Why Mary?

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mm1991

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I was wondering why the Church specifically asks Mary to pray for them over other physically deceased saints?
Can you ask physically deceased people you’ve known to pray for you?
 
As far as I know yes. We can ask all the Holy Souls in purgatory to pray for us…as we should in turn be praying for them. But I have asked my deceased grandmother to intercede for me.
 
We specifically ask for Mary’s intercession because of her unique relationship with Christ. Also don’t frorget she is our adoptive mother. Who does a better jib looking after you than your mother?
 
mm1991 said:
Can you ask physically deceased people you’ve known to pray for you?
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Ya, but that’d depend on if they’re in heaven/purgatory or not. I pray for particular souls every time I ask them to pray for me.
 
The Church has always emphasized the power of Mary’s intercessory prayer because biblically, she has shown that she can influence her Son and He listens to her! 😃 (John 2) That is not to say that we cannot ask other saints for their prayers. In fact, I do that quite often.

I honestly don’t know about asking for other deceased people’s prayers. I tend to pray for my deceased loved ones rather than ask them for theirs. But I’m no theologian, so I cannot be sure.
 
mm1991 said:
I was wondering why the Church specifically asks Mary to pray for them over other physically deceased saints?
Can you ask physically deceased people you’ve known to pray for you?
Click to expand...
Response: Yes. Whether we are alive or dead, if we are in communion with God (in state of grace and doing God’s will), then we are all part of the Communion of Saints. Remember, any soul that is in Heaven is a saint. Periodically I will ask members of my family who have died to pray for me or a cause I am seeking. I believe if you pray to or for someone who has gone before you marked by the sign of faith by name that they see you and hear your prayers. You can look this up…there are numerous incidents in the lives of the saints where souls freed from Purgatory appeared to the saint to say “thank you” for praying for them. Likewise, the Church has always asked us to pray for the souls in Purgatory and to ask them to pray for us and our causes. There is only one reason for this, that our prayers are heard by that soul. If we are all one in Christ and part of His Mystical Body, whether dead or alive, then nothing can separate us from the love of God that is in Jesus Christ, not even death. God bless!
 
Thanks for clearing that up for me everyone!
It makes sense now! 😃
 
mm1991 said:
I was wondering why the Church specifically asks Mary to pray for them over other physically deceased saints?
Can you ask physically deceased people you’ve known to pray for you?
Click to expand...
Absolutely!

You can ask living people to pray for you, too.

Mary intercedes on our behalf as our spiritual mother, she is the ultimate physically deceased saint, but I ask my patron saint to pray for me daily, as well as St. Philomena to pray for my son and all those who are touched with autism in their lives, St. Peregrin to pray for well you get the idea.
 
ForMary said:
Absolutely!

You can ask living people to pray for you, too.

Mary intercedes on our behalf as our spiritual mother, she is the ultimate physically deceased saint, but I ask my patron saint to pray for me daily, as well as St. Philomena to pray for my son and all those who are touched with autism in their lives, St. Peregrin to pray for well you get the idea.
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May I ask, what is a patron saint?
 
A patron saint is a saint who a person has a special devotion to. For instance, many people’s patron saints are their own names (if your name is Tom, you might often pray to one of the St. Thomas’).

Among other devotions and patron saints, I have a special devotion to the Sacred Heart, and also to St. Margaret Mary (because of the S.H. devotion), but also to St. Longinus who, in a way, gave to us both the S.H. devotion and the Divine Mercy…It just means I have a special place in my heart for these particular devotions/saints and ask for their assistance more than from other saints.
 
CassiusLonginus explains it quite well.

My patron saint is my confirmation name, but I have a few adopted patrons as well, St. Francis of Assisi, St. Cecilia, on these days, I do something special that might emulate their life, etc.
 
mm1991 said:
I was wondering why the Church specifically asks Mary to pray for them over other physically deceased saints?
Can you ask physically deceased people you’ve known to pray for you?
Click to expand...
is there some other kind of deceased besides physically?

Mary is closest to Christ, being his Mother, and specifically gave her to us to be our mother and the mother of the Church as he hung on the Cross, and that is a great reason to ask her to lead us to her Son. She will tell us what she always says: do whatever He tells you.

We can ask all the saints to pray for us and with us and to intercede with God for us because they continually behold his face and are in his presence, that is the definition of a saint.

We have no assurance that our loved ones are in heaven, but we have that hope, and if they have lived a good life and died in the state of grace, we know that they will someday be in heaven. We can pray for them, that if they must undergo purgatory they soon be released to heaven, and pray to them. That is because the dead are in infinity now, not bound by earth time.

to correct a slight misapprehension in an earlier post, Mary is in heaven body and soul, that is dogma, but the Church is silent on whether she actually died physically before her Son assumed her into heaven, or whether she merely fell asleep.
 
Whether or not Mary actually died physically before her Son assumed her into heaven or merely fell asleep, her body did not undergo corruption, but was preserved incorrupt and undefiled and taken up into heaven with its pure and spotless soul.

The other saints could probably be described as “physically dead” since their souls are seperated from their earthly bodies, but this is not the case with the Mother of God.

In the end, it doesn’t really matter. Jesus died physically on earth and rose from the dead. It doesn’t make Him currently “physically dead” either.
 
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