Do Catholics have to pray to Mary?

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With regard to praying to or invoking the Blessed Virgin, I guess in the abstract it is not strictly necessary, but I can’t think of any reason to refuse to do so or to neglect to do so that doesn’t proceed from beliefs contrary to the faith.
 
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I heard the Confiteor all the time as a child (the Roman Canon too) so it’s a bit weird for me to almost never hear them used today. But it’s almost always the form C when I go. Sometimes the form B.

I’ve read that some priests do not like the Confiteor because it puts too much emphasis on the individual and his sins instead of emphasizing the group and forgiveness.
 
Saint Bonaventure says, “For she was the Virgin, who was closest to him, and therefore accepted his words and reserved them for others.” And further, “she was also the great contemplative. Thus, Bernard says 'Blessed Mary has penetrated the most profound abyss of divine wisdom to a degree that is almost incredible, so that we can say of her that she is immersed in inaccessible light (cf. 1 Tim 6:16) as utterly as is possible to any created nature not deified by hypostatic union.” (Com on Lk, ch. 10, n. 79) (St. Bernard’s Sermon for the Sunday within the Octave of the Assumption of the BVM, 3)

The editors of Bonaventure’s Opera Omnia “rightly indicate that the phrase, “inaccessible light” stems from 1 Timothy 6:16”, says Robert J. Karris, OFM

1 Tim 6:16: “Who only hath immortality, and inhabiteth light inaccessible, whom no man hath seen, nor can see: to whom be honour and empire everlasting. Amen.” Which presents in itself basis that she is rightly called Queen of Heaven and Earth by the Church.
 
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As some posters have alluded to, Catholics are obliged to participate in the Church’s liturgy. The Church’s liturgy invokes Mary at certain places… especially on Marian feasts (and to the best of my knowledge every country has at least one Marian Holy Day of Obligation)… so in that sense, in terms of joining oneself to the public prayer of the Church, yes, Catholics must invoke Our Lady.
We are also bound to complete the penance assigned to us by our confessor. I doubt any Catholic has gone through their entire life without being assigned a Hail Mary as penance.
 
Can’t fully argue with your statement.
yankeesouth said:
We don’t actually pray to Mary per say

Well yes we do. If we are asking the Blessed Mother for something we are praying to her.
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Can’t fully disagree with your statement. However, Even our most familiar prayer " Hail Mary" is a petition for her to pray for our intentions. Many unfamiliar with Catholicism may unfairly view you simple statement to imply we “worship” Mary. Rather we adore and petition her to mediate for us to her son.

In fact, I cant think of a single Catholic prayer that asks Mary to provide something to us in accord with her own power. It’s always through her son.
 
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NO … you don’t NEED to pray to Mary.

[But why would you NOT pray to Mary and ask her for her intercession.]

[Jesus, her Son, does what she asks Him to do. If she prays to Him and asks Him to help us, wow! That gives us a free gift!!!]
 
I pray to her, but I must admit that I do so in my own words, not in Hail Mary form
 
jmj777 said:
Absolutely not! We are required to assist at ALL parts of the Mass, not just the parts we agree with.
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Yes. That is what I think also. I don’t see how a Catholic can just choose not to pray certain prayers of the Mass.
 
MonteRCMS said:
NO … you don’t NEED to pray to Mary.
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Tis_Bearself said:
You are not obligated to ask Mary for her intercession with God
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angel12 said:
No, not required.
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Reuben_J said:
Not necessary
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What if you go to confession and the priest gives you a penance of 3 Hail Mary’s?
Tis_Bearself said:
there doesn’t seem to be any “penalty” if someone in the pew chose not to recite the lines about Mary and the Saints.
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What if you choose not to recite the Hail Mary when the priest assigns it to you as a penance in confession?
 
