Help me solve my issue with my protestant boyfriend

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Hi my name is Paola and I’m catholic, my boyfriends name is Orlando and he’s Protestant. lately we have been having fights about my catholic practices, in specific: why pray the ave maria?. in catholicism its been a long tradition to pray it but i do not know how to explain to my boyfriend why do catholics pray it and why is it necessary. i have tried to convince him that this is a practice that his religion dislikes and that catholics do that he will just have to shut it (stop criticizing) and respect it cause i (nor he) cant do anything about it.
he thinks that catholics commit sin for praying to someone who is not God.
 
PGZC said:
Hi my name is Paola and I’m catholic, my boyfriends name is Orlando and he’s Protestant. lately we have been having fights about my catholic practices, in specific: why pray the ave maria?. in catholicism its been a long tradition to pray it but i do not know how to explain to my boyfriend why do catholics pray it and why is it necessary. i have tried to convince him that this is a practice that his religion dislikes and that catholics do that he will just have to shut it (stop criticizing) and respect it cause i (nor he) cant do anything about it.
he thinks that catholics commit sin for praying to someone who is not God.
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Hi Paola, hopefully these links from elsewhere on this website will help answer most of your questions:

Praying to the Saints

Saint Worship?

You can see more writings on questions like these, in various categories, here. Hope this helps –
 
Catholics do not pray to the Blessed Virgin or to the Saints. Catholics, like other Christians, pray only to God/Jesus.

Catholics ask for intervention from the BVM and/or the saints. It is like asking a friend or family member to pray for us. Since Jesus can not deny His mother, we ask his mother to intercede for us. We are not worshiping Mary when asking her for intercession. Also she is our heavenly mother. We talk to her as we would our Earthly mother.

The same can be said for the saints. The saints are already in Heaven. We ask them to speak to God on our behalf. We do not pray to them.

The Hail Mary (or Ave Maria) is a prayer of petition asking for intercession. The first part, Hail Mary full of grace the Lord is with thee. Blessed art thou among women and blessed is the fruit of your womb, Jesus, is from the Bible. It is an opening, a salutation. It is a bit longer than saying “Hi Mary. How ya doing.”
The next part, Holy Mary Mother of God, pray for us sinners now and at the hour of our death, is the actual petition. We are asking her to pray for us - to intercede on the behalf of us poor miserable sinners.

Hope that helps you explain what you need to.
 
Hi,
Your boyfriend is very wrong. The original root of prayer is ask all we do is ask the blessed mother or the saints to pray for us and it all leads to god. Rom. 15:30–32, Eph. 6:18–20, Col. 4:3, 1 Thess. 5:25, 2 Thess. 3:1) Paul ask others to pray for him this all leads to god. We pray to god all the time it is not bad to ask others to pray for us that leads to god.
 
RobBahoura said:
Hi,
Your boyfriend is very wrong. The original root of prayer is ask all we do is ask the blessed mother or the saints to pray for us and it all leads to god. Rom. 15:30–32, Eph. 6:18–20, Col. 4:3, 1 Thess. 5:25, 2 Thess. 3:1) Paul ask others to pray for him this all leads to god. We pray to god all the time it is not bad to ask others to pray for us that leads to god.
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thank you all, keep bringing bible citations, i need all the “evidence of what God thinks”(as my boyfriend says it) i can get!
 
Please read in the Book of John of the wedding feast at Canna. Mary asked her son Jesus to help the bride and groom. He seem kind of upset stating Women now is not my time. She told the servants to do what ever Jesus ask of them. Long story short he turned the water into wine. She as all mothers know that their sons will do whatever they are asked by their mother. If we ask Mary to interceed for us, we know Jesus will listen to her in Heaven.
 
PGZC, there is more at stake here than who is right about whether or not we should ask saints to pray or interceed for us. We should not be fighting with other Christians. Those whom God is calling to an apostleship of intercessory prayer will be convinced by the Holy Spirit is spite of human arguments to the contrary, and Protestants who have been trained to feel that it’s heretical or blasphemous to ask saints to pray for us are not going to have their minds and hearts changed by our arguments unless the Holy Spirit has already inclined them in that direction. Otherwise, we simply risk Catholic versus Protestant antagonism and animosity. That is certainly not what our Lord want, especially over any peripheral issues. Whenever possible, let’s come together with Protestants over the Heart of the Gospel on which all real Christians can agree. And to any devout young man or woman who finds him/herself arguing with a boyfriend or girlfriend about something as crucial as religion, I would say, “Whoa!” “Caution!” This relationship seems to have some serious flaws in its very foundation.
 
— and like a good many protestants he’ll consider it a waste of time at best and an outright affront at worst.
 
