Do Catholics have to pray to Mary?

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I think I am giving up trying to answer this because I do not know how to answer your questions as you put them.

All I know is that there are different type of prayers, which we can do in our personal prayers. It is our choice.

As for the teaching of the Church, I said we have to believe that the saints can hear us.

As for the mass, we have to attend on obligation days.

I hope that’s clear enough. More than that it can becomes scrupulous and probably other posters are better in explaining them.

God bless.
 
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Rosary was from St Dominic some one thousand years ago. You can not pray the Rosary though I cannot find a reason why people do not want to pray it. There are those of course who prefer othet form of prayers. The richness of the Church tradition in prayers is truly amazing.
 
Get into … make it a habit … to pray to Mary to ask her to pray FOR us.

But you can pray to other saints as well. Or even to non-saints. I am not a saint but I pray for other people all the time.

I pray to St. Anthony … a priest friend said that maybe I could get job working for St. Anthony in his office … but a friend said that when she misplaces her rosary beads, she prays to St. Anthony and her hand and her beads just find each other.

Heck … get all the outside help that you can!!!
 
Not to be a minimalist, think of it as a starting point. What are the absolute, have to be doing, requirements to be a Catholic?
 
Yes! She was given to us at the foot of the cross by our Lord Jesus Christ!
 
Yes, that is true, but the Marian devotions are
deep teachings, the “meat” of the teachings of
the Church, the uninitiated do not understand
and is turned off by it, not realizing that it can
have the power to STRENGTHEN one’s faith.
 
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 penitent can ask for another penance from the confessor or ask another confessor to commute the penance imposed by another confessor.

In such a case, one does well to propose something specific and that exceeds what the confessor proposes.

Confessor: “For your penance, I like you to pray 5 Hail Mary’s”

Penitent: “Father, may I request a penance focused on the Passion of Christ…I would like to spend 15 minutes meditating on the Seven Last Words of Christ on the Cross, as He died for my sins.”
 
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joeybaggz said:
I have been taught by several priests in different circumstances, the same thing. That the creed we say at Mass contains only one reference to the Blessed Virgin, and that is “…born of the Virgin Mary…” That is all we really have to believe. (Though it is a Catholic Dogma that Mary, as a gift of Her Son, was assumed into heaven, body and soul, at her death - The Assumption) As to the other Marian devotions, we are free to have devotion to any we want as the church has researched them and found nothing in any Marian apparition that is in opposition to “the deposit of faith…”. And actually, the only thing Mary ever really asks is the last words we hear from her in Scripture; “do whatever He tells you.” Mary always points to her Son.
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Very well said
 
Reuben_J said:
Under pain of mortal sin, Catholics are obliged to attend Mass on Sundays. And if the priest chooses a particular option, (is it option A), then it is written that All pray as follows:

All: I confess to almighty God,

and to you, my brothers and sisters,

that I have sinned through my own fault,

in my thoughts and in my words,

in what I have done,

and in what I have failed to do;

and I ask blessed Mary, ever virgin,

all the angels and saints,

and you, my brothers and sisters,

to pray for me to the Lord, our God
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One is not obliged under pain of mortal sin to pronounce every word of every sentence in those parts pertaining to the lay people. I remember being at Masses in the United States, as Presider at Eucharist, and the hymns were unsingable for me…so I did not sing them. I left them to the choir; they are themselves ministers in the liturgical assembly and they were fulfilling their liturgical office quite well without me…just as I, as Presider, fulfill my offices in the synaxis.
 
Don_Ruggero said:
A penitent can ask for another penance from the confessor or ask another confessor to commute the penance imposed by another confessor.

In such a case, one does well to propose something specific and that exceeds what the confessor proposes.

Confessor: “For your penance, I like you to pray 5 Hail Mary’s”
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And if the penitent says: I would never pray to Mary. Please give me another penance because I believe that prayer to Mary is idolatrous?
 
No, what they are saying is that even after coming to realize that it’s OK to pray to Mary and the Saints it may not be something they are comfortable with having come from that background.
 
GML3 said:
Not to be a minimalist, think of it as a starting point. What are the absolute, have to be doing, requirements to be a Catholic?
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The Mass, the Creed, the 10 Commandments, the Corporeal and Spiritual works of Mercy… if you are good on those things (which by the way are quite challenging), then you are on the right track.
 
yankeesouth said:
Well yes we do. If we are asking the Blessed Mother for something we are praying to her.
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Seems we are parsing words a little bit here… I think the best way to think about it is to lift the exact words from the Penitential Rite at Mass - “and I ask blessed Mary, ever virgin, all the angels and saints, and you, my brothers and sisters, to pray for me to the Lord our God.”

We ask Mary, the rest of the saints, the angels and each other to pray to God… That is the clearest way to describe what it is we do when communicating with Mary.

I, for one, find using the word ‘Pray’ when talking about how we communicate with Mary and the rest of the saints, to be confusing for many given how the word is understood today. However, the Church is clear about what it means and how it understands that action.

Ultimately, the only thing we are asking for Mary and the saints to ‘do’ is pray to God on our behalf. That is all they do (which is important) any ‘action’ per se (healing, guidance, etc) is completed by God.
 
Elf01 said:
No, what they are saying is that even after coming to realize that it’s OK to pray to Mary and the Saints it may not be something they are comfortable with having come from that background.
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Why would they not be comfortable with it except that they believe prayer to Mary is idolatry? You can make up all kinds of loopholes and excuses not to pray to Mary, but in the end must a Catholic accept what the Church teaches about Mary or not?

Here are some of the Catholic teachings on Mary:
Her Immaculate Conception according to which she is preserved free from all stain of original sin.
The Assumption where She was taken up body and soul into heavenly glory.
She is exalted by the Lord as Queen over all things,
She is our Mother in the order of grace.
She is the exemplary realization of the Church.
The Blessed Virgin is invoked in the Church under the titles of Advocate, Helper, Benefactress, and Mediatrix.
The Church’s devotion to the Blessed Virgin is intrinsic to Christian worship. 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. .
The liturgical feasts dedicated to the Mother of God and Marian prayer, such as the rosary, an “epitome of the whole Gospel,” express this devotion to the Virgin Mary.
The Holy Mother of God, the new Eve, Mother of the Church, continues in heaven to exercise her maternal role on behalf of the members of Christ”
 
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“according to the illustrious and just opinion of St. Thomas, who says that the Annunciation was effected with the consent of the Virgin standing in the place of humanity. With equal truth may it be also affirmed that, by the will of God, Mary is the intermediary through whom is distributed unto us this immense treasure of mercies gathered by God, for mercy and truth were created by Jesus Christ. Thus as no man goeth to the Father but by the Son, so no man goeth to Christ but by His Mother. How great are the goodness and mercy revealed in this design of God!” (Encyclical of Pope Leo XIII, Octobri Mense, 4)
 
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yankeesouth said:
ember now…no disagreeing with the Pope!
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Of course the Pope is correct, but he is speaking in the sense that the Church has defined teachings related to God’s actions towards Mary like the Annunciation, Immaculate Conception and the Assumption, etc. Plus, the Mass - in the Mass we ask Mary to pray to God for us. He is certainly not changing the Church’s teaching related to private devotional practices.

And the Pope’s words in the article are excellent where he talks about Mary as a great example for the faithful. Quiet, lowly and humble…away from sin and close to God.
 
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