Do Catholics have to pray to Mary?

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Thanks for clearing that up. I wasn’t sure as I don’t do it myself. I remember some people saying they don’t pray daily Rosary because they prefer to pray LOTH.
 
Tis_Bearself said:
There is a difference between “never praying a Hail Mary” or “never practicing any devotion to Mary” and “openly rejecting any devotion to Mary”.
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This!!! I really wish that some people would try to understand this!

I pray the Hail Mary when I wash my hands (I work in healthcare/food service).
I wash my hands A LOT! And prevailing wisdom is to wash for about 20-30 seconds. It takes me 25 seconds to prayerfully say a Hail Mary, so that is how I time my hand washing.

That said, that is the extent of my “Marian devotion”. I am not much of a rosary pray-er, and I have not consecrated myself to her, nor do I have any intention to at this point in my life.

I do not reject Mary, or anything that the Church teaches about her, she just does not have a huge place in my daily spirituality.

And you know what?? That is perfectly OK! It doesn’t make me any less Catholic than anyone who does have a devotion to Mary.

Pray as you can, not as you can’t! What matters is that you pray!!
 
Pope St. Pius X says in the Encyclical Ad Diem Illum, one can only find Jesus with Mary.

I think it’s important to remember that, as Pope Benedict XV said, “Mary redeemed the human race together with Christ.”

Or as Vatican II puts it, she cooperated in a singular way in the Savior’s work of giving back supernatural life to souls, so that she is our Mother in the order of grace.

So because I know about Mary from reading Magisterial documents and doctors of the church/saint books like True Devotion to Mary and the Glories of Mary, it is certainly a matter of salvation for me to pray to Mary.

What St. Augustine said about God, I feel at the same time about Mary. Too late have I loved you. My life was like hell before I prayed to Mary, because she is the way to Jesus Christ.

She the tender gift of Jesus Christ on the Cross to every single human person. We are all called to receive this awesome gift of Our Mother and Lady.
 
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Sadly, there are many people who post on this forum who do not WANT to understand that.

There is zero, ZERO, obligation to have any type of special devotion to Mary.

And I will keep saying it on this forum until they either ban me or I die!!
 
“Have pity on the Heart of your Most Holy Mother. It is covered with thorns with which ungrateful men pierce it at every moment, and there is no one to remove them with an act of reparation.”

These are the words of Jesus in a vision to Sister Lucia (Fatima seer) which is authenticated by the Church. It seems to me that Our Lord is pretty clear that He wants the world to pray to the Blessed Mother and make acts of reparation to her. To willingly refuse this would offend Our Lord greatly. Would this be sinful? You tell me. ¯_(ツ)_/¯
"See, my daughter, my Heart encircled by thorns with which ungrateful men pierce it at every moment by their blasphemies and ingratitude. Do you, at least, strive to console me. Tell them that I promise to assist at the hour of death with the graces necessary for salvation all those who, in order to make reparation to me, on the First Saturday of five successive months, go to confession, receive Holy Communion, say five decades of the Rosary, and keep me company for a quarter of an hour, meditating on the fifteen mysteries of the Rosary.”
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“To deny or reject the feminine aspect in belief, or, concretely, the Marian aspect, leads finally to the negation of creation and the invalidation of grace. It leads to a picture of God’s omnipotence that reduces the creature to a mere masquerade and that also completely fails to understand God of the Bible…” (Daughter Zion, Cardnial Razinger, p. 28)
 
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No Catholic is obligated to believe in any private revelation, which is what Fatima is.
It does not make someone any less Catholic

Why do so many people insist that they way they want to pray is the only way other Catholics should pray?
 
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Brendan_64 said:
Whether Catholics have to pray to Mary or not, why would a Catholic make a decision not to?

We believe that Mary is the mother of God, that she is our Mother, that she intercedes for us, and that God gave her to us as a gift to lead us to Heaven. Why would we then decide that we don’t really need this?
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Right! And as JPII tells us in the Encyclical Redemptoris Mater, Jesus gives us Mary as Mother from the Cross, so that EVERY single human person can have a UNIQUE mother-child, child-mother, relationship with Our Lady.

When we consider how she suffered for us with Jesus from the Annunciation on (knowing her son would be killed), and suffered especially for us under the Cross, and how she is all gentleness and compassion, why would we not reach out to her in whatever way comes from our heart?
 
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I never said that a Catholic was obliged to believe in private revelations.

The constant teaching of the Church requires Catholics to give assent to the Divine Maternity and therefore to pray to the Blessed Mother.
 
omgriley said:
These are the words of Jesus in a vision to Sister Lucia (Fatima seer) which is authenticated by the Church. It seems to me that Our Lord is pretty clear that He wants the world to pray to the Blessed Mother and make acts of reparation to her. To willingly refuse this would offend Our Lord greatly.
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You posted right here that you think Jesus is would be offended if someone did not pray the way a private revelation said you should pray.

