Praying to clay statues

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They are both sinning in the eyes of God and the church. We don’t pray to statues and we don’t pray or venerate or idolise false God’s.

They are both breaking the first commandment.
 
anon64704623 said:
In other words, although it is not sinful for Mr Z it is better of Mr Z never do it. Got it.
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I got to thinking about what you are saying here. I noticed it says you are Catholic so I am guessing someone else is giving you a hard time and trying to convince you that Catholics pray to graven images.

If I am jumping to conclusions please tell me.

For example it seem to me you are saying…

If a Catholic prays in front of a statue of Mary and a non-Catholic sees them and thinks they are worshiping the statue it would have been better for the Catholic to not pray in front of the Statue of Mary.

That is not true and that is not what St. Paul is saying here.
Verse 9 says… But take care that this liberty of yours does not somehow become a stumbling block to the weak.

Verse 11 says …But when YOU thus sin against members of your family,[c] and wound their conscience when it is weak, YOU sin against Christ.
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You need to keep in mind that you are not taking a “LIBERTY” here. Catholic Churches have had statues and relics since the beginning. Catholics revered these relics since the beginning. Catholics have been praying to Mary and the saints since the beginning. There has never been a stumbling block here.

The stumbling block is not because of the Catholic Church the stumbling block is because of the reformation.

Think about it for 1500 years no one was saying hey look at those Catholics worshiping Mary. Since no one was making the accusation there was no stumbling block.

Now we read, almost daily on the internet, even on these forums.

Why do Catholics worship Mary?

This is usually followed by an explanation that we don’t worship Mary and tell the person that pray does not always mean worship. Pray simple means ask. The person either counters or ignores what was said and goes on to other websites proclaiming “Look at those Catholics worshiping Mary”.

Well we did our best to explained a 2000 year old practice of pray not being the same as worship, to this “weak minded individual”, but they refused to even acknowledge the teaching. Them going out and spreading this half truth to others is the “STUMBLING BLOCK” St. Paul is speaking of.

So basically my point is don’t let anyone tell you that praying in front of a statue of Mary means you are sinning by worshiping Mary. The fact that they are the ones who constantly bring it up shows that they are the ones trying to throw out the stumbling blocks to make others fall.

Don’t you worry you have committed no sins here.

Hope this helps,

God Bless
 
This is interesting, because Catholics pray to statues of Mary all the time. Don’t we?

:crazy_face::crazy_face:
 
anon64704623 said:
In other words, although it is not sinful for Mr Z it is better of Mr Z never do it. Got it.
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It may or may not be sinful depending on context. It’s a better idea for Mr. Z never to do it.

Mr. Z’s actions, by intent, are very different from a Catholic who prays to God in front of a statue, however.
 
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on_the_hill said:
This is interesting, because Catholics pray to statues of Mary all the time. Don’t we?
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We pray to Mary herself, who the statue merely represents. We do not pray to the statues–they are only a helpful reminder of the person we are talking to.
 
That’s why I put the :crazy_face::crazy_face: at the end of my post.
 
First off, Mr X should never pray to any statue but use it as a visual aid. Second, if we’re reffering to the statue you have pictured, it would be a sin for a Christian to pray to Buddha. Lastly, the material of a statue doesn’t matter in the least.
 
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So every night I give my husband a kiss and say goodnight. He goes away on a business trip for a few days, so when I go to sleep, I take his photo that’s in a frame on my side table, and I say “Good night sweet heart” and give the photo a kiss. Did I do something wrong?

Did I do something that would upset my husband?
Do I have some kind of mental deficiency that I can’t seem to tell the difference between my husband and his photo?
Do you think when my husband returns, I will ignore him and continue to kiss the photo?
Is it wrong to have a photo of my husband in the bedroom, or any other room in the house?

Some people have a problem with statues and yet they will have photos of their loved ones all over their home. Until we can be in heaven with God, his angels and saints, we have to make due with a poor replica of our beloved who is for a moment separated from us.
 
Have you ever read the book Silence? It closely relates to your question.
 
Well. I didn’t know adoration and veneration are types of workship. English language limitation here.

Maybe I confused because In Portuguese, workship is equal only to adoration, and nothing to do with veneration
 
Aulef said:
Well. I didn’t know adoration and veneration are types of workship. English language limitation here.

Maybe I confused because In Portuguese, workship is equal only to adoration, and nothing to do with veneration
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Worship in English is from Old English worðscip. (Worthy + ship.)

Portuguese: dignidade, valor.
 
See my original post.

The words used in Portuguese that is related to veneration is “dulia”, which comes from the greek.

And adoration is related to the word “latria”
 
Aulef said:
No. To workship, in Portuguese is “cultuar, adorar”
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The idea is that the English word worship does not come from a common etymology with the Portuguese word “cultuar, adorar”. Etymology of it is from Latin cultūra, from cultus, perfect passive participle of colō, from Proto-Indo-European *kʷel-.
 
Yes, I aware of this.

I don’t know if you noticed, but I accepted your explanation back there regarding workship, veneration and adoration.
 
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Aulef said:
Yes, I aware of this.

I don’t know if you noticed, but I accepted your explanation back there regarding the workship, veneration and adoration.
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I mean that a closer word to English worship is Portuguese: dignidade, valor.
 
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