My journey thus far..... many questions?

[steve_b]

I again will ask:

• Do Catholics believe Mary can be prayed to silently? or does is have to be vocal?

Either way is fine
d:

• How do the saints hear everyone praying at the same time?

If I ask you to pray for me, what do I do? I ask you directly or you might get my request via a friend etc…right?

In heaven, the Chuch triumphant, as on earth, the Church militant, the Church is connected. those in Heaven pray for us, because their memory intellect and will are fully operational in heaven. And God allows saints to hear our prayers.

Since the prayers of a righteous person avails much,** [Jas 5:16],** who among us is more righteous to pray for us, than one who is already in heaven?
d:

• Is God the ONLY one who can read our minds/hearts?

He’s the only one who can read them perfectly

 

[brb3]

Thank you. These insights help me. I don’t have trouble with her being The Mother of God, full of grace, I even can understand that it would make the most sense that she was set apart for a special purpose ( as seen in the Protoevangelium of James). It is just a new and foreign feeling that I get thinking of praying to her.

I again will ask:

• Do Catholics believe Mary can be prayed to silently? or does is have to be vocal?
• How do the saints hear everyone praying at the same time?
• Is God the ONLY one who can read our minds/hearts?

These are technicalities I know, but I’m struggling with understanding these fine points.
Thanks.

We tap on 2X3 keyboard & u get message instantly. God hears all…reads our thoughts …don’t u trust he has set up a way for saints to know and help us down here ?
How fast does light (photons) travel ? Plus there is Warp speed …

 

[dreamfleur]

We tap on 2X3 keyboard & u get message instantly. God hears all…reads our thoughts …don’t u trust he has set up a way for saints to know and help us down here ?
How fast does light (photons) travel ? Plus there is Warp speed …

Good point.

I’m just trying to get my mind around this and trying to analyze as this is something new for me.

 

[snarflemike]

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!"

I understand this as being in unison like everyone chanting it together in adoration.

But the literal text says much more than that.

I ask this question because (just as an example): If I am praying a Contemplative prayer I KNOW that God can hear me but NOBODY else can (including Satan).

How do you know this, actually?

If Satan a heavenly created being, one of the former angels cannot hear me, because ONLY GOD can hear what I think in my mind then the saints being former humans cannot either, right?

Only God is ALL HEARING, ALL KNOWING, ALL SEEING.
Am I mistaken?

Keep in mind that when one prays vocally, the sound waves do not actually travel all the way from your mouth to heaven, then to a saint’s ears. Just like in Revelation, not every creature has a mouth that can speak, and yet every creature was heard, somehow. So by the power of God, a saint may know your prayers whether you pray vocally, or by writing, or by contemplating, or in any fashion. God runs the switchboard, passing those prayers to those whom he desires should hear them.

 

[mab23]

I would suggest if you are having trouble with Mary to read a book about it from a Catholic perspective to fully understand - also look to the early Church fathers in the first few centuries when Christianity was flourishing for they too saw the importance of Mary and venerated her and sought her intercession the Rosary itself the way we pray it now is an 8 century old tradtion

I would recommend

Refuting the Attack on Mary - brings common attacks and misconceptions and explains them in their truth

also Hail Holy Queen by Scott Hahn is a great book and Scott is extremely talented in the way he presents information in an easy and understandable way and explains exactly what you seek in trying to understand Mary and her role

 

[pablope]

Thank you. These insights help me. I don’t have trouble with her being The Mother of God, full of grace, I even can understand that it would make the most sense that she was set apart for a special purpose ( as seen in the Protoevangelium of James). It is just a new and foreign feeling that I get thinking of praying to her.

Don’t worry…this is understandable…but it is good you have an open mind and are inquiring…and asking questions.

I again will ask:

• Do Catholics believe Mary can be prayed to silently? or does is have to be vocal?

 

[dreamfleur]

Quote:
I ask this question because (just as an example): If I am praying a Contemplative prayer I KNOW that God can hear me but NOBODY else can (including Satan).
How do you know this, actually?

