Why do Catholics pray to Mary, Saints, etc.?

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aiambutasmallvo

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I am a Catholic by infant baptism and actually is active recently in a Presbyterian Evangelical Protestant Church and this I find not harming my relationship with God instead, I am growing more in Him. So you see, I dont really label myself as any of these but as under the Church of God. WE ARE ALL UNDER GOD’S WING!

I just want to ask why we Catholics pray to Mary when God has inspired in the Bible that there is only one mediator which is Jesus Christ? God is a jealous God. He is big, deep, unfathomable but dont get me wrong, HE IS NOT OUT OF REACH 👍 and in that, I think we should exhaust all of us to Him.

**Love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength. Deuteronomy 6:5
**
It really bothers me how some Catholics pray to a saint/religious entity which is aside from God for this petition e.g. fertility,academic studies, harvest.

I respect Mother Mary as the mother of Christ but I really have doubts why we pray to her and not to God ALONE.

I look up to the Saints of the Church of course:) but I’m quite afraid some people pray to them not for glorifying the Lord but for granting of their intentions which is not quite the purpose of prayer.

For there is one God, and there is one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus. 1 Timothy 2:5

Thank you for sharing your wisdom!
 
When I get asked about this concept in my college Western Civilization classes, I phrase it something like this.
  1. If you are a Christian, have you ever asked your congregation to pray for an intention, like a sick relative? The answer is that most likely, you have. Your whole congregation, together, prays aloud for the person to get better (or whatever the intention is). Is this problematic?
  2. As a Christian, do you believe in eternal life, whether it be in heaven or hell? For MOST Christian denominations, this is a key element of the faith. It is critical that we understand that when we die, we do not simply cease to exist, but continue on, thanks to the saving power of Christ. Death no longer has any power over us.
  3. So… if people do not cease to exist, and it’s ok to ask for a group of living people to pray together, why wouldn’t it be ok to ask both the living AND the dead to pray for our intentions?
Look at two famous Catholic prayers:

In the Hail Mary, we say “Holy Mary, Mother of God, pray FOR us sinners, now and at the hour of our death. Amen.” We are not praying TO her as much as we are asking her to pray WITH us and FOR us.

Now, look at the Penitential Rite of the Mass, which you will hear every week in church:

“And I ask Blessed Mary, ever Virgin,
All the angels and saints,
and you, my brothers and sisters,
to pray FOR me to the Lord our God.”

Catholics consider prayer so important, that here, we are actually asking the whole of creation to join us in prayer, including both the living, the dead, and even the angels and saints! This serves as a reminder that we are a part of a larger creation, and helps foster Christian unity.

I hope that helps!
 
aiambutasmallvo said:
I am a Catholic by infant baptism and actually is active recently in a Presbyterian Evangelical Protestant Church and this I find not harming my relationship with God instead, I am growing more in Him. So you see, I dont really label myself as any of these but as under the Church of God. WE ARE ALL UNDER GOD’S WING!

I just want to ask why we Catholics pray to Mary when God has inspired in the Bible that there is only one mediator which is Jesus Christ? God is a jealous God. He is big, deep, unfathomable but dont get me wrong, HE IS NOT OUT OF REACH 👍 and in that, I think we should exhaust all of us to Him.

**Love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength. Deuteronomy 6:5
**
It really bothers me how some Catholics pray to a saint/religious entity which is aside from God for this petition e.g. fertility,academic studies, harvest.

I respect Mother Mary as the mother of Christ but I really have doubts why we pray to her and not to God ALONE.

I look up to the Saints of the Church of course:) but I’m quite afraid some people pray to them not for glorifying the Lord but for granting of their intentions which is not quite the purpose of prayer.