No one has to “pray to” Mary, or ask for her intercession, or have any special devotion to her what-so-ever!

All a Catholic need do is to believe in the Marian dogmas of the Church. How or how not someone prays is no one else’s business and to say that one is obligated to do something that the Church does not obligate anyone to do is wrong.
 
[Edward said:] “Do we have to talk with our mother?”

I think that’s a wonderful question. And to talk with such a tender Mother! We are happily obliged even to honor our earthly parents, who are sinners. Mary is our Mother in the order of grace (Vatican II), meaning that she continues to bring us the gifts of eternal salvation (Vatican II)

Again, we are obligated to love every single person in Christ. Does this not apply to our Mother?
 
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patricius79 said:
Pope St. Pius X says in the Encyclical Ad Diem Illum, one can only find Jesus with Mary.

I think it’s important to remember that, as Pope Benedict XV said, “Mary redeemed the human race together with Christ.”

Or as Vatican II puts it, she cooperated in a singular way in the Savior’s work of giving back supernatural life to souls, so that she is our Mother in the order of grace.

So because I know about Mary from reading Magisterial documents and doctors of the church/saint books like True Devotion to Mary and the Glories of Mary, it is certainly a matter of salvation for me to pray to Mary.

What St. Augustine said about God, I feel at the same time about Mary. Too late have I loved you. My life was like hell before I prayed to Mary, because she is the way to Jesus Christ.

She the tender gift of Jesus Christ on the Cross to every single human person. We are all called to receive this awesome gift of Our Mother and Lady.
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Sounds like you have a nice devotion to Mary… that makes me and many here happy I’m sure. However, your statements are related to your personal devotional preferences. I’ll admit that it is a bit frustrating when others try to push their personal preferences on others and say that their preferences are indeed facts, but we all have to be tolerant, I guess.

I, for one, will stick with the Church’s teaching on private devotions as optional practices and acknowledge the Church’s public teachings and those things that come to us from revelation… For me, the Church’s public teaching is more than sufficient and challenges me to pursue a better life more aligned with the teachings of Christ and God’s will.

I Timothy 2:5 “There is one God and one mediator between God and men, the man Jesus Christ.”
 
patricius79 said:
ain, we are obligated to love every single person in Christ. Does this not apply to our Mother?
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Patricius, no one is saying or even suggesting that we don’t have to love our neighbor… that is conjecture and is very misleading. This conversation is about whether people have to have special devotion to Mary… and the Church teaches that we do not.

Acknowledging God’s actions in the Immaculate Conception, the Assumption, the Incarnation and the Divine Motherhood… is A LOT!!! Believing these things and not indulging in devotional practices is not an offense to Mary, Jesus, God the Father, the Holy Spirit or any one else… I wish you wouldn’t take it that way.
 
omgriley said:
The constant teaching of the Church requires Catholics to give assent to the Divine Maternity and therefore to pray to the Blessed Mother.
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I think you are mistaken here… Giving assent to the Divine Maternity means that we believe God created Mary to be Jesus’ mother. That means that we thank God and praise God for that action.

Why do you think it obligates a Catholic to pray to Mary?
 
patricius79 said:
When we consider how she suffered for us with Jesus…
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See this is where I get a little weird on the subject… I see Mary as the luckiest person ever created. She was created by God with a really important job… had angels talking to her to help her make the right decisions and got to hang out with, nurture and teach Jesus… For me, the emphasis is never on Mary’s suffering, but instead on the great gift that God gave her…
 
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Don’t you think Jesus would think it rude of us not to acknowledge His mother, even often?

Do we treat her less than our own mother when Our Lord gave His mother to us?

Do we dismiss His gift?

Why is the argument never: Can we ever love the mother of our Savior enough?

Someone is always trying to diminish.

Catholicism’s spirit is instead to increase the importance of everything that God gives us.

We need more maximalism…more magnanimity…and less ‘stingy Christians’ seeking to minimize our expressions of love…containerize them.

We should reject “stingy Christianity” at first contact with it, turning the point around on such suggestions, and going in completely the opposite direction of the stingy types.
 
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Saying someone is a “stingy Christian” because they don’t pray the way you do is a very poor example for a Christian to set. 🤨
 
Being stingy is to say “I don’t greet the mother of God” (name the reason for this failure to do so…and I will list the type of stinginess).

Feel free to start a list of reasons why one would not greet Mary.
 
What I’m not understanding is that if the church does not require us to pray or have a devotion, then why does anyone try and require us to do so?

Sounds like others that Jesus had very harsh words for during His time on earth.
 
What you are doing is calling those who don’t pray to Mary a name that dies not apply as you and others are creating a rule that the church itself does not have.
 
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