Is this not true? I asked my husband last night and he didn’t have this understanding. I fear that A LOT of what I “think” is Biblical is actually SDA doctrine that was taught to me throughout my 16 years in their schools. Sorry.

 

[dreamfleur]

Don’t worry…this is understandable…but it is good you have an open mind and are inquiring…and asking questions.

 

[pablope]

Quote:

I ask this question because (just as an example): If I am praying a Contemplative prayer I KNOW that God can hear me but NOBODY else can (including Satan).
How do you know this, actually?

 

[snarflemike]

Quote:
I ask this question because (just as an example): If I am praying a Contemplative prayer I KNOW that God can hear me but NOBODY else can (including Satan).
How do you know this, actually?

Yes, I think you may be right about that. It’s very good that you recognize the possibility.

 

[dreamfleur]

So here is my question…who gave the SDA assurance that what they teach is in accordance with the gospel received from the Apostles, following the example of St. Paul, in Gal 2?

The SDA claim the they have “the Spirit of Prophecy” as would be granted in the last days. Their prophet is Ellen G. White and they believe that she is basically “infallible”. They often teach her writings “above” the Bible although they claim she is “the lesser light”. (I can just imagine what this sounds like to you…). Unfortunately because of this I’m afraid that a lot of what “Bible” class teaches children in their school systems is just EGW’s interpretation of the Bible and not the Bible itself. So I’m pretty sure that in my mind all of this is mixed so thoroughly that I cannot discern one from the other.
BTW: She was supposedly put to the test that prophets need to be tested by and “passed” according to SDA. But there is A LOT of information that shows her to be false. They will not admit this…

 

[snarflemike]

The SDA claim the they have “the Spirit of Prophecy” as would be granted in the last days. Their prophet is Ellen G. White and they believe that she is basically “infallible”. They often teach her writings “above” the Bible although they claim she is “the lesser light”. (I can just imagine what this sounds like to you…). Unfortunately because of this I’m afraid that a lot of what “Bible” class teaches children in their school systems is just EGW’s interpretation of the Bible and not the Bible itself. So I’m pretty sure that in my mind all of this is mixed so thoroughly that I cannot discern one from the other.
BTW: She was supposedly put to the test that prophets need to be tested by and “passed” according to SDA. But there is A LOT of information that shows her to be false. They will not admit this…

Do you have a copy of the Catholic Catechism? I would suggest that you get a copy (you can also read it online), start going through it, and just see if it rings true to you. I find it to be a beautiful document, “the answer to everything” you might say.

 

[dreamfleur]

Do you have a copy of the Catholic Catechism? I would suggest that you get a copy (you can also read it online), start going through it, and just see if it rings true to you. I find it to be a beautiful document, “the answer to everything” you might say.

I started reading the Catechism as my first step into researching what Catholics believe and yes, is it such a beautiful thing. I am reading faithfully from the beginning and I also jump around as questions come to my mind. I have found that almost every question that I have has an answer that can be backed up with scripture. I have also requested some of Scott Hahn’s books from my local library and will read those.

 

[brb3]

pablope;10476166:

Thank you. This is a lot of information. I will look into it.
I did look at the Rosary and although I see it’s value I think it would take me a long time to remember the order I’m supposed to go in and memorize the prayers/creed and the mysteries. The only prayer I know from memory is the Our Father and I honestly never said it much in my life. Last night when I felt afraid I started praying it over and over and over… it brought me so much peace almost immediately. I see this as a “sign” (we aren’t supposed to ask for them, I know, but if they happen to appear…) that the Holy Spirit is leading me. I will try to start learning the other prayers.
Thank you again.

Yes … the Our Father Prayer is straight to us from Jesus. It is most efficacious prayer we have, as a formulaic one. One can never go wrong with it. It is recommended in the CCC as the pinnacle of Prayers !
Also, the Sinner’s Prayer is most efficacious. Either the various ones available to us off internet sources …our our own personal, heartfelt Sinner’s Prayers, that we offer up. Those Jesus taught us to say in private, as our daily bedtime prayers.

