of her being chosen by God to be the mother of Jesus…God saw fit to choose her which means that she should be venerated as special to God and therefore special to us.

 

[Mark121359]

Whenever I read these types of threads, I always seem to come away feeling perplexed. There have been so many of these threads in the short time I’ve been here at CAF, with titles such as “Church Mariology making me nuts!,” or “Discernment about Marian devotion,” and "Simple question regarding alleged Marian worship? " and on and on and on. And it always seems to be pointed out on these threads, how some Catholics go way too far with their devotion to Mary. And yet, I never here what exactly they have observed to come to this conclusion. Have I missed something? Is there some sort of checklist or manual or something that you can reference that allows one to make these serious allegations? I get the feeling that for some Catholics here, Mary is just an afterthought. That God simply used her as the vessel to bring His Son into the world, and then shelved her. But if you look at the CCC, you find that this is simply not the case. Look at all the references to Mary there! And this line here truly sums it up perfectly I think; “The Church’s devotion to the Blessed Virgin is intrinsic to Christian worship.” ***(In-trin-sic: 1.Belonging naturally; essential; belonging to the essential nature or constitution of a thing) *** Amen! You see, the Church sees her for who she really is…***The *** Ark of the Covenant! A Spotless Rose!..with not even the slightest blemish, not even a hint of the stain of sin on this Precious Soul! I realize that for some, that they just don’t have a great deal of devotion to Our Lady. And there’s nothing wrong with that! Nothing! But I’ve also come to realize that for some on here, that if someone shows even the slightest perceived *“excessive” * devotion to her, you’re sometimes looked upon with suspicion, and often criticized. And that deeply troubles me. It’s probably fairly obvious to you by now that I’m deeply devoted to the Blessed Mother. I don’t hide it. I’m not at all ashamed or afraid to admit, that I’m absolutely in love with Mary! And to my way of thinking, there is not a thing wrong with any Catholic who feels this way about her! Many Popes and many, many Saints have shown tremendous love for her. Saints such as Saint Louis Marie Grignion de Montfort, St. Alphonsus Maria de Liguori, Saint Maximilian Kolbe, and Saint Bernard of Clairvaux to name a few. And I also should point out, that Saint Louis Marie de Montfort had this to say about Catholics who were critical of those devoted to Mary, and I can’t help but thinking that he’s so spot-on about this. The bolded below are what I’ve sometimes observed here at CAF.

Critical devotees are for the most part proud scholars, people of independent and self-satisfied minds, who deep down in their hearts have a vague sort of devotion to Mary. However, they criticise nearly all those forms of devotion to her which simple and pious people use to honour their good Mother just because such practices do not appeal to them. They question all miracles and stories which testify to the mercy and power of the Blessed Virgin, even those recorded by trustworthy authors or taken from the chronicles of religious orders. ***They cannot bear to see simple and humble people on their knees before an altar or statue of our Lady, or at prayer before some outdoor shrine. They even accuse them of idolatry as if they were adoring the wood or the stone. ***They say that as far as they are concerned they do not care for such outward display of devotion and that they are not so gullible as to believe all the fairy tales and stories told of our Blessed Lady. When you tell them how admirably the Fathers of the Church praised our Lady, they reply that the Fathers were exaggerating as orators do, or that their words are misrepresented. These false devotees, these proud worldly people are greatly to be feared. They do untold harm to devotion to our Lady. While pretending to correct abuses, they succeed only too well in turning people away from this devotion.

