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Gara3987
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According to St Bonaventure, The Angels of Heaven never stopped calling to Our Blessed Virgin Mother, “Holy, holy, holy Mary, Virgin Mother of God!” A million times a day they give her the angelic greeting, “Hail Mary!” They prostrate themselves before her. They beg her to honor them with her commands. St. Michael, the prince of the heavenly court, is the most eager to pay homage, St Augustine says, and to run her errands.
We Pray to the Blessed Mother to Pray for us, to intercede for us, and yes to protect us (I pray to my Guardian Angel and the Seven Archangels; St. Michael, St. Gabriel, St. Raphael, St. Uriel, St. Jehudiel, St. Sealtiel, & St. Barachiel for protection and guidance also). During some exorcisms, the demons even revealed that they fear the Blessed Mother more than anyone else. Our Heavenly Father has given her much power, which most people do not realize. Most will argue that God would not do that, or something to that nature; but who are we to say what God wills and and what He does not will, who are we to assume? The fact of the matter is that this knowledge has been revealed to many different saints, Saint Louis de Montfort is one one of them.
Why would we ask for Her intercession? Because she is Our Mother [John 19, 26-27] and the Mother of God, and whatever she asks of her Son Our Lord Jesus Christ He will not deny:
“And the wine failing, the mother of Jesus saith to him: They have no wine. And Jesus saith to her: Woman, what is that to me and to thee? my hour is not yet come. His mother saith to the waiters: Whatsoever he shall say to you, do ye. Now there were set there six waterpots of stone, according to the manner of the purifying of the Jews, containing two or three measures apiece. Jesus saith to them: Fill the waterpots with water. And they filled them up to the brim. And Jesus saith to them: Draw out now, and carry to the chief steward of the feast. And they carried it. And when the chief steward had tasted the water made wine, and knew not whence it was, but the waiters knew who had drawn the water; the chief steward calleth the bridegroom, And saith to him: Every man at first setteth forth good wine, and when men have well drunk, then that which is worse. But thou hast kept the good wine until now. This beginning of miracles did Jesus in Cana of Galilee; and manifested his glory, and his disciples believed in him.” [John 2, 3-11]
Because, this the request of his mother Mary Christ preformed His FIRST Miracle. This incredible love Christ shows for his mother is the best example of why this ability to go to Mary and the Saints with our petitions for them to lay at the foot of the throne of Christ. A beautiful and wonderful privilege!!!
Most tend to misconstrue Catholics as idolizers of the Blessed Virgin Mary, when truly they are mistaking veneration with idolatry.
The veneration of the saints is not only in full accord with the demands of reason, but we are, moreover, enjoined explicitly by Holy Scripture to venerate the memory of the holy patriarchs and prophets: “Let us now praise men of renown, and our fathers in their generation” (Ecclus. xliv. 1). “And their names continue for ever, the glory of the holy men remaining unto their children” (Ecclus xlvi. 15).
Reason and Holy Scripture, then, are in favor of the veneration of the Saints. We find it practised, therefore, also in the early Church. She was convinced from the very beginning of its propriety and utility. As early as the first century the memorial day of the martyrs’ death was observed by the Christians. They assembled at the tombs of the sainted victims of pagan cruelty and celebrated their memory by offering up the Holy Sacrifice over their relics. We know this not only from the testimony of the earliest ecclesiastical writers, as Origen, Tertullian, and St. Cyprian, but also from the history of St. Ignatius the Martyr (d. 107), and of St. Polycarp of Smyrna (d. 166). Over one hundred panegyrics of various saints written by
St. Augustine are still extant.
And why should it not be right and useful to invoke the intercession of the saints? Everybody deems it proper to ask a pious friend for his prayers. St. Paul the Apostle recommended himself to the prayers of the faithful (Rom. xv. 30), and God Himself commanded the friends of Job to ask Him for His intercession that their sin might not be imputed to them (Job xlii. 8). How, then, can it be wrong or superfluous to invoke the intercession fo the saints in heaven? The saints are willing to invoke God’s bounty in our favor, for they love us. They are able to obtain it for us, because God always accepts their prayer with complacency. That they really hear our prayer and intercede with God for us is clearly shown by many examples in Holy Scripture. And if, according to the testimony of St. James (v.16), the prayer of the just man here on earth availeth much with God, how much more powerful, then, must be the prayer of the saints, who are united with God in heaven in perfect love and are, so to say, partakers of His infinite goodness and omnipotence?
A most striking proof of the efficacy of the prayers of the saints is the numerous miracles wrought and the many favors obtained at all times through their intercession. Among these miracles are a great number whose authenticity was declared by the Church after the most scrupulous and strict investigation, as the acts of canonization prove.
I pray to Our Blessed Mother and ask her to Pray for me to her Son and to The Lord Our God for my soul.
A question that I have for you is, do you know what “And he that sat, was to the sight like the jasper and the sardine stone; and there was a rainbow round about the throne, in sight like unto an emerald.” [The Apocalypse of St. John the Apostle 4:3] is talking about?
“The life of this Phœnix among the works of God is a book so sealed up that none is found among all the creatures of heaven and earth, worthy to open it (Apoc. 4, 3). It is evident then, that only the powerful Lord can unseal it; He who made Her more perfect than all the creatures; or She herself, the Mistress, our Queen and Mother, who was worthy to receive and properly to appreciate her ineffable gifts.” Ven. Mary of Agreda*
You can’t be serious. The word is proskuneo. It means bow down, kiss a hand or ring (which is what Catholics do in front of the Pope, statues, etc.), and the Bible says not to do it. For the record, that’s not the word used in Luke 24:5 (that word indicates falling back out of fear, not bowing). Also not the word used in Acts 16:28-30, and in this case, Paul obviously gets him up and brings him out to be baptized. If you’re going to try to refute the use of a Greek word, at least check a lexicon to make sure that word is actually used in the passage.