My friend who I thought was a devout Catholic left the church

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Your misunderstanding is in the word prayer. All of our prayers are indeed directed to only one, and that is God. ONLY one can answer prayers, that is God alone, however, anyone can bring a prayer to God, (a petition) or ask for someone else to pray for them. When a Protestant asks other Protestants to pray for someone sick, it’s the same thing, you are getting others to join in to petition God for a specific need.

The Bible clearly shows in the book of Revelation (Rev. 4:10, 5:8, 6:9-11) the saints are worshipping God, singing hymns, playing instruments, making requests to Christ to avenge their martyrdom, and offering prayers for the saints on earth. If they were not interceding for us this could not be.

ONLY God is to be worshipped, but anyone can petition God. The word prayer can be two fold, meaning to worship God, or it can just simply mean to petition God. And hey, the proof is in the pudding, it works! Billions of us Catholics can bear witness to this fact. If God condemned it as much as your misunderstanding believes it to be, then our prayers would be rejected, but they are not. Many times in my life have I asked others in heaven and Earth to pray for me or someone I love, and those prayers have been answered. Why? Because the Kingdom of God is not divided, we are family, ONE in Christ Jesus, and we should act like family, it is righteous and gives glory to God the Father.

You are very right that there is only ONE mediator, “the buck stops here,” but how the bucks get to God can vary. They can be singular, or they can be collective, God does not discriminate against prayers, He hears them, then in His Almighty wisdom, He answers them!!!

May the Peace of Christ be with you.
 
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My main response was to someone that posted that maybe to him praying to God and Jesus is enough for him. I have only prayed to God my Father and have asked in Christ name and have had many prayers answered this way. So that is not enough?

You are correct in the fact that I to can attest to prayers being asked of the saints in our church, that is the saints of the congregation not those who have passed, and have had many prayers answered for myself and others.

Also you quoted Revelations with 24 elders and the prayers of the saints. Could those prayers not be of the saints in earth being persecuted?

Also looking at figures the Vatican has 1.2 million listed as Catholic followers and somewhere close to 1 million Protestant followers.

You ask what make me believe this. Well let us look at Revelations where John who when visited by an angel fell and started praising the angel. The angel told John to get up for the praise was to God and not to praise him the angel. So if an angel said that are y’all not offering praise to a person who walked this earth as you and I? The Bible clearly states that the angels were made higher than us! So if an angel said this to not offer praise to him what gives y’all the right to praise these “saints”? Because your church says you can? Look at Peter your proclaimed first pope. When he healed the centurion’s servant, the centurion feel to his feet to give him praise and Peter told him to get up and not praise him but God. A different scene then the spectacle that your pope does. People coming in laying at his feet and kissing a ring. And lastly Paul and Apollos when they conducted TRUE miracles the people wanted to offer sacrifices to them. But we see yet another example of them stopping this and telling the people all praise goes to God. So in short I have and will always pray to my Father in Christ name and will petition others to pray for me. Because I do believe that is good enough, do you?

I will only pose one last question to you or anyone on this thread. 1. What if that “saint” you are praising is not in heaven? What if that “saint” is in hell, then where are those prayers going?
 
It sounds like your friend may have been misled by Protestant arguments, which generally happens due to poor catechism or pride. His insistence upon believing in the Bible alone suggests to me that he is interested in a faith that he can interpret for himself or shelf whenever he wants, rather than a faith that might possibly reform him or be at odds with secular beliefs.

I would encourage him to study the history of the Church and pray for his return.
 
Is it a rule in your family that you speak to your other family members, or is it just something you can choose to do?
 
Have you lost someone close to you? Maybe a grandparent? Do you ever say “grandma, I miss you”? I do, I talk to my departed family members. Heck, I have very long talks with my late husband.

Maybe you have never been separated by death from someone you love, so, it seems strange to talk to them. In your life, it will happen. You will then understand talking to our elder brothers and sisters in the Faith.
 
Human beings are creatures of both intellect and passion, so people who wade deep into apologetics can still drift away from the faith. A person must attend to the mind and to the heart.

Apologetics is fantastic, but the caveat with apologetics - and I think men are especially vulnerable from the devil in this area - is that a person can get a certain satisfaction and enjoyment out of making connections and fitting everything together logically like a puzzle in order to reach a conclusion, but there might not be the relationship and devotions in place to build habits and character. So in spite of having a rigorous theology one might wake up someday to find themselves greatly distanced from the Church and maybe not believing at all. This is why a person should make a habit out of talking to Our Lord like a dear and personal friend, and to Mary as if one were a child that trusted her completely. If somebody digs into apologetics and then stops there, they are in trouble.

Of course, skipping apologetics completely is equally dangerous because a heart without a head is like a ship with powerful sails and no compass or map. The devil adores this situation because he can take a person all over the place, and they can believe the entire time that they are doing right when they are doing evil. They march and protest and advocate and preach for all the wrong causes.
 
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A Catholic must profess the Marian Dogmas. One may ignore her for their earthly life, however, I would wager you my dog that sometime in your life you will cry out to the Blessed Mother.
 
Sorry.
I simply cannot relate to that.