I haven’t heard of too many who showed more devotion to Our Lady than de Montfort did. Now I ask you, is he taking devotion to Mary too far? Are his views of the Blessed Mother flawed? Well, the Catholic Church declared him a Saint! Are we somehow supposed to think that the Church erred in this decision? That the Church somehow “overlooked” his “excessive” devotion to Mary…and yet made him a Saint anyway? I’ll never buy that! And I’ll tell you something, there are two others who are in the process of being made Saints by the name of Blessed John Paul ll, and Blessed Mother Teresa who also were both de Montfort devotees. And as everyone on here knows, few Popes loved Our Lady more than JPll! The point I’m trying to make is this. Our Church does far more than just suggest we go to Mary, she downright encourages us to do so! I know in my own experience, since my relationship with Mary has developed, my love for her Son has deepened tremendously. I find myself wanting to go to Eucharistic Adoration every Thursday and that my experience at Mass has never felt like this before! But none of this should be a surprise to us. It’s what the Church has always taught us about Mary, that she will always lead you in one direction…straight to the Heart of Jesus! It seems to be her primary purpose, to lead one to deeper union with her Son. One of my favorite Saints has one of the most beautiful quotes I’ve ever read when it comes to devotion to Mary, and it goes like this; ***“Do not be afraid of loving the Blessed Virgin too much. You can never love her enough. And Jesus will be very happy, because the Blessed Virgin is His Mother.”~St. Therese of Lisieux ***…I wholeheartedly agree with you my Little Flower…I wholeheartedly agree!

Peace, Mark

 

[Mark121359]

Whenever I read these types of threads, I always seem to come away feeling perplexed. There have been so many of these threads in the short time I’ve been here at CAF, with titles such as “Church Mariology making me nuts!,” or “Discernment about Marian devotion,” and "Simple question regarding alleged Marian worship? " and on and on and on. And it always seems to be pointed out on these threads, how some Catholics go way too far with their devotion to Mary. And yet, I never hear what exactly they have observed to come to this conclusion. Have I missed something? Is there some sort of checklist or manual or something that you can reference that allows one to make these serious allegations? I get the feeling that for some Catholics here, Mary is just an afterthought. That God simply used her as the vessel to bring His Son into the world, and then shelved her. But if you look at the CCC, you find that this is simply not the case. Look at all the references to Mary there! And this line here truly sums it up perfectly I think; “The Church’s devotion to the Blessed Virgin is intrinsic to Christian worship.” ***(In-trin-sic: 1.Belonging naturally; essential; belonging to the essential nature or constitution of a thing) *** Amen! You see, the Church sees her for who she really is…***The *** Ark of the Covenant! A Spotless Rose!..with not even the slightest blemish, not even a hint of the stain of sin on this Precious Soul! I realize that for some, that they just don’t have a great deal of devotion to Our Lady. And there’s nothing wrong with that! Nothing! But I’ve also come to realize that for some on here, that if someone shows even the slightest perceived *“excessive” * amount of devotion to her, you’re sometimes looked upon with suspicion, and often criticized. And that deeply troubles me. It’s probably fairly obvious to you by now that I’m deeply devoted to the Blessed Mother. I don’t hide it. I’m not at all ashamed or afraid to admit, that I’m absolutely in love with Mary! And to my way of thinking, there is not a thing wrong with any Catholic who feels this way about her! Many Popes and many, many Saints have shown tremendous love for her. Saints such as Saint Louis Marie Grignion de Montfort, St. Alphonsus Maria de Liguori, Saint Maximilian Kolbe, and Saint Bernard of Clairvaux to name a few. And I also should point out, that Saint Louis Marie de Montfort had this to say about Catholics who were critical of those devoted to Mary, and I can’t help but thinking that he’s so spot-on about this. The bolded below are what I’ve sometimes observed here at CAF.

Critical devotees are for the most part proud scholars, people of independent and self-satisfied minds, who deep down in their hearts have a vague sort of devotion to Mary. However, they criticise nearly all those forms of devotion to her which simple and pious people use to honour their good Mother just because such practices do not appeal to them. They question all miracles and stories which testify to the mercy and power of the Blessed Virgin, even those recorded by trustworthy authors or taken from the chronicles of religious orders. ***They cannot bear to see simple and humble people on their knees before an altar or statue of our Lady, or at prayer before some outdoor shrine. They even accuse them of idolatry as if they were adoring the wood or the stone. ***They say that as far as they are concerned they do not care for such outward display of devotion and that they are not so gullible as to believe all the fairy tales and stories told of our Blessed Lady. When you tell them how admirably the Fathers of the Church praised our Lady, they reply that the Fathers were exaggerating as orators do, or that their words are misrepresented. These false devotees, these proud worldly people are greatly to be feared. They do untold harm to devotion to our Lady. While pretending to correct abuses, they succeed only too well in turning people away from this devotion.