For there is one God, and there is one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus. 1 Timothy 2:5

Thank you for sharing your wisdom!
Click to expand...
You are right that God deserves all prayer! He does! The reason you’re getting tripped up is that the saints pray with us to God. The saints do not mediate between God and us. They help us to go to the mediator, who is Christ. It’s like asking for a special friend of yours to pray for you. They are patron saints of XYZ because they have experience with those circumstances in their life. They understand and confide with you on XYZ, and are will be more than happy to support you. It’s not a matter of prayer to them, it’s a matter of respecting their holiness that God himself has granted them through their will to be holy, and asking them to pray for us, with us. A metaphor could be what if you had a flashlight you could shine up to Heaven. If you have someone already in Heaven shining a flashlight for you, imagine how much brighter that light will be. It shows a greater disposition of the will. That is an imperfect metaphor, but we can’t p(name removed by moderator)oint how God gives mercy. If that were the case, we could manipulate him, and take advantage of him. God doesn’t allow himself to be manipulated. He is constant.
 
It’s almost the same thing as asking a fellow Christian to pray for you hear on earth. The only differences are that they’re prayers are more effective because they are already made perfect (James 5:16), and because they are closer to God (they’re in heaven). Paul asks for intercession (1 Tim. 2:1) right before he says Christ is the only mediator (1 Tim. 2:5). So you are right about Christ being the only mediator, but he isn’t the only intercessor.
 
aiambutasmallvo said:
I am a Catholic by infant baptism and actually is active recently in a Presbyterian Evangelical Protestant Church and this I find not harming my relationship with God instead, I am growing more in Him. So you see, I dont really label myself as any of these but as under the Church of God. WE ARE ALL UNDER GOD’S WING!

I look up to the Saints of the Church of course:) but I’m quite afraid some people pray to them not for glorifying the Lord but for granting of their intentions which is not quite the purpose of prayer.

For there is one God, and there is one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus. 1 Timothy 2:5

Thank you for sharing your wisdom!
Click to expand...
I think you should also look into the definition of prayer for a Catholic and a protestant. Catholics worship is the mass, this is when we worship. Prayer, for a Catholic, does not mean worship, it means pleading, asking for help, and this was the definition used for ages ago, and used to this day for a catholic.

For protestants, in general, when those denominations threw out the elements of the mass, the only thing left for them is prayer as their form of worship.

So praying is worshipping for a protestant. Praying for a catholic is not worshipping.

Hope this clears up for you.
 
I am a Catholic by infant baptism and actually is active recently in a Presbyterian Evangelical Protestant Church and this I find not harming my relationship with God instead, I am growing more in Him. So you see, I dont really label myself as any of these but as under the Church of God. WE ARE ALL UNDER GOD’S WING!
Click to expand...
That’s awesome that you are growing in your love for God! I began my relationship with God as a Protestant, but He led me to the Catholic Church. Here I have found Him fully, and can love Him and worship Him and praise Him better than when I was a Protestant.
Perhaps you too may want to come back to the Church. God is here and you will be amazed on how amazing receiving the Eucharist is when you are already close to HIm!
It really bothers me how some Catholics pray to a saint/religious entity which is aside from God for this petition e.g. fertility,academic studies, harvest.
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You misunderstand intercessory prayer, which is what Catholics ask for when they pray to a saint. The saint does not grant fertility by their own power. Instead, they ask God to grant your request, and then God may use his power through the saint to accomplish your request. Everything is about God.
I respect Mother Mary as the mother of Christ but I really have doubts why we pray to her and not to God ALONE.
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Mary is the Mother of God but Christ also gave her to us when he was on the Cross, so she is now our mother.
You already pray to Christ’s Father, which pleases Him, but why ignore His mother? After all, did she not bear Him in her womb, give birth to Him, raised Him, saw His Passion, and His Resurrection? Is she not the first Christian?
I don’t think Christ would be upset if someone loved Him mother, and asked for her prayers.
I look up to the Saints of the Church of course but I’m quite afraid some people pray to them not for glorifying the Lord but for granting of their intentions which is not quite the purpose of prayer.
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As pablope said, your understanding of prayer is different than Catholics. We need to be on the same page to understand one another.

