How do we answer this: Mary is human, she can't hear your prayers or petitions

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ElCid

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How do we explain this to our protestant brethren using the bible? How can Mary hear the millions of prayers of all catholics and intercede from them all?
 
St Paul in Corinthians speak about in chapter 13 how we will see clearly what we now see dimly as in a mirror.

Mary knows everything pertaining to her by seeing them in God and it is God who makes her able to do this. The need of mankind is not limitless it is not eternal so it is possible for a created intellect with the help of God to know it and to respond to it.

By the way, protestants need to know that there is also holy tradition that has the same authority as the scriptures.
 
ElCid said:
How do we explain this to our protestant brethren using the bible? How can Mary hear the millions of prayers of all catholics and intercede from them all?
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Mary is in Heaven and a saint. Everyone in Heaven is a saint and can hear the prayers of us all.
 
Your friends are asking the wrong question.

Granted that it is God’s desire that the Saints in Heaven have an intercessory role, the **HOW **of the matter is a moot point. Just like Creation ex nihilo, the Incarnation, and the Eucharist, if God wants something to be done --even seemingly impossible to us – as Provident, Sovereign, and Almighty, He can make happen or facilitate anything He wants to.

If they think God is limited in this way, their god is too small.
 
Jesus says there is more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents, than over 99 who have no need of repentance.

How can all those in heaven have joy over one sinner who repents unless they they hear our prayers of repentance to God or unless God lets them know that we repented? Either way the bible is a witness to the teaching of the Church, which came from the apostles, that those in heaven certainly can know what we are praying. And does not St. Paul say in Hebrews, I think, that we are “surrounded by a cloud of witnesses”. Thus those in heaven are not far off but they are all around us.

This is a good opportunity to explain to Protestants that the teachings of the Catholic Church are simply the Gospel that the apostles handed down to their successors. Since the bible does not claim have a summary of the Gospel the apostles taught and preached, in any book or in any chapter, then this Gospel cannot be found explicitly in the bible. This is why Protestants can’t agree on a Gospel, but come they up with over 32,000 different Gospels. Thus the teachings of the Catholic Church are simply the Gospel that apostles taught to their successors. The early Christians in the first few centuries are examples of Catholics who learned this Gospel directly from the apostles. The Church Fathers are those whose writings are witnesses to this Gospel. Scripture is not the source of these teachings. The apostles learned directly from Jesus, not from the bible. The apostles did not forget any teachings, but taught them to their successors, the bishops. Thus, not a single teaching of the Catholic Church comes from scripture. They call come directly from Jesus, who handed them down by teaching and preaching, (Tradition) to the apostles, who handed them down by teaching and preaching (Tradition) to their successors, the bishops. Thus, the entire Gospel is handed down full and entire only in Tradition. Scripture containes certain elements of this Tradition, in the form of salvation history. Thus, Scripture is not the source of the teachings of the gospel, but it is a witness to these teachings. Since both the Gospel that the apostles taught and preached (the Catholic faith) and scripture come from God, then they will always be in agreement.
 
Mary need not be omnipotent to hear all prayers. Omnipotence is all-knowing, and only God is all-knowing. However, the way I heard this question answered once is that the saints are spirits, and as spirits they are not limited by the body; therefore, it becomes easier to hear any and all prayers directed toward them.
 
Epistemes said:
Mary need not be omnipotent to hear all prayers. Omnipotence is all-knowing, and only God is all-knowing. However, the way I heard this question answered once is that the saints are spirits, and as spirits they are not limited by the body; therefore, it becomes easier to hear any and all prayers directed toward them.
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omniscient is all knowing
omnipotent is all powerful
 
ElCid said:
How do we explain this to our protestant brethren using the bible? How can Mary hear the millions of prayers of all catholics and intercede from them all?
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We can’t do that because we​

  • aren’t Saints; but, saints 🙂
  • are in bodies not yet wholly renewed by grace
  • are sinners
  • are still weighed down by the cares of this world
  • are not yet glorified
  • are reliant upon fallible mental processes
  • do not see all things in a single glance of intuition
    The Saints are free of all these limitations. They see God “face to face”, & see all things in Him that it concerns them to see. They see, because they are totally God-filled, as full as they possibly can be, each in the measure that loving God has made possible. Vision & love go together - the greater the love, the clearer the ability to see; and the clearer the ability to see, the more nearly God can be seen as He is; & the more God is seen, the more He is loved 😃
On earth, we have to think things out step by step - we do not have immediate, cloudless vision of God. The Blessed in Heaven do. So the idea of the Mother of God being at her wits’ end with thousands of simultaneous prayers - as though she were an overworked telephonist - is a transferring of the conditions of earth to Heaven; it is very misleading. There is no time in the eternal life of the Blessed, for they have Christ as their only Life; another thing that picture overlooks. They have grown up fully - we on earth are still children. Grown-ups are (meant to be) wiser than children. So it shouldn’t be too surprising if the Saints can do what we cannot; the arms of their love are much wider, as it were.

