the blessed virgin mary

[pelletier_girl]

Well I am catholic and have been my whole life, i was baptized when i was little. my dad’s side is all catholic but my mom’s side is born again christian i think. now my mom is catholic but her family doesn’t really agree with it. we all get along but one of my cousins said the other day “doesn’t your religion worship mary” and i was not really sure how to explain it to her. What do i do?

 

[teachccd]

No, Catholics do not nor have they ever worshipped Mary. I am out of time, but I can bet my last buck that this thread will take off. I could write for hours on this. Stay tuned and thank you for asking this question. Welcome to the forums!! teachccd

 

[Tantum_ergo]

Welcome to the forums!
This website has some good helps for you, including a library which addresses lots of topics about the Catholic faith.

This one addresses ‘saint worship’ accusations. catholic.com/library/Saint_Worship.asp

I hope it helps. Quite often, nonCatholics have a very different definition of words like “worship” and “prayers’. . .they have ‘narrowed them down’ from the definitions which were used when Scripture was written. And also, many nonCatholics (whose denominations are of course much ‘younger’ than Catholicism) in addition to being much more narrow ('Bible ONLY” is one example, even though the Bible came after the Church was over 350 years old and the Bible itself never touts itself as sole authority) than Catholicism, is also less complex and less ‘full’.

 

[abenassi]

Well I am catholic and have been my whole life, i was baptized when i was little. my dad’s side is all catholic but my mom’s side is born again christian i think. now my mom is catholic but her family doesn’t really agree with it. we all get along but one of my cousins said the other day “doesn’t your religion worship mary” and i was not really sure how to explain it to her. What do i do?

From what I understand, while our highest form of worship is sacrifice (the mass) their highest form of worship is prayer. So to worship to them means to pray. So that is why it is so confusing to them when we say that we “pray to Mary”.

They misunderstand what we mean we we say we pray to Mary. We don’t pray to Mary, rather we ask for Mary’s intercession for us to the Son. It is just like asking a friend to pray for you. And before they ask, Mary is not dead, she is alive in heaven.

There are good Bible verses to support asking for intercession from the righteous (James 5:16) and a “cloud of witnesses” encouraging us (Hebrews 11-12:1) which are the saints in heaven.

If they have any other questions that you can’t answer, don’t be afraid to tell them “I’ll get back to you”. We will help you out.

 

[pelletier_girl]

thank you so much this really helps me out a lot.

 

[teachccd]

Well I am catholic and have been my whole life, i was baptized when i was little. my dad’s side is all catholic but my mom’s side is born again christian i think. now my mom is catholic but her family doesn’t really agree with it. we all get along but one of my cousins said the other day “doesn’t your religion worship mary” and i was not really sure how to explain it to her. What do i do?

In the Gloria we pray, [Jesus] for** You alone** are the Holy One, You alone are the Lord, You alone are the most high, Jesus Christ, with the Holy Spirit in the glory of God the Father…

We do not include Mary in this prayer of adoration. Only Jesus with the Holy Spirit and the Father. We only worship God…teachccd