I haven’t heard of too many who showed more devotion to Our Lady than de Montfort did. Now I ask you, is he taking devotion to Mary too far? Are his views of the Blessed Mother flawed? Well, the Catholic Church declared him a Saint! Are we somehow supposed to think that the Church erred in this decision? That the Church somehow “overlooked” his “excessive” devotion to Mary…and yet made him a Saint anyway? I’ll never buy that! And I’ll tell you something, there are two others who are in the process of being made Saints by the name of Blessed John Paul ll, and Blessed Mother Teresa who also were both de Montfort devotees. And as everyone on here knows, few Popes loved Our Lady more than JPll! The point I’m trying to make is this. Our Church does far more than to just suggest to us that we should go to Mary, she downright encourages us to do so! I know in my own experience, since my relationship with Mary has developed, my love for her Son has deepened tremendously. I find myself wanting to go to Eucharistic Adoration every Thursday and that my experience at Mass has never felt like this before! But none of this should be a surprise to us. It’s what the Church has always taught us about Mary, that she will always lead you in one direction…straight to the Heart of Jesus! It seems to be her primary purpose, to lead one to deeper union with her Son. One of my favorite Saints has one of the most beautiful quotes I’ve ever read when it comes to devotion to Mary, and it goes like this; ***“Do not be afraid of loving the Blessed Virgin too much. You can never love her enough. And Jesus will be very happy, because the Blessed Virgin is His Mother.”~St. Therese of Lisieux ***…I wholeheartedly agree with you my Little Flower…I wholeheartedly agree!

Peace, Mark

 

[PRmerger]

On your first point, you are correct as long as the “asking” is for prayers to God and not granting of requests.

Not exactly. Any “requests” that we ask a saint to grant we understand to be given only through their union with God.

So a saint can grant a “request” in the same way that St. Paul says that he saves us. Yep. St. Paul says that he (Paul) can save us!

 

[Memaw]

Whenever I read these types of threads, I always seem to come away feeling perplexed. There have been so many of these threads in the short time I’ve been here at CAF, with titles such as “Church Mariology making me nuts!,” or “Discernment about Marian devotion,” and “Simple question regarding alleged Marian worship? " and on and on and on. And it always seems to be pointed out on these threads, how some Catholics go way too far with their devotion to Mary. And yet, I never hear what exactly they have observed to come to this conclusion. Have I missed something? Is there some sort of checklist or manual or something that you can reference that allows one to make these serious allegations? I get the feeling that for some Catholics here, Mary is just an afterthought. That God simply used her as the vessel to bring His Son into the world, and then shelved her. But if you look at the CCC, you find that this is simply not the case. Look at all the references to Mary there! And this line here truly sums it up perfectly I think; "The Church’s devotion to the Blessed Virgin is intrinsic to Christian worship.” ***(In-trin-sic: 1.Belonging naturally; essential; belonging to the essential nature or constitution of a thing) *** Amen! You see, the Church sees her for who she really is…***The *** Ark of the Covenant! A Spotless Rose!..with not even the slightest blemish, not even a hint of the stain of sin on this Precious Soul! I realize that for some, that they just don’t have a great deal of devotion to Our Lady. And there’s nothing wrong with that! Nothing! But I’ve also come to realize that for some on here, that if someone shows even the slightest perceived *“excessive” * amount of devotion to her, you’re sometimes looked upon with suspicion, and often criticized. And that deeply troubles me. It’s probably fairly obvious to you by now that I’m deeply devoted to the Blessed Mother. I don’t hide it. I’m not at all ashamed or afraid to admit, that I’m absolutely in love with Mary! And to my way of thinking, there is not a thing wrong with any Catholic who feels this way about her! Many Popes and many, many Saints have shown tremendous love for her. Saints such as Saint Louis Marie Grignion de Montfort, St. Alphonsus Maria de Liguori, Saint Maximilian Kolbe, and Saint Bernard of Clairvaux to name a few. And I also should point out, that Saint Louis Marie de Montfort had this to say about Catholics who were critical of those devoted to Mary, and I can’t help but thinking that he’s so spot-on about this. The bolded below are what I’ve sometimes observed here at CAF. I haven’t heard of too many who showed more devotion to Our Lady than de Montfort did. Now I ask you, is he taking devotion to Mary too far? Are his views of the Blessed Mother flawed? Well, the Catholic Church declared him a Saint! Are we somehow supposed to think that the Church erred in this decision? That the Church somehow “overlooked” his “excessive” devotion to Mary…and yet made him a Saint anyway? I’ll never buy that! And I’ll tell you something, there are two others who are in the process of being made Saints by the name of Blessed John Paul ll, and Blessed Mother Teresa who also were both de Montfort devotees. And as everyone on here knows, few Popes loved Our Lady more than JPll! The point I’m trying to make is this. Our Church does far more than to just suggest to us that we should go to Mary, she downright encourages us to do so! I know in my own experience, since my relationship with Mary has developed, my love for her Son has deepened tremendously. I find myself wanting to go to Eucharistic Adoration every Thursday and that my experience at Mass has never felt like this before! But none of this should be a surprise to us. It’s what the Church has always taught us about Mary, that she will always lead you in one direction…straight to the Heart of Jesus! It seems to be her primary purpose, to lead one to deeper union with her Son. One of my favorite Saints has one of the most beautiful quotes I’ve ever read when it comes to devotion to Mary, and it goes like this; ***“Do not be afraid of loving the Blessed Virgin too much. You can never love her enough. And Jesus will be very happy, because the Blessed Virgin is His Mother.”~St. Therese of Lisieux ***…I wholeheartedly agree with you my Little Flower…I wholeheartedly agree!

