Questions about Catholics honoring Mary

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edward_george1 said:
I answered this when I said:

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As for mediating, this one has been talked about on here dozens of times, but there is indeed one mediator, as Scripture says, and it is Jesus Christ. He is the primary and principal mediator. However, we can pray to him and he mediates with us to the Father, and we can pray on behalf of others, and are encouraged to do so in Scripture. In this way, we serve as mediators for one another, though our mediatorship is secondary to that of Christ and in fact depends upon his. It doesn’t contradict that there is one primary and principal mediator to say that others mediate with him as well, for the fact that we can mediate with him depends upon him being a mediator.
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This is good. I appreciate your help. Thanks again, and God bless you.
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The_One_Duck said:
These lines do seem close to worship,
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No.
however I really would love to be proven wrong.
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Don’t need to “prove” anything to you, happy to tell you what the truth is.
Again, correct me if I am wrong, but my understanding is that we do not pray TO Mary, we honor her and ask for her intercession to pray for us, just as we would ask any other saint in Heaven.
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Your understanding is correct.
Catholics use the words “pray to Mary” or “pray to St. Patrick” or “pray to (insert name of any other saint)” as shorthand for “I asked for the intercession of Mary/ St. Patrick/ Any other saint” or “I asked Mary/ St Patrick/ any other saint to pray for me to the Lord Our God.”
Protestants love to misunderstand the Catholic “shorthand”.
There is no proof necessary. We don’t worship Mary. Mary would hate that and be the first one to tell us to worship God and God Alone.
We regard Mary as the top ranked saint and treat her accordingly.
  1. Another thing I am confused on is co mediatrix. I am sure we can all agree that the Bible says there is one mediator between God and man and that mediator is Jesus. My understanding is that co mediatrix almost completely contradicts this teaching.
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Doesn’t contradict anything.
Jesus is our Mediator with the Father.
Mary is our Mediatrix with Jesus. Just like she was at the Wedding at Cana.
Mary has also been designated by God to distribute God’s graces to the faithful. She is known as “Mary, Mediatrix of All Graces” because of this special task that God himself gave her. She never does anything contrary to the will of God.

The standard Catholic prayer said as a collect on the feast of Mary, Mediatrix of All Graces and also by the longstanding lay apostolate Legion of Mary makes Mary’s role very clear.

O Lord Jesus Christ, our Mediator with the Father, Who hast deigned to appoint the Blessed Virgin, Thy Mother, to be our Mother also and our Mediatrix with Thee, graciously grant that whosoever goes to Thee in quest of blessings may be gladdened by obtaining them all through her, Thou Who livest and reignest with the Father and the Holy Ghost, ever one God, world without end. R. Amen.
My take on all of these questions is that Catholics ALMOST elevate Mary to the position of a god.
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No, we do not. Please stop thinking and saying that, as it is insulting to God, Mary, and Catholics, and shows an extreme lack of understanding of the Catholic faith.
 
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Tis_Bearself said:
No, we do not. Please stop thinking and saying that, as it is insulting to God, Mary, and Catholics, and shows an extreme lack of understanding of the Catholic faith.
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To Clarify: I was merely asking a question. I was not trying to spread Protestant ideas around, nor was I trying to insult or disrespect God, Mary or any other Catholics. It is because of my “extreme lack of understanding of the Catholic faith” that I even came here in the first place, and I would even go so far as to say that this website exists because of people’s “extreme lack of understanding of the Catholic faith”.

I appreciate your answer, but I think you misunderstand the reason why I post statements like the one you obviously found so disrespectful. It is simply to express my confusion and a way of asking my question.
 
Many Protestants believe the following:

talking to any person in heaven (God or saints) = worship
talking to an angel if he appears on earth = OK and not worship
 
Do NOT apologize! We are ALL(Catholics and non-catholics) here to search for the truth…
There are NO bad questions…please continue to ask…
Brian
 
I understand, and sorry if it sounded harsh, but if you go into a group of Catholics and say, “my take is that you worship Mary” you are likely going to get some reactions like you just insulted their mom. Which you kind of did.

It would be better to frame questions about Mary as, “A Protestant website said” or “My friend said” or “I have read” etc. before you ask the question about Mary. If you go in saying, “My take is…” it sounds like you have already made up your mind that this wrong idea you have is correct.
Then you say, “Prove me wrong” when actually your take is the one starting from the wrong premise.