Ephesians 3 talks of the breadth, height, length, of the Love of Christ - they know that Love as we on earth do not; so they see what we do not:
  • Eph 3:14 For this reason I bow my knees before the Father,
  • Eph 3:15 from whom every family in heaven and on earth is named,
  • Eph 3:16 that according to the riches of his glory he may grant you to be strengthened with might through his Spirit in the inner man,
  • Eph 3:17 and that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith; that you, being rooted and grounded in love,
  • Eph 3:18 may have power to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth,
  • Eph 3:19 and to know the love of Christ which surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled with all the fulness of God.
  • Eph 3:20 Now to him who by the power at work within us is able to do far more abundantly than all that we ask or think,
  • Eph 3:21 to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus to all generations, for ever and ever. Amen.
    They, being in Heaven, cannot know God less than they did on earth - & if they could love & know Him as much as St.Paul prays they might, while they were in the Church on earth, how much must they love Him now !
As C. S. Lewis asks, “How shall we see God face to face, until we have faces ?” They have faces, because they are fully remade, according to the model of all men, Jesus Christ. We, are still “works in progress”. As he also says, quoting St.Paul’s thoughts in 2 Corinthians 5, & 1 John.

BTW, she prays to God for all Christians - not just for us 🙂 ##
 
ElCid said:
How do we explain this to our protestant brethren using the bible? How can Mary hear the millions of prayers of all catholics and intercede from them all?
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How can she? By the power of God, of course. And here’s the proof:

Rev 5:*13: And I heard every creature in heaven and on earth and under the earth and in the sea, and all therein, saying, “To him who sits upon the throne and to the Lamb be blessing and honor and glory and might for ever and ever!”
14: And the four living creatures said, “Amen!” and the elders fell down and worshiped. *

Here is a man, still a sinner, not yet a saint perfected in heaven, who can hear not just every prayer of every human, but every prayer of every creature in heaven and on earth and under the earth and in the sea!

They ask “How can…?” I ask, what kind of god (not God) must they believe in who could not make this possible, if He chose?
 
Tell your Protestant friends that she cant hear a prayer that isnt sent to her!!

Ask them to try it, and they have nothing to loose if she cant.

Someone told me that once and I thought hey, why not?

I am really not sure why they fear Mary so much!

I never understood the aversion to Mary even as a kid. It did not add up.

Oh well. In my case, after daily prayers to Mary and a gradual letting go of the aversion and programming of fear that had been drilled into my thick skull, I felt her near me. It was just that simple. She was holding my hand through all that fear and worry of approaching her. I cant explain it.

Ask them to try it. Tell them its something they have to feel inside to understand.
 
El Cid,

Mary, being in Heaven, is outside of our time and thus can give her full attention to each of a billion different people all “at the same time” (as we reckon time). I appreciate that this is not Scriptural, but it is completely logical. If your friends insist on Scripture, then I would quote Philippians 4:13 to them: “I can do all things through Christ Who strengthens me.” Mary similarly can do all things through Christ.
  • Liberian
 
You have been all very kind and helpful with your replies. I am quite satisfied with your answers. God bless you all and may the He bless the work of your hands and give you peace thru Christ our Lord.
 
dcdurel said:
Jesus says there is more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents, than over 99 who have no need of repentance.

How can all those in heaven have joy over one sinner who repents unless they they hear our prayers of repentance to God or unless God lets them know that we repented?
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I know some protestants will say that’s referring to the angels having joy.
VociMike said:
How can she? By the power of God, of course. And here’s the proof:

Rev 5:13: And I heard every creature in heaven and on earth and under the earth and in the sea, and all therein, saying, “To him who sits upon the throne and to the Lamb be blessing and honor and glory and might for ever and ever!”
14: And the four living creatures said, “Amen!” and the elders fell down and worshiped.

Here is a man, still a sinner, not yet a saint perfected in heaven, who can hear not just every prayer of every human, but every prayer of every creature in heaven and on earth and under the earth and in the sea!

They ask “How can…?” I ask, what kind of god (not God) must they believe in who could not make this possible, if He chose?
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Again, coming from a Protestant background, a Protestant will say, “But St. John was an Apostle, and only the Apostles had a special gift that no one else has.”.

Personally, I know anyone can hear a prayer in Heaven. I find it ironic how many Protestants will quickly believe a “psychic” on TV saying, “Your loved ones can hear you and they’re around you”, and yet they don’t believe that if someone who’s Catholic says, “People in Heaven can hear your prayers”.
 
dcdurel said:
Jesus says there is more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents, than over 99 who have no need of repentance.

How can all those in heaven have joy over one sinner who repents unless they they hear our prayers of repentance to God or unless God lets them know that we repented?
Click to expand...
Good answer ! 👍
 
Jennifer_G said:
I know some protestants will say that’s referring to the angels having joy.

Again, coming from a Protestant background, a Protestant will say, “But St. John was an Apostle, and only the Apostles had a special gift that no one else has.”.
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The answer to this would be that the others in heaven also heard the prayers, since they responded at the end of the prayers by saying “Amen!” and by falling down and worshiping.

Another response would be to ask why an apostle who is still an unperfected sinner should be given more ability by God than those who are perfect and in heaven. Does this mean that John actually has fewer God-given abilities now in heaven than he did while he was still alive? How to explain that? 🙂

But all of this is now focusing on whether God allows those in heaven to hear prayers, not if it is possible for those in heaven to hear prayers. And scripture clearly shows that both are true, and not just for John.
 
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