Hang in there, Paola. I am a new convert baptised and confirmed April 3. My husband was raised in the 7th Day Adventist Church. It has been difficult. However, when I pray and meditate, I try to do it while he is not around. I also don’t engage in conversations with him about belief systems. He is a Godly person, but doesn’t understand - particularly with regard to the Pope, Saints, and the Blessed Mother. Rather than try to explain, I try to lead by example and pray for his understanding. Maybe this will help you also.
 
sailorman76 said:
Please read in the Book of John of the wedding feast at Canna. Mary asked her son Jesus to help the bride and groom. He seem kind of upset stating Women now is not my time. She told the servants to do what ever Jesus ask of them. Long story short he turned the water into wine. She as all mothers know that their sons will do whatever they are asked by their mother. If we ask Mary to interceed for us, we know Jesus will listen to her in Heaven.
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:amen:

👍👍👍
 
Lutheranteach said:
— and like a good many protestants he’ll consider it a waste of time at best and an outright affront at worst.
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If the Angel Gabriel:
And the angel came in unto her, and said, Hail, thou that art highly favoured, the Lord is with thee: blessed art thou among women. Luke 1:28

and the mother of John the Baptist:
In a loud voice she exclaimed: "Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the child you will bear! Luke 1:42

didnt feel that this was beneath them or scandalized by saying this then neither will I 👍
 
cctabb said:
Catholics do not pray to the Blessed Virgin or to the Saints. Catholics, like other Christians, pray only to God/Jesus.
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Huh? I beg to differ. Yes we do pray to saints. We do not worship or adore them; worship is solely for God in the Holy Trinity. But the “Hail Mary” is a prayer, that’s our method of “speaking to” the saints in Heaven.
 
Elizium23 said:
Huh? I beg to differ. Yes we do pray to saints. We do not worship or adore them; worship is solely for God in the Holy Trinity. But the “Hail Mary” is a prayer, that’s our method of “speaking to” the saints in Heaven.
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This is exactly right. I almost posted the same reply, but I figured he just misphrased whatever he was trying to say. Also, some Protestants think that the concept of “prayer” is wrapped up in the notion of worship, but the word “pray” just means “ask, entreat,” so it would apply equally to requests made of living people. It’s not used very much anymore in that general sense, but it remains in phrases like “Pray tell?”, which means, “I ask you, please tell me!”
 
PGZC said:
Hi my name is Paola and I’m catholic, my boyfriends name is Orlando and he’s Protestant. lately we have been having fights about my catholic practices, in specific: why pray the ave maria?. in catholicism its been a long tradition to pray it but i do not know how to explain to my boyfriend why do catholics pray it and why is it necessary. i have tried to convince him that this is a practice that his religion dislikes and that catholics do that he will just have to shut it (stop criticizing) and respect it cause i (nor he) cant do anything about it.
he thinks that catholics commit sin for praying to someone who is not God.
Click to expand...
Do you really want to continue in a romantic relationship which may lead to marriage with a person who insults your most deeply held and cherished beliefs, and your own Catholic identity?
 
There is also a difference of honor we give to these saints that is not the same as we give to God. We worship God, we honor the memory and venerate the lives of those who loved God. They are our heros, and since we believe that they live in Christ right now in heaven we ask that they pray for us. The prayers of those in heaven are benefical for us. The different forms of honor are:

latria: the honor due to God alone.

dulia: the honor due to human creatures worthy of respect.

hyperdulia: the honor due to Mary as God’s greatest creation and our Queen Mother.
 
My advice would be to not date a non-Catholic, if you have problems now imagine if you were married and had to decide what faith to raise the children in. Also if your husband could not admit his sins to God in confession, how could he admit he is wrong to you?
If you don’t have the faith in common, which should be the most important thing in your life, what do you really have in common? Anyway, just my advice.

Here are some good books on the Catholic view of dating and marriage:

http://www.scribd.com/doc/29065672/When-is-Company-Keeping-Lawful-and-Prudent
scribd.com/doc/23750067/Chastity-A-Guide-for-Teens-and-Young-Adults
scribd.com/doc/23958312/Questions-Young-People-Ask-Before-Marriage-by-Donald-F-Miller-C-SS-R
 
The Saints of God, and especially His most holy Mother, are all united to God and deified by His energies. As they move infinitely closer to the Most Holy Consubstantial and Life-Creating Trinity, they are able to act in our lives by the grace of God. So if I ask St. George to save me while I am drowning, he can do this by God’s energies, which he participates in. This is the same way that we can work miracles if God gives us the faith to; we are participating in His Grace as working His power as we are deified. Glory to Jesus Christ!
 
Try to correct his error, by answering his questions with humility. If he keeps asking different questions without allowing you to answer or if he mocks you then just walk away, because he is not interested in learning, butinstead wants to make fun of your faith. If things do not get better then I would suggest to kick him to the curve 😦

I am young and have been in these situations, some women don’t respect my lifestyle of abstaining from sex until matrimony, so I kick them to the curve.
 
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