Here is another good site to explain about the saints. It is written to explain the Church to Evangelicals, so you might find some use for it.

Why do Catholics pray to Saints?

If you have any more questions feel free to ask!

In Christ through Mary,
Nevermore
 
aiambutasmallvo;8156868 WE ARE ALL UNDER GOD’S WING! said:
True
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I just want to ask why we Catholics pray to Mary when God has inspired in the Bible that there is only one mediator which is Jesus Christ? God is a jealous God. He is big, deep, unfathomable but dont get me wrong, HE IS NOT OUT OF REACH 👍 and in that, I think we should exhaust all of us to Him.
Taken out of context. The next time you get the urge to ask ask your family or anyone else to pray for you then … DON’T.

**Love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength. Deuteronomy 6:5
**
And I hope you do so. I hope we all do so.
It really bothers me how some Catholics pray to a saint/religious entity which is aside from God for this petition e.g. fertility,academic studies, harvest.

Pray merely means to petition to ask for. Worship is what God deserves solely. Praise comes in many forms, but the when we mean “worship” it is for God alone. I’ll work on an analogy that might make more sense later, if this didn’t help. I had the same problems as a baptized Catholic, convert to the Church of Christ, Christian only, “protestant”.

I respect Mother Mary as the mother of Christ but I really have doubts why we pray to her and not to God ALONE.

Again, misnomer. If you check your bible, John 2, the Wedding of Canaan, you may recall Mary had a role in asking Jesus for help.

1 On the third day there was a wedding in Cana in Galilee, and the mother of Jesus was there.
2 Jesus and his disciples were also invited to the wedding.
3 When the wine ran short, the mother of Jesus said to him, “They have no wine.”
4 (And) Jesus said to her, “Woman, how does your concern affect me? My hour has not yet come.”
5 His mother said to the servers, “Do whatever he tells you.”
6 Now there were six stone water jars there for Jewish ceremonial washings, each holding twenty to thirty gallons.
7 Jesus told them, “Fill the jars with water.” So they filled them to the brim.
8 Then he told them, “Draw some out now and take it to the headwaiter.” So they took it.
9 And when the headwaiter tasted the water that had become wine, without knowing where it came from (although the servers who had drawn the water knew), the headwaiter called the bridegroom
10 and said to him, “Everyone serves good wine first, and then when people have drunk freely, an inferior one; but you have kept the good wine until now.”
11 Jesus did this as the beginning of his signs in Cana in Galilee and so revealed his glory, and his disciples began to believe in him.

I look up to the Saints of the Church of course:) but I’m quite afraid some people pray to them not for glorifying the Lord but for granting of their intentions which is not quite the purpose of prayer.
No doubt that there are misguided folks out there. But just being Protestant sets one apart from the truth of the Word. The word is Jesus, which handed down the Church and all it’s traditions and teachings that have been carried down through time not through individuals defining their own truth, but God’s truth.

For there is one God, and there is one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus. 1 Timothy 2:5

Like I said, the next time you get the urge to ask someone to pray for you or anyone else, then DON’T. You’ll reap what you sew.

Thank you for sharing your wisdom!
 
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Jack_Bauer:
I was gonna get on here and throw in my two sense but it looks like some other Catholics beat me too it . Good job Catholic brothers and sisters . Proud to be a Catholic .
 
St. Paul often asked those he addressed in his epistles to pray for him, to pray for others (like Timothy). Why? If he wanted to pray, why didn’t he pray ‘directly to God’? Why did he ask others to pray for him and with him?

You remember the story of St. Stephen (found in Acts.) Look carefully at when St. Stephen was actually killed. . .it was when he said that he ‘saw heaven and the Lord’ --and the crowd just erupted in FURY. Now, why was that? Because Jesus (who was not considered ‘God’ by the nonChristian Jews) was being ‘seen in heaven’. And heaven, to those nonChristians, was for ‘God alone’.

Now, some will say, "But Jesus is God so naturally St. Stephen saw him, but that doesn’t mean there will be other people.’