 

[brb3]

The CCC is the best, overall complete guide to Catholic beliefs. There are many ones available on internet from bookstores. But, l like the original, unabridged, 803 page, 1992 Vaticano Edition. Available in hardback cover for around 30 $ New, 10 $ used.
My mom, a Protestant, is reading it now, halfway thru it …and loves it !!!

 

[dreamfleur]

The CCC is the best, overall complete guide to Catholic beliefs. There are many ones available on internet from bookstores. But, l like the original, unabridged, 803 page, 1992 Vaticano Edition. Available in hardback cover for around 30 $ New, 10 $ used.
My mom, a Protestant, is reading it now, halfway thru it …and loves it !!!

I checked one out from the library. It is the 756 page, 1994 Vaticano Edition but it is paperback. I later purchased one for my husband (in Spanish because it’s easier for him to read) and noticed that his is much newer because it has some additions of edits after the last section on Christian Prayer.

So far I love it. I can’t believe everything that I was taught regarding the Catholic church was so twisted. The more I read it the more I feel that things are not only scriptural, but explained so, so, so thoroughly. I especially find how they thoroughly exhaust EVERY POSSIBLE way that you could EVER break any of the commandments ( so very thorough… in a way I have never encountered).

 

[snarflemike]

I checked one out from the library. It is the 756 page, 1994 Vaticano Edition but it is paperback. I later purchased one for my husband (in Spanish because it’s easier for him to read) and noticed that his is much newer because it has some additions of edits after the last section on Christian Prayer.

So far I love it. I can’t believe everything that I was taught regarding the Catholic church was so twisted. The more I read it the more I feel that things are not only scriptural, but explained so, so, so thoroughly. I especially find how they thoroughly exhaust EVERY POSSIBLE way that you could EVER break any of the commandments ( so very thorough… in a way I have never encountered).

Yes, it distills 2000 years of contemplation and understanding of God’s full revelation to his people. That is a very rich vein indeed!

You mention how what you were taught about the Church was so twisted. John Henry Newman, an Anglican convert to Catholicism, had this to say:

If you would have some direct downright proof that Catholicism is what Protestants make it to be, something which will come up to the mark, you must lie; else you will not get beyond feeble suspicions, which may be right, but may be wrong. Hence Protestants are obliged to cut their ninth commandment out of their Decalogue. “Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbour” must go, must disappear; their position requires the sacrifice. The substance, the force, the edge of their Tradition is slander…To Protestantism False Witness is the principle of propagation. There are indeed able men who can make a striking case out of anything or nothing, as great painters give a meaning and a unity to the commonest bush, and pond, and paling and stile: genius can do without facts, as well as create them; but few possess the gift. Taking things as they are, and judging of them by the long run, one may securely say, that the anti-Catholic Tradition could not be kept alive, would die of exhaustion, without a continual supply of fable.

newmanreader.org/works/england/lecture4.html

 

[bmonk]

**
I don’t think that I saw this part of mass. I read what you wrote and I think that it is correct. But I don’t know how I would feel if I saw the striking of the the breast (even though I know that this would be the correct response from any one of us sinners).**

This is part of the Penitential Act, very near the beginning of Mass–but only in form A of that rite. Some also strike their breast (although neither mentioned nor forbidden) when the “Lord/Christ have mercy” is recited, as that always occurs.

 

[bmonk]

Quote:
I ask this question because (just as an example): If I am praying a Contemplative prayer I KNOW that God can hear me but NOBODY else can (including Satan).
How do you know this, actually?

Is this not true? I asked my husband last night and he didn’t have this understanding. I fear that A LOT of what I “think” is Biblical is actually SDA doctrine that was taught to me throughout my 16 years in their schools. Sorry.

I don’t worry about it much. In prayer, what matters is that God hears you, and (by the grace of God) a saint if you are asking their intercession. That is what counts.

IF the devil does overhear, so what? It would not surprise me either way. But we believe that Jesus already has defeated the devil and taken away his power, unless we give him power over us.

 

[dreamfleur]

Thank you.
I guess that God hearing me is the most important part. It makes most sense not to worry about the rest although I’ve never been a person that prays out loud unless gathered together with others. I tend to just pray silently in my mind without moving my lips.