Is praying the Rosary Praying TO Mary?

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I have heard a lot of varying opinions on this a while back and do not remember what the consensual answer is. Part of me thinks that it is explained that it is simply asking a Saint to pray FOR themselves and others, but it seems like a real prayer TO Mary and not to God to me. Thanks for helping me understand!
 
Yeah it’s definitely a prayer to Mary asking, just like with any prayer to a saint, for her to intercede for us.
 
This is how I understand it. I could be mistaken.

A doctor heals you. We might ask: was it the doctor, or God, who healed? Why, this is a false dilemma. It was both. The doctor and God have healed. For “if God does not watch over the city, in vain does the watchman keep vigil,” and “It is you, O Lord, who have accomplished all that we have done.”

None would say “forget a doctor! It is God who heals and Him alone, so I shall pray to him and ignore medicine.” Actually, there are people like that. Does food nourish us physically, or is it not God? Well, both, as God has designed food to do this for us. But none say “Food has no power of its own, and only God has power, so I shall pray to God for nourishment and partake of no food.”

It has pleased God to use secondary causes to elicit effects in us. He uses doctors to heal, food to nourish… it should not be incredible to others that he uses His Holy Saints to intercede and obtain help for us.

Does this somehow diminish God? Then food and doctors have surely put a big dent in God! For they do so much to “take away” from him. No, food and doctors have power because of God, and so do the saints, and so all of it is grounded in God, and is pleasing to God.

The word “pray” does not strictly entail Divine worship. There are multiple senses to the word “pray”. One is, indeed, Divine worship. I pray thee, can you tell me another sense? 😉 Prayer is entreaty. We entreat our dear Mother to obtain for us things from God. If for some reason the word “pray” is a stumbling block to you (although it should not be, because as I said, to treat is as such is to diminish the English language), go ahead and use the word entreat, or simply say that you’re asking Mary to pray for you. It’s just a little silly. “I’m entreating Mary to pray to God for me,” is the same as “I’m praying (entreat) to Mary to pray (Divine worship) to God for me.”

Hope this helps! Hope I’m also not too far off. 🙂
 
I would say that many pray TO Mary and the saints whether saying the rosary or another prayer. However, we have to remember that the word prayer means ‘to ask’. So essentially, we are asking Mary and/or the saints to ask God to consider our intentions. We are not (at least should not be) praying to Mary or the saints in the sense that they can fulfill our grant them… they simply deliver them to God on our behalf with their prayers added to them. That’s the long way to say it…

I teach my family to pray to God WITH Mary and the Saints. A subtle nuance that clears up any confusion for my wife and children. We use an analogy., when we pray, it is like we are singing a solo for God. Mary, the other saints and angels are the choir and their voices harmonize with our solo and the combined sound is divine!!!
 
Furthermore, proper love towards anything is grounded in God. We can praise a sunset without praising God, if we are disordered about it. But a true saint cannot praise the sunset without praising God. This is not to say that she utters “Blessed is this sunset and God!” She may just utter “Blessed is this sunset!” But there is a fundamental latent knowledge in her which views creation through a love of God. The sunset is blessed because of God, not apart from God.

Children are blessed because of God, not apart from God. A wife or husband because, not apart. Everything that is, is because of God, and not apart from God.

No one prays rightly to Mary if their prayer is to Mary and not to God. Love for others flows out from the Source. When we love God, that love flows into all things that are of God. A prayer to Mary and devoid of God is emptiness. A prayer to Mary that flows from love of God is full of grace.
 
This is exactly right.

It is a prayer to Mary, to God the Father, to Jesus and to the Unity of the Trinity.

Our Father…
Oh My Jesus…
Glory to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit…
Hail Mary… Pray for us now…

-Tim-
 
As an aside to the question,
accepting the role of Mary in God’s plan has been an enormous blessing in my life. It has had a real and profound effect on my conversion.
I had always had a distant relationship with God and others. Absorbing what happened at the Annunciation and the Incarnation has breathed a new trust into my life. Trust of God, and trust of other people. God lays it all on the line to entrust himself to a woman. Mary in return gives God her full trust to conceive a child in less than ideal circumstances.

That’s how I should trust. My marriage was healed of a problem after employing this trust.
Trust first. Completely. And let the chips fall where they may.
 
To pray to someone is simply to speak to them. Prayer is not equivalent to worship. We can direct a prayer to saints without worshiping them. It is no different than if I direct a conversation to my friend asking him for help or prayers.
 
The Rosary is a beautiful prayer, since it does apply the very words of Scripture in the “Hail Mary full of grace, the Lord is with you, Blessed are you among women and blessed is the Fruit of your womb, Jesus.” These words are the words of the Archangel Gabriel to Mary at the Annunciation; and the second part are the words of Elizabeth to Mary at the Visitation episode related in Scripture.

The second part of the Hail Mary: Holy Mary, Mother of God, pray for us sinners, now and at the Hour of our death. Amen, is definitely addressing Mary as Theotokos, God-Bearer, and pleading for her intercession before God, especially at the moment of death!.

Perhaps is is good to have the attitude of Mary, that is full Trust and Faith in God, when we pray for any intention: that His will be done on earth as it is in Heaven. As the Our Father states. This is – the Our Father – Jesus prayer, teaching us, His followers to pray.

And the Glory be: Relating all to God-Trinity: Father, Son and Holy Spirit, now and forever. All belong to God, is in God, and through God, and for God! Glory and praise, always . . .