But. . .St. Paul (and St. Peter, and St. John, and St. Luke etc.) assure us otherwise. Where Christ is, His brothers and sisters will be. So how can Christ be in heaven (alone) and His brothers and sisters be ‘united with Him’ (as we are assured they will be?")

Answer, of course, is that they will also be with Him. And with Him, united with Him, they will be where He is, see what He sees, know what He knows. We are told this and assured it is truth in Scripture itself.

So if a person is united with Christ in heaven, how can he not be ‘addressed’ when we address Christ? Is Christ separate from His people?
And if we address that person, we are addressing that person IN CHRIST. IOW, we address Christ along with the person by the nature of that person being united with Christ. It is UNDERSTOOD that Christ is always the ‘ultimate’ recipient because the reason we can indeed communicate at all (prayer is a communication, it is not limited to 'God alone) is because that person IS IN CHRIST. That makes it possible. CHRIST makes it possible.
 
I thoroughly understand the Catholic view on asking Saints to pray with you and personally have no problem with it. However, whenever this questions comes up, I am reminded of my grandmother citing a verse in Luke (I think) stating something to effect of there is a great chasm between the living and the dead and no one is permitted to cross, or something-or-another.

Now that you are all thoroughly impressed by my Bible scholarship and the ease in which I quote scripture, I’m curious what your thoughts are on this.
 
aiambutasmallvo said:
I am a Catholic by infant baptism and actually is active recently in a Presbyterian Evangelical Protestant Church and this I find not harming my relationship with God instead, I am growing more in Him. So you see, I dont really label myself as any of these but as under the Church of God. WE ARE ALL UNDER GOD’S WING!

I just want to ask why we Catholics pray to Mary when God has inspired in the Bible that there is only one mediator which is Jesus Christ? God is a jealous God. He is big, deep, unfathomable but dont get me wrong, HE IS NOT OUT OF REACH 👍 and in that, I think we should exhaust all of us to Him.

**Love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength. Deuteronomy 6:5
**
It really bothers me how some Catholics pray to a saint/religious entity which is aside from God for this petition e.g. fertility,academic studies, harvest.

I respect Mother Mary as the mother of Christ but I really have doubts why we pray to her and not to God ALONE.

I look up to the Saints of the Church of course:) but I’m quite afraid some people pray to them not for glorifying the Lord but for granting of their intentions which is not quite the purpose of prayer.

For there is one God, and there is one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus. 1 Timothy 2:5

Thank you for sharing your wisdom!
Click to expand...
youtube.com/watch?v=kUdYeYy3NQA

Watch this, it explains Mary beautifully.
 
Conor7 said:
I thoroughly understand the Catholic view on asking Saints to pray with you and personally have no problem with it. However, whenever this questions comes up, I am reminded of my grandmother citing a verse in Luke (I think) stating something to effect of there is a great chasm between the living and the dead and no one is permitted to cross, or something-or-another.

Now that you are all thoroughly impressed by my Bible scholarship and the ease in which I quote scripture, I’m curious what your thoughts are on this.
Click to expand...
“Luke 16:” said:
[25]
And Abraham said to him: Son, remember that thou didst receive good things in thy lifetime, and likewise Lazareth evil things, but now he is comforted; and thou art tormented.

[26] And besides all this, between us and you, there is fixed a great chaos: so that they who would pass from hence to you, cannot, nor from thence come hither. [27] And he said: Then, father, I beseech thee, that thou wouldst send him to my father’s house, for I have five brethren, [28] That he may testify unto them, lest they also come into this place of torments. [29] And Abraham said to him: They have Moses and the prophets; let them hear them. [30] But he said: No, father Abraham: but if one went to them from the dead, they will do penance.

[31] And he said to him: If they hear not Moses and the prophets, neither will they believe, if one rise again from the dead.
Click to expand...

I believe this is the quote you’re referring to, but the ‘great chaos’ in this instance is between Heaven & Hell, not between the living and the dead. Abraham was speaking to the rich man that died and found himself in Hell, but the rich man saw that the poor man that he had ignored was in Heaven. He wanted the poor man to bring him water, but Abraham explained to him that it was not possible because there was a barrier between them that neither of them could cross. That has absolutely nothing to do with our praying to the Saints. It was a lesson that rich or poor makes no difference to God. What matters to Him is how we treat our neighbors.
 
Swiss_Guy said:
It’s almost the same thing as asking a fellow Christian to pray for you hear on earth. The only differences are that they’re prayers are more effective because they are already made perfect (James 5:16), and because they are closer to God (they’re in heaven). Paul asks for intercession (1 Tim. 2:1) right before he says Christ is the only mediator (1 Tim. 2:5). So you are right about Christ being the only mediator, but he isn’t the only intercessor.
Click to expand...
👍👍
 
aiambutasmallvo said:
I am a Catholic by infant baptism and actually is active recently in a Presbyterian Evangelical Protestant Church and this I find not harming my relationship with God instead, I am growing more in Him. So you see, I dont really label myself as any of these but as under the Church of God. WE ARE ALL UNDER GOD’S WING!

I just want to ask why we Catholics pray to Mary when God has inspired in the Bible that there is only one mediator which is Jesus Christ? God is a jealous God. He is big, deep, unfathomable but dont get me wrong, HE IS NOT OUT OF REACH 👍 and in that, I think we should exhaust all of us to Him.

**Love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength. Deuteronomy 6:5
**
It really bothers me how some Catholics pray to a saint/religious entity which is aside from God for this petition e.g. fertility,academic studies, harvest.

I respect Mother Mary as the mother of Christ but I really have doubts why we pray to her and not to God ALONE.

I look up to the Saints of the Church of course:) but I’m quite afraid some people pray to them not for glorifying the Lord but for granting of their intentions which is not quite the purpose of prayer.

For there is one God, and there is one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus. 1 Timothy 2:5

Thank you for sharing your wisdom!
Click to expand...
Hello,
aiambutasmallvo

In response to your topic question. First you need to realize we don’t pray to saints, we pray with them and ask them, through prayer, to pray for us or whoever we are petitioning for. They are the Church Triumphant and are the cloud of witnesses cheering and prayer for us to come to heaven. Blessed Mary is the queen of heaven and earth and is full of mercy for all, constantly praying for mercy to the Father, her Divine Son, and the Holy Spirit. They are our family in heaven and we constantly need their help coming to Christ.

I pray for their intercession because I can’t fight this battle on earth on my own, nor can the Church Militant fight it on it’s own. I ask them to pray for me and my family for mercy, grace, and love from God as I constantly pray to God for the same.

The Saints and Blessed Mary do not get in the way between you and Christ, they bring you closer to Him. After being released from Church Purgatory, if I am worthy of salvation, I hope I am escorted into heaven by St. Jude and St. Thomas Aquinas to Christ.
 
I ask the saints to pray for me. Any friend of God’s is a friend of mine. (Title of a book by Patrick Madrid on prayer to the saints.) I believe in the Communion of Saints. Death is the door to eternal life. We are all connected – in heaven, in Purgatory, on earth.

Where the bishop appears, there let the people be, just as where Jesus Christ is, there is the Catholic Church. Ignatius of Antioch, Letter to the Smyrnaeans,. A.D. 107 Ignatius was taught by St. John, who died c. 100.

The Presbyterian ecclesial community (there is only one Church) was founded in the16th century, made by a man named John Knox based on the teachings of John Calvin.

The Catholic Church was founded in A.D. 33, in Jerusalem, by Jesus Christ, who was God.

The New Testament consists of 27 of the Catholic Church’s own writings. The NT is based on the teaching of the believing Church, not the other way around. The Church is about 364 years older than the Bible.

Just some things every Catholic ought to know.

Jim Dandy
former Protestant
 
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