Peace, Mark

And I wholeheartedly agree with you Mark!! Blessed Pope John Paul II dedicated his papacy to Her, “Totally Yours”. Our new Pope Francis on May 13th Consecrated his Papacy to Our Lady of Fatima. God Bless, Memaw

 

[Classicist]

The Catholic Church does not give Mary “too-high” esteem. Many Catholics do. Even if a Pope hugs an inanimate object shaped like Mary, for example, he is not making some kind of infallible statement or teaching as to what all Catholics must do. The Pope is a Catholic christian himself, and has his own devotions as a human person. Some of those can be taken too far, I am sure. It is the same with each of us…

Pray, lest you enter into temptation…

 

[Koineman]

Emanuel Swedenborg got the authority from the Lord. “The second coming of the Lord is effected by means of a man to whom the Lord has manifested Himself in person and whom He has filled with His Spirit, that He may teach the doctrines of the New Church from the Lord by means of the Word.” (TCR 779).

Swedenborg, Servant of the Lord

The Heavenly Doctrines, written by Emanuel Swedenborg, are also an uncovering and revealing: “In order that the Lord might be continuously present with me, He has unfolded to me the spiritual sense of His Word, wherein is the Divine truth in its very light, and it is in this light that He is continually present. For His presence in the Word is by means of the spiritual sense and in no other way … The sense of the letter of the Word is like a cloud, and the spiritual sense is the glory, the Lord Himself being the Sun from which the light comes. Thus the Lord is the Word” (TCR 779).

The sense of the letter of the Word, is the natural sense of the Word. Every Christians believes this sense of the Word is Holy, because the Lord had spoke it. But many of do not know that there is a spiritual sense, that is hitten in the Word.They are call heavenly secrets.

Gnosticism.

 

[jmcrae]

Not exactly. Any “requests” that we ask a saint to grant we understand to be given only through their union with God.

So a saint can grant a “request” in the same way that St. Paul says that he saves us. Yep. St. Paul says that he (Paul) can save us!

I see no reason why not. Are the Saints in Heaven bound and hobbled? Are they in some way crippled? If so, then who in their right mind would ever want to go to Heaven?

But you can ask of the Saints anything that you might ask your dearest friends on earth for. Remember - they love you and they desire your happiness. Worship only God, but go ahead and petition the Saints for anything. It is not “worship” to ask favours from people.