The Rosary is all-inclusive, in that it also begins with the CREED: I believe! … All of FAITH is thus included in the prayers of the Rosary, as a person prays these prayers; and, also meditates/reflects upon the Mysteries enunciated through the repititions of the decades, one after the other. The whole MYSTERY of Salvation is included in the simple prayers of the Rosary. Let us pray it with Faith, Hope and Love!

The Rosary Prayer, is praying to God through Mary. What better way to go to God in humble prayer, than through the very person through whom God became man?
 
shestelle said:
The Rosary is a beautiful prayer, since it does apply the very words of Scripture in the “Hail Mary full of grace, the Lord is with you, Blessed are you among women and blessed is the Fruit of your womb, Jesus.” These words are the words of the Archangel Gabriel to Mary at the Annunciation; and the second part are the words of Elizabeth to Mary at the Visitation episode related in Scripture.

The second part of the Hail Mary: Holy Mary, Mother of God, pray for us sinners, now and at the Hour of our death. Amen, is definitely addressing Mary as Theotokos, God-Bearer, and pleading for her intercession before God, especially at the moment of death!.

Perhaps is is good to have the attitude of Mary, that is full Trust and Faith in God, when we pray for any intention: that His will be done on earth as it is in Heaven. As the Our Father states. This is – the Our Father – Jesus prayer, teaching us, His followers to pray.

And the Glory be: Relating all to God-Trinity: Father, Son and Holy Spirit, now and forever. All belong to God, is in God, and through God, and for God! Glory and praise, always . . .

The Rosary is all-inclusive, in that it also begins with the CREED: I believe! … All of FAITH is thus included in the prayers of the Rosary, as a person prays these prayers; and, also meditates/reflects upon the Mysteries enunciated through the repititions of the decades, one after the other. The whole MYSTERY of Salvation is included in the simple prayers of the Rosary. Let us pray it with Faith, Hope and Love!

The Rosary Prayer, is praying to God through Mary. What better way to go to God in humble prayer, than through the very person through whom God became man?
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I am going to do a shameless plug because it is highly relevant and I would like the prayers and support of fellow Catholics who have a deep love for Our Lady and the Rosary.

My book, The Joy of the Lord is an account of a young girl who gets to see the Joyful Mysteries occur in person. The archangel, Gabriel, takes her back in time to see this.

I ask for the following:
  1. Please take a moment to read the first four chapters for free in the book preview.
  2. Please pray for the book’s success. Even if you don’t have time to read it, many have told me that it inspired them to meditate on the mysteries of the Rosary and Our Lady’s role as Our Lord’s first and best disciple.
Thanks
Mark Andrews

PS
If you lie The Joy of The Lord on facebook you will find out when I giving the book away for free.
 
JimG said:
To pray to someone is simply to speak to them. Prayer is not equivalent to worship. We can direct a prayer to saints without worshiping them. It is no different than if I direct a conversation to my friend asking him for help or prayers.
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That’s exactly what I was looking for. Thank you for that explanation.
 
Something no one has said but needs to be. You are supposed to be meditating on the mysteries. As you say the Hail Marys put yourself in Gethsemene and feel the agony our Lord felt knowing He is about to die. Feel the weight of the Cross. The more you pray it, the easier the focus on Jesus’ life should become.
 
The question has been answered, but in short, praying to someone we believe is in Heaven with the goal of obtaining their intercession to secure what we are seeking for ourselves or others is not worship.

Asking Jesus Himself for mercy isn’t worship.

When someone sees a problem with “praying to Mary”, they are assuming Catholics are worshiping her.

:twocents:
 
For a more technical help:

From EWTN:
You ask about the differences between veneration and worship. The technical terms that are used seem appropriate for the explanation. The chief ones are dulia, hyperdulia, and latria. Dulia is a Greek term meaning the veneration or homage, different in nature and degree from that given to God, that is paid to the saints. It includes, for example, honoring the saints and seeking their intercession with God. Related to dulia is Hyperdulia, the special veneration accorded the Blessed Virgin Mary because of her unique role in the mystery of Redemption, her exceptional gifts of grace from God, and her pre eminence among the saints. Hyperdulia is not adoration; only God is adored. Such adoration reserved exclusively for God is termed latria, a Greek-rooted Latin term that refers to that form of praise and worship due to God alone. I hope this assists you.
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Praying to a Saint is Dulia (Intercession, veneration), where Latria (Worship) is only for God.

St. Padre Pio used to refer to the Rosary as “my weapon”. 🙂

My favorite form of praying the rosary is Scriptural:

Rosary of Praise: A Scriptural Rosary Based on John Paul II’s Rosary Meditation.

I also have a Scriptural Rosary app I listen to in the car for my commute (An hour each way :choocho:)

I also pray as much as possible (not enough :o), the Jesus Prayer:

“Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me, a sinner.”

I carry a finger rosary with me that I hold throughout the day as a reminder to pray constantly.

St. Padre Pio is believed to have said: “Prayer is the oxygen of the soul”.
 
Consider for a moment the Hail Mary Prayer, then silently say the prayer. The prayer is said fifty times while saying the five decades of the Rosary. In the prayer one asks Mary to “pray for us sinners”. There is the answer to the question.

The Rosary is a contemplative prayer, and as such involves many things. At times, it might better be described as a contemplation on Devine mysteries rather than precisely a prayer as the word is normally understood. But the Hail Mary Prayer itself is, as noted, a prayer asking Mary to “pray for us sinners”.

So it depends on the intentions of the individual saying the Rosary, or of the way it is said. It could also be basically a prayer.
 
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