Some Catholics claim that they don’t pray to Mary, but rather only ask her to pray for them. All this is like asking them to pray for you as you would ask a friend. But a person would have to pray to Mary if they are asking her something because she is not physically here. However we do not entrust the world to one or ask protection and guidance from someone who in turn is going to ask God!
A excerpt of the conclusion of the Rosary prayed by millions is:
“Hail, holy Queen [of heaven], Mother of Mercy! Our life, our sweetness, and our hope! To thee do we cry, poor banished children of Eve; to thee do we send up our sighs, mourning and weeping, in this valley of tears.” To Mary they pray........ The most well-known portion of the Rosary and most recited Catholic prayