Ask a Question
or
Create a Poll
  1. Home /
  2. Questions /
  3. Social Sciences
  4. / Religions
  5. / Religions A - Z

by melissaannut on November 16th, 2004

melissaannut

Question

Help answer this question below.

Why do Catholics pray to the Saints and to Mary?

  • Like
  • Report
Share:
Other

Answers. Showing one answer.

  • by Ignatius on March 20th, 2005

    Ignatius

    Most of the posts about this topic so far are grossly biased and in error, especially concerning the Blessed Virgim Mary.

    1. Catholics do not replace Jesus with his mother. She is NOT worshipped, she is revered, though a great many people who hate the Church will tell you lies about this, and they WISH we were that stupid, because it would validate their bias and bigotry.

    2. Most non-Catholics have no real knowlege of the many valid Biblical reasons for both the intercession of saints (yet they regularly ask for and agree to intercede for one another!) and the intercessory place of Mary in the whole Messianic concept.

    I urge any on you who have access to a Strong's Exhaustive Concordance to do a word study on the Hebrew word study on the title "giberah" and see whom they were and what they did in the kingdom of Israel. You will find that she was always the "Queen mother" and her function was one of intercession with her son for the poor and needy.

    Now answer me this:
    Was Jesus not the Messiah?
    Does that not make Him the king from the very line of King David (as prophesied)?
    Was Mary not his mother?
    Is Jesus not called King of kings and Lord of Lords?
    Then what position (according to the Bible!?) does the Blessed Virgin Mary hold?
    If she is His mother and so the "giberah" then what function does she hold according to the Bible?
    Look up John 2:1-11 and see that Mary actually did take on an intercessory role without even having to be asked.
    Then also notice that her message is the same one that we all need to hear: "Do whatever He tells you."

    This is just the very tip of the iceberg on all this, but none of the n-Cs have a good answer for all this because they really don't know this part of their Bibles that well. As Paul told Timothy: "Study to show thyself approved..."

    good answers are also available here: http://www.catholic.com/library/Praying_to_the_Saints.asp
    http://www.catholic.com/library/Saint_Worship.asp
    http://www.catholic.com/library/Intercession_of_the_Saints.asp
    http://www.catholic.com/library/mary_saints.asp
    Pax vobiscum,

    Comments

    • Mary is dead and cannot interceed for anyone.

      Ritz Anders

      by Ritz Anders on April 10th, 2005

    • The Lord tells us to pray for each other. He doesn't anywhere tell us to pray to Mary or any of the Saints.

      jock5556

      by jock5556 on July 31st, 2005

    • Pax

      Alatea

      by Alatea on November 6th, 2005

    • If that kind of prayer is so essential why was it never mentioned in the New Testament?

      Joshua Zambrano

      by Joshua Zambrano on February 4th, 2006

    • The bible tells us that there is only one mediator between God and Man jesus christ, sorry mary is not mentioned.

      Charmaine Jay

      by Charmaine Jay on November 17th, 2006

    • *sigh* Unfortunately, many people have been raised or hear all the time that Catholics worship Mary and the saints and all that crapp. Here, here, Ignacious. That was a very good answer indeed. I'm a catholic, myself, and I CERTAINLY don't WORSHIP mary or the saints. And if people have such a problem with simply liking a good person (those are pretty hard to find), then, well, that's there problem. See, everybody just quotes that Ku Klux Klan and all their anti-catholic beliefs.something else, Protestants don't believe in saint but, yet, most of their schools and churches are named St. Joseph or something. Do they get bashed? No! Of course not! Oh, and maybe God wants us to think for ourselves and figure things out a bit. Maybe that's why he doesn't mention every little thing in the Bible. Besides, I believe that most prayer is very good, as long as it gets to heaven in some way. And is God not present in everyone? Yes, he is. So, then, what's the problem with pas

      stelladolphin

      by stelladolphin on April 18th, 2007

    • God is present within born-again believers. Doesn't the Catholic religion teach that saying that you know for certain that you're going to heaven is the "sin of presusmption"? In 1 John 5:13 the Scriptures teach us that we can know that we have eternal life. Don't they also have idols in their cathedrals? The Bible teaches us in the ten commandments that we're not to make graven images. You're entitled to your beliefs, stelladolphin, and I know what I'm saying is probably offensive to you or seems like I'm attacking you. However, I love Catholics because Jesus died for them to. If anything I put down is Biblically incorrect, feel free to correct me.

      ...trust in the Lord Jesus Christ.

      by ...trust in the Lord Jesus Christ. on April 21st, 2007

    • Ignatius: Where are your scriptures to back up what you are saying? If you can't back it up in the bible, then it ain't the truth!

      Abbyguy

      by Abbyguy on January 26th, 2012

    • Guy -

      Where in Scripture does it say that "if you can't back it up in the Bible then it ain't true?" By your own criteria, if you can't find that statement in the Bible, then it isn't true

      Stormarm

      by Stormarm on March 30th, 2012

    • Stormarm :
      First of all it's Idolatry, which is Divine worship given to anyone or anything but the true God. (there are many many scriptures on this topic) Here's just one.
      Leviticus 26:1 ‘You shall not make for yourselves idols, nor shall you set up for yourselves an image or a sacred pillar, nor shall you place a figured stone in your land to bow down to it; for I am the Lord your God.
      Secondly there is only one mediator. 1 Timothy 2:5 "For there is one God, and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus;"

      Abbyguy

      by Abbyguy on April 2nd, 2012

    • All of which is very well an good but in no way answers the question I asked you.