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AlNg said:
Yes. That is what I think also. I don’t see how a Catholic can just choose not to pray certain prayers of the Mass.
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The problem is that this prayer we are discussing is one of three options. A Catholic technically could walk out of the church and go to one using one of the other options and still meet his obligations. Although as someone else said, the motivation for doing so would be wrong if the reason the person was doing it was to reject the Catholic teaching on Mary.

A better argument is the person who said that if you are a Catholic, you will need to participate in the Mass in honor of Mary on at least one Marian feast day because every diocese is likely to have at least one such day that is a Holyday of Obligation. So you can’t “get out of that” by just going to some other church.

So I think the answer to the OP’s original question is that a Catholic will need to accept the Church teachings on Mary and the saints and participate in the public prayer to them as needed to meet his Mass obligations. But there is no requirement for a Catholic to pray to Mary and the saints as part of one’s private devotion, apart from the joining in public prayer.
 
angel12 said:
Well, obviously that’s different.
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The title of the thread is: “Do Catholics have to pray to Mary?”
I don’t see how a Catholic can choose not to pray to Mary. There are holydays in honor of Mary and further If you are given a ;penance of one Hail Mary after confession, you must pray to Mary. And your ;penance is not a public prayer. Your confession is very private.
So I disagree strongly with anyone who says a Catholic does not have to pray to Mary.
Tis_Bearself said:
A Catholic technically could walk out of the church and go to one using one of the other options and still meet his obligations.
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A Catholic cannot walk out of Church and refuse to accept the penance given to him by his confessor.
 
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AlNg said:
A Catholic cannot walk out of Church and refuse to accept the penance given to him by his confessor.
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You are assuming the confessor gives a penance involving Mary.
Not all confessors give “prayer penances”, not all of them who give prayers will give prayers involving Mary, and even if they did, some of them would likely be open to giving a different prayer if a person, for example a converted Protestant, said he was struggling with praying to Mary.

Although I myself have a big devotion to Mary, I can see where “praying to Mary” is a struggle for those not raised with the concept. There are also priests who de-emphasize intercessory prayer or Marian prayer because they think it is important for people to build the relationship directly with God. I may not like this myself, but I can understand the different view.
 
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chieft said:
Can’t fully disagree with your statement. However, Even our most familiar prayer " Hail Mary" is a petition for her to pray for our intentions. Many unfamiliar with Catholicism may unfairly view you simple statement to imply we “worship” Mary. Rather we adore and petition her to mediate for us to her son.

In fact, I cant think of a single Catholic prayer that asks Mary to provide something to us in accord with her own power. It’s always through her son.
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Right. Prayer means to ask as in pray tell me. Protestants have tended to interpret prayer as petitioning only a deity. Personally I try to win back right usage of the word pray. But it is good to be clear.
AlNg said:
A Catholic cannot walk out of Church and refuse to accept the penance given to him by his confessor.
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A Catholic can ask for a new penance. You can ask another priest for a different penance. Now, if a Catholic asks for a new penance because he believes the Hail Mary is wrong he is denying the Faith.
 
My understanding from CCC is that " "The Church’s devotion to the Blessed Virgin is intrinsic to Christian worship."515 The Church rightly honors “the Blessed Virgin with special devotion. From the most ancient times the Blessed Virgin has been honored with the title of ‘Mother of God,’ to whose protection the faithful fly in all their dangers and needs. . .”
 
First, we don’t pray to Mary, at least all of the catholics I know do not. We ask her to pray for us, but that’s it. But I’m sure there are some who do pray to Mary which is wrong to me.
 
Most Catholics do, yes, but not all as it’s not required to do so, encouraged, but not required.

I do not pray to Mary or the saints.
 
If one is Catholic, why the resistance to anything having to do with Our Blessed Mother? I just don’t get it.

Jesus left Her to all of us when He said from the cross to John, “Behold thy Mother.” Such resistance to honoring Her and praying to Her is a slap to Jesus’ face with a “No, thank you! I’d rather just pray to you, Jesus.”

Or is it just me???

Peace.

+JMJ+
 
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