Do Catholics have to pray to Mary?

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I do not believe that Mary was given to every human. She was given to one apostle, the one that Jesus loved and no one else.
 
Agreed. I have cast division of these people. I am guilty of sin. Pray for me too please :pray:t2:
 
I am always suspicious when people assert very…assertively…about the issue of minimum requirements. What they really mean is, they have a problem with whatever the “non-minimum-requirement” issue is.

Approaching religion with an attitude of only the minimum/emphasis on what is “required” is problematic.
 
Where does the Church say that we are not required to pray to our Mother? - An argument from silence is a tragically flawed and invalid way to view this. A more appropriate question is where does the Church require anyone to pray to Mary? The Mass - our highest form of prayer calls us to ask Mary, the angels and saints to pray for us… that is crystal clear

Pope Francis (like Pope Paul VI, for example, before him) states that: “If one wants to be a Christian, they have to be Marian” - Of course, the Church teaches several things about Mary. The Immaculate Conception, the Assumption, the Divine Motherhood, Perpetual Virginity… That is A LOT! The Church is Marian in this sense. I haven’t seen anyone argue against this…

Vatican II states:

The entire body of the faithful pours forth instant supplications to the Mother of God and Mother of men that she, who aided the beginnings of the Church by her prayers, may now, exalted as she is above all the angels and saints, intercede before her Son in the fellowship of all the saints, until all families of people, whether they are honored with the title of Christian or whether they still do not know the Saviour, may be happily gathered together in peace and harmony into one people of God, for the glory of the Most Holy and Undivided Trinity. - YES… exactly… the Church teaches four very important things about Mary… Immaculate Conception, Assumption, Divine Motherhood and Perpetual Virginity… that is A LOT and is an extremely high honor. All four of those high teachings demonstrate God’s greatness and the plan God had for Mary.
 
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I want to be very clear that I have no right to judge you or anyone on here. I’m only attempting to testify to what I’ve read from Vatican II, the Popes, Doctors and saints in the Church, as well as current priests like Fr. Donald Calloway.

I’m know that God meets us where we are at, and that God knows our struggles, limitations, impediments, confusions, weakness, etc.

That’s why I think we need more and more emphasis on two realities that go together: Divine Mercy and Mary, the Mother of Mercy.

An Encyclical is a very weighty document. John Paul II in the Encyclical Redemptoris Mater states that Mary stands at the center of the Paschal mystery, where she is given as mother to every single human individual, and to all mankind, to have a unique child-mother, mother-child relatonship.

It is Church dogma that Mary “brings us the gifts of eternal salvation” and is our “Mother in the order of grace” (Vatican II Dogmatic Constitution on the Church.
 
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I have no personal issue with praying to Mary but do have a problem when people say it is required when I do not believe it is as I think it may turn off potential converts.

We need to state what the Church actually teaches and not place burdens on people.
 
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I refuse your false premise. Your premise is entirely based on what you view as absolute minimum requirements. I wouldn’t say following the absolute minimum makes someone a “great” Catholic, frankly.
 
KMG said:
I refuse your false premise. Your premise is entirely based on what you view as absolute minimum requirements. I wouldn’t say following the absolute minimum makes someone a “great” Catholic, frankly.
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That is not my premise…
 
I just do not believe that she does. Mary brought us our savior and nothing more. That is the only way that she participated in our salvation. She has no hand in It beyond that.

Jesus saves, Mary does not.
 
No. You do not have to pray to Mary. But it would be foolish not to. Praying the Rosary together with my husband helped us more in our marriage than years of counseling and marriage retreats ever did. Not to mention the multitude of spiritual benefits for both of us. Ave Maria!
 
Curious11 said:
I understand Marian devotion is acceptable, but do Catholics have to pray to Mary? Can a Catholic believe that he/she needs no intermediary in Mary but accepts that others can pray to her without it being idolatry?
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Friend I was OK with you POST until I hit the Word “IDOLATRY”

For Catholic Marian prayers to be idolatry we’d HAVE to WORSHIP Her; which we do NOT

We reverence Mary and WORSHIP Only Her Son and the Trinity Godhead.

Exod.25: 18, 20 And you shall make two cherubim of gold; of hammered work shall you make them, on the two ends of the mercy seat. [20] The cherubim shall spread out their wings above, overshadowing the mercy seat with their wings, their faces one to another; toward the mercy seat shall the faces of the cherubim be

Num.21: 8-9 And the LORD said to Moses, “Make a fiery serpent, and set it on a pole; and every one who is bitten, when he sees it, shall live.” So Moses made a bronze serpent, and set it on a pole; and if a serpent bit any man, he would look at the bronze serpent and live.

We see God Commanding Moses TWICE to build IDOLS for Him [GOD}

So we learn that it is NOT “idols” {though that is NOT what Mary & the Saints actually Are}, that are the real issue; which is what their intended purpose is; if it good then its GOOD; if it’s evil then its BAD.

Catholics Believe that ALL prayers end with God

This type of prayer is termed “Intercessory” and are THROUGH Mary & the Saints; not truly “to” them

And while Catholics MUST accept all MArian Teachings; it is not commanded that we pray “to /THROUGH Her”; though MUCH is lost by not doing so.

PJM
 
Then I as a cradle Catholic am just not an authentic Catholic and will have to leave the church because I will never believe more than what I stated in regards to Mary.

I will not stay in the church and be required to procliam, believe and pray something I just do not believe in.
 
To someone raised Catholic, no it is not. To someone who was raised believing that it was idolatry I can see that even after acknowledging that it is not it may not be something they are comfortable with.
 
lonegreywolf20 said:
I do not believe that Mary was given to every human. She was given to one apostle, the one that Jesus loved and no one else.
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In entrusting His Mother to “the one who Jesus loved” and entrusting his disciple to His Mother, Jesus established Mary as the mother of the Church and therefore as the spiritual mother of us all. John, as the disciple “who Jesus loved” represents the entire Church, he represents us all. In the Hail Mary we also beseech Mary to pray for us at the hour of our death. We are asking her to remain with us at this hour, our darkest hour, as she did with her son Jesus. That is the act of a mother.

It is true that it is not compulsory, as a Catholic, to pray to Mary, but she is our spiritual mother. You don’t have to pray to her, but she is there waiting to help us and ready to be with us at the hour of our death, like a true mother.
 
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