      You wrote, "If you can't back it up in the Bible the it ain't true!" I asked you to back that statement up using only the Bible.

      Do you think you can do that?

      Also, your definition of idolatry is wrong: one can commit idolatry by turning God into an idol -- not simply making an image of Him (as if that were possible), but in treating God as most polytheists treat their fetishes and spirits: as something to be bribed AND/OR threatened until it gives them what they want. More than that, your definition is meaningly because you fail to define "Divine worship". Please don't come back with the circular definition that it is worship that is due only to God. You must define in detail what that worship is. It wouldn't hurt to define worship as well, since the Hebrew and Greek words that get translated "worship" mean "serve as a loyal slave" and "prostrate oneself face down in the dirt before" ... well, the etymology of the Greek word literally means "to be a [submissive and obedient] dog before" the one being acknowledged as master.

      Stormarm

      by Stormarm on April 2nd, 2012

    • Gee Stormarm you sound JUST like a JW. Could this in fact be true? Twisting the truth and throwing in the compulsory Greek and Hebrew mistranslation is a must in their circles, so if you aren't you should be.

      Abbyguy

      by Abbyguy on April 2nd, 2012

    • Gee, I thought you were the JW -- You sure sound like one, including your refusal to answer what should be a simple and fundamental question.

      And how have I "twisted the truth"? I've made no statements except concerning the basic sense of the Biblical words translated "worship" and the meaning of "idolatry", ant those I was taught at Trinity Evangelical Divinity School by Gleason Archer, D.A. Carson, H.O.J. Brown, Scot McKnight, Nigel Cameron, Doug Moo, Kenneth Kantzer, Walter Liefeld, and Willem VanGemeren, among others. And I simply brought those up to ask you to clarify what you mean.

      Apart from that, I've just asked you a question ... twice now ... and you still haven't answered it. So, here I ask it a again:

      Please demonstrate, using Scripture alone, that "If you can't back it up in the Bible then it ain't true!"

      Do you think you can do that for me? If you can't, there's really no point in replying at all.

      Stormarm

      by Stormarm on April 2nd, 2012

    • Why are you being so snide? Are you sure your not a JW in disguise?

      I answered the question I THOUGHT you were asking back on April 2. Not my fault as I think it was a poorly constructed question, far to ambiguous, so forgive me for missing your point. I thought you were referring my original inference to the sovereignty of the bible. My bad.

      As you well know those words are NOT in the bible but the concept IS, so what's the deal? Why do you disagree with it. Why are you harping on my statement?

      I don't get what you are driving at because if you are as educated as you claim you are then would you not agree that the bible is the final authority we should go to for clarification of issues in our lives. Do you not believe in the truth of the bible and the sovereignty of God AND His ability to protect it in a form that is beneficial to us?
      If all scripture is God breathed and beneficial to us I guess I don't see why you are arguing the point?

      Unless you have fallen away from the church and/or you just like arguing irrelevant points to get your overly educated kicks.

      Abbyguy

      by Abbyguy on April 3rd, 2012

    • How is, "Where in Scripture does it say that 'if you can't back it up in the Bible then it ain't true'?" poorly worded or ambiguous?

      At any rate, now that we have an answer of sorts from you, happily you admit that the statement - including presumably words to that effect - is not found in the Bible. But you claim that the concept is. I disagree.

      Please understand, there is a world if difference between saying "If the Bible says X is true, then X is true," on the one hand, and "If the Bible does not say X is true (or false), then X is false," on the other. Your assertion, "if you can't back it up in the Bible then it ain't true," is essentially the latter one. It was essentially this claim of yours that caused many early Reformers to throw out any form of worship not found in the NT: hence they threw out music, both instrumental and singing, art, liturgy, and so on, until you got to groups like the Quakers who through out EVERYTHING including the NT books because they aren't mentioned as part of Christian worship in the NT.

      On a broader level, you are evidently asserting Sola Scriptura (with emphasis on the Sola), a doctrine which is self-refuting since it can't be backed up by Scripture. No, I'm not disputing the plenary inspiration of Scripture as God's own special revelation. But as an Historian and Theologian I'm aware that Scripture, while necessary, is not sufficient as the repository of the faith once delivered, and is inadequate as a guard against heresies born of personal idiosincratic interpretation.

      Finally, the Church is not the child of the Bible: the Bible is the Church's book.

      Stormarm

      by Stormarm on April 3rd, 2012

    • Like
    • Report

    15 comments | Post one | Permalink

Want to attach an image to your answer? Click here.

Did this answer your question? If not, then ask a new question or create a poll.

More Questions. Additional questions in this category.

You're reading Why do Catholics pray to the Saints and to Mary?

Follow us on Facebook!

Related Ads

Related Questions

Professionally Researched

Answerbag

a Demand Media company