The Church and her teachings have been stable to me and the more research I do, the more truth I find.
 
Hello ProfFF - I see from your profile that you are not Catholic. This fact may set you against one more Catholic belief, but it is true, and important, and may indeed point you toward the one Church formed by the Lord: His Catholic Church. This “one more Catholic belief” is this: there is meant to be one - One - ONE Church bearing the name of the Lord, comprised of the church militant (here on earth, in the battle against the ways of the world), the church suffering (in purgatory, saved but in purification of ways of the world still clinging to their souls), and the church gone before us, now in glory, in Beatitude, in the Presence of the Lord and one another in Him in holiness.

These three presences of His Church are One in Him, united in holy Love. He is honored when we pray for one another in Him, in Love! He is glorified when we, in His Love, love Him and pray for our brothers and sisters who are in need of Him and His touch of love. Those in purgatory need our prayers and we need to pray for them; those in heaven need to express His Life in them by their loving prayers for us on earth and for those in purgatory. Why? Because every member of the One Body needs to do his part for the whole Body, for the good of the whole Body. This pleases the Lord, when His Body - though for now separated while humanity remains incomplete, while His work of salvation remains still in process.

Prayer among the members of His One Body is our mutual duty. Thus we pray, and trust in Him our God, to give His children bread when they ask.
 
MasterHaster said:
My question remains: is it a requirement that Catholics pray to Mary or can they choose to just address their prayers to the parts of the Trinity.
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Would you dishonor your mother by refusing to speak to her? Listen to the Catechism of the Catholic Church:
2677 Holy Mary, Mother of God: With Elizabeth we marvel, “And why is this granted me, that the mother of my Lord should come to me?”<Lk 1:43> Because she gives us Jesus, her son, Mary is Mother of God and our mother; we can entrust all our cares and petitions to her: she prays for us as she prayed for herself: “Let it be to me according to your word.”<Lk 1:38> By entrusting ourselves to her prayer, we abandon ourselves to the will of God together with her: “Thy will be done.”
Pray for us sinners, now and at the hour of our death: By asking Mary to pray for us, we acknowledge ourselves to be poor sinners and we address ourselves to the “Mother of Mercy,” the All-Holy One. We give ourselves over to her now, in the Today of our lives. And our trust broadens further, already at the present moment, to surrender “the hour of our death” wholly to her care. May she be there as she was at her son’s death on the cross. May she welcome us as our mother at the hour of our passing<Cf. Jn 19:27> to lead us to her son, Jesus, in paradise.
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I hear now many Catholics - even some in well-known, “successful” ministries that are welcomed into Catholic parishes and dioceses, who tell me (and I suppose teach) that Mary is optional. That is not what I hear from the Catechism.
2679 Mary is the perfect Orans (pray-er), a figure of the Church. When we pray to her, we are adhering with her to the plan of the Father, who sends his Son to save all men. Like the beloved disciple we welcome Jesus’ mother into our homes,<Cf. Jn 19:27> for she has become the mother of all the living. We can pray with and to her. The prayer of the Church is sustained by the prayer of Mary and united with it in hope.<Cf. LG 68-69>
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971 “All generations will call me blessed”: “The Church’s devotion to the Blessed Virgin is intrinsic to Christian worship.”<Lk 1:48; Paul VI, MC 56> The Church rightly honors “the Blessed Virgin with special devotion.
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You say founded by Christ but yet go against evidence found in scripture and some examples set by Jesus.
 
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I am always amazed how “reformation”-age exegetes can find textual “evidence” for theologies and even history (!) undiscovered by faithful, and in some cases brilliant, Catholic Christians for some 1500 years. But as Jesus pointed out, human beings - having eyes to see and ears to hear - can manage to find justification for all sorts of ideas in Scripture, when their hearts want to find them.

We need a heart hungry for the truth, and nothing but the truth, no matter the cost! Then, we can begin to hear.
 
That is very well said DaddyGirl2. That is what my parents did. They studied the scriptures and saw they did not line up with the teachings of the Catholic Church. I said it.
 
Here is a simple question fide. Do you believe Christ was the only person to walk this earth sinless?
 
Really… ??? Sexual sin and divorce/remarriage are the norm. You certainly have some extremely unusual friends.
 
If you are trolling or sea lioning, there are other websites.

If you intend to have a mature discussion, that is something different.

Just sayin’
 
No - of course His destined mother Mary also was and remained sinless. Here’s a question for you: What are you looking for?
 
It is a requirement, especially within the spiritual life. Prayer of the Rosary. Why wouldn’t you want to pray to Our Mother to be with you at the hour of your death where the devil rages to steal your soul for the last time, and since Our Lady is the one who crushes the serpents head. As it is quoted by many many Saints, especially St. Pio the Rosary is our weapon, it is a ladder to heaven. It nourishes us with graces of virtue, especially charity and humility which is the key to eternity. You can’t get to The Son without the Mother, and you can’t get to The Father without the Son. So through the intercession of Our Mother she will lead you straight to the Heart of Jesus who then will lead us to the Father. Don’t be scared to love Her too much as there is no such thing, through Our Mothers humility She will always and forever lead us to eternity through Her intercession.
 
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