It may be a fine point of etiquette. I see Father and others have given you several good answers. So hopefully now your “take” has changed.

We get accusations of Mary worship on here regularly from posters who have already made up their minds that we do just that. I don’t think they understand that it is, in fact, insulting.
 
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I never heard of that one. I don’t even want to try to learn it cos the more I try to understand the more confused I get. I just know that there is a huge devotion for Mary in the RCC and that isn’t obligatory for me to follow. For the rest I leave my faith with the Church to deal with.
 
My favorite is the belief that having statues of Saints in your home constitutes idolatry EXCEPT…

Around Christmastime when it’s perfectly acceptable to have a nativity scene in your house.
 
Pai_Nosso said:
I just know that there is a huge devotion for Mary in the RCC
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It’s not anywhere has “huge” as it could be. Most Catholics–including myself–need to prayerfully read and re-read Vatican II’s teachings about Mary.

Jesus Christ gave us a great gift from the Cross, by giving us His Mother.
 
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Tis_Bearself said:
I understand, and sorry if it sounded harsh, but if you go into a group of Catholics and say, “my take is that you worship Mary” you are likely going to get some reactions like you just insulted their mom. Which you kind of did.

It would be better to frame questions about Mary as, “A Protestant website said” or “My friend said” or “I have read” etc. before you ask the question about Mary. If you go in saying, “My take is…” it sounds like you have already made up your mind that this wrong idea you have is correct.
Then you say, “Prove me wrong” when actually your take is the one starting from the wrong premise.

It may be a fine point of etiquette. I see Father and others have given you several good answers. So hopefully now your “take” has changed.

We get accusations of Mary worship on here regularly from posters who have already made up their minds that we do just that. I don’t think they understand that it is, in fact, insulting.
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I did not mean to insult Mary at all. If you read my previous post, you will see that I am also Catholic, merely trying to find the truth. I put it as “My take on Mary is…” because I like to express my views bluntly, as it requires fewer words, which I believe results in less confusion. And to be truthful, it DID seem that us Catholics participate in some form of worship or another, although thanks to this forum and everyone participating on it my confusions are now completely gone. I refuse to believe that having confusions and asking questions, no matter how ridiculous, is disrespectful, and I do not think I disrespected anyone in my previous post where I expressed my doubts and confusions and questions, even though reading them again they do seem quite ridiculous, if I do say so myself. I said “prove me wrong” at the end to express the fact that I am indeed open minded and ready to accept logical answers, of which there are an abundance of on this forum. Thanks for your answer.
 
The_One_Duck said:
To Clarify: I was merely asking a question. I was not trying to spread Protestant ideas around, nor was I trying to insult or disrespect God, Mary or any other Catholics. It is because of my “extreme lack of understanding of the Catholic faith” that I even came here in the first place, and I would even go so far as to say that this website exists because of people’s “extreme lack of understanding of the Catholic faith”.
I appreciate your answer, but I think you misunderstand the reason why I post statements like the one you obviously found so disrespectful. It is simply to express my confusion and a way of asking my question.
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Sorry I was meant to warn u that people get very emotional when questions are asked about Mary. I was banned for a month i think for asking the same questions in a more direct manner.

Some of them cannot discern an attack from a question which is a shame cos antagonizing responses are far from helpful and only serves to divide us.
You responded well but, just reiterate your position of questioning due to a lack of knowledge and try to ignore hostile posts.
 
The_One_Duck said:
My take on all of these questions is that Catholics ALMOST elevate Mary to the position of a god.
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Hi, I’m Catholic and am uncomfortable with these as well. Good news is that the Church allows great latitude on which devotional prayers you can use or none at all. I simply skip the Hail Holy Queen and Memorare… no harm no foul
 
godisgood77 said:
Hi, I’m Catholic and am uncomfortable with these as well. Good news is that the Church allows great latitude on which devotional prayers you can use or none at all. I simply skip the Hail Holy Queen and Memorare… no harm no foul
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To be fair, he wasn’t expressing discomfort, he’s asking if Catholics elevate Mary to the status of God. Also asking how Mary can be mediatrix. It’s a doctrinal question.

You can skip saying prayers all you want, but the Church still teaches that Mary is not God, that we do not worship her, and that she is our mediatrix with Christ, so your discomfort is irrelevant to the teaching of the Church and is a side issue.
 
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Devotion to Mary is obligatory. While private devotion is optional, public devotion is obligatory, per the precepts of the Church.
 
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