Why do we as Catholics do this?

[CharitableFaith]

The 1st Commandment says not to pray to graven images, statues etc.
So how come we as Catholics get in the habit of praying to art of Mary and saints that was made by man?

God bless!

 

[Corki]

Answered just today in the Ask an Apologist forum.

forums.catholic-questions.org/showthread.php?p=9093107#post9093107

PS This isn’t really a good topic for the Philosophy forum. You should probably PM a moderator and see if it can be moved to Apologetics.

 

[edward_george]

We don’t pray to those object or worship them in place of God. Rather, they serve as reminders to us of the realities of our faith. Why just read about the Passion of Our Lord when you can see it? Why just read about those who have gone before us in faith and who are in heaven when you can see what they look like? Because God took on human flesh in the Incarnation, we can know God through His creation. We do not mistake the creation for its Creator, but rather see it as a reflection of His goodness.

Please see this link for more information: catholic.com/tracts/do-catholics-worship-statues

-ACEGC

 

[sw85]

The 1st Commandment says not to pray to graven images, statues etc.
So how come we as Catholics get in the habit of praying to art of Mary and saints that was made by man?

God bless!

First of all, the 1st Commandment says (in a nutshell) to have no other god but God. Catholics don’t worship anything but God. Protestants say we do, but that’s a vicious lie and heresy and we take no advice from them.

Second, we pray to Mary and saints, not to their icons. Prayer is not the same thing as worship. We worship in mass, where we bow only to God (specifically, to His real presence in the Eucharist). During the course of our worship, we also pray (to God alone); but outside of worship we are free to pray to those to whom we have recourse, including Mary and the saints, in addition to God.

Icons, statues, etc., help to focus our prayers. (Protestants call these “spiritual crutches,” in the vain and prideful belief that they are not spiritual cripples in need of them). That’s all.

 

[Edmundus1581]

This is addressed in the Catechism, #2129-2132.

• IV. “YOU SHALL NOT MAKE FOR YOURSELF A GRAVEN IMAGE . . .”>

2129 The divine injunction included the prohibition of every representation of God by the hand of man. Deuteronomy explains: "Since you saw no form on the day that the Lord spoke to you at Horeb out of the midst of the fire, beware lest you act corruptly by making a graven image for yourselves, in the form of any figure. . . . "66 It is the absolutely transcendent God who revealed himself to Israel. “He is the all,” but at the same time "he is greater than all his works."67 He is "the author of beauty."68

2130** Nevertheless, already in the Old Testament, God ordained or permitted the making of images that pointed symbolically toward salvation by the incarnate Word**: so it was with the bronze serpent, the ark of the covenant, and the cherubim.69

2131 Basing itself on the mystery of the incarnate Word, the seventh ecumenical council at Nicaea (787) justified against the iconoclasts the veneration of icons - of Christ, but also of the Mother of God, the angels, and all the saints. By becoming incarnate, the Son of God introduced a new “economy” of images.

2132 The Christian veneration of images is not contrary to the first commandment which proscribes idols. Indeed, “the honor rendered to an image passes to its prototype,” and "whoever venerates an image venerates the person portrayed in it."70 The honor paid to sacred images is a “respectful veneration,” not the adoration due to God alone:

Religious worship is not directed to images in themselves, considered as mere things, but under their distinctive aspect as images leading us on to God incarnate. The movement toward the image does not terminate in it as image, but tends toward that whose image it is.71

Please note the statement the “seventh ecumenical council at Nicaea (787) justified against the iconoclasts the veneration of icons”. The Iconoclasts were a movement in the Eastern church in the 8th century who opposed the veneration of images and set about destroying them. So, the apparent problem of religious images is not something the Church has never observed itself and addressed. Catholics know the Ten Commandments as well as anyone else does.

…
Icons, statues, etc., help to focus our prayers. (Protestants call these “spiritual crutches,” in the vain and prideful belief that they are not spiritual cripples in need of them). That’s all.

:thumbsup:

 

[SMA_12]

The 1st Commandment says not to pray to graven images, statues etc.
So how come we as Catholics get in the habit of praying to art of Mary and saints that was made by man?

God bless!

We do not pray to the images, the images are simply a reminder of that person.

Suppose you have a spouse who is across seas. Maybe you keep a picture of them by your bed. You kiss the picture good night or maybe you look at the picture while writing them a letter.

Are you writing a letter to a picture? Are you kissing that picture goodnight? Of course not, it is simply a visual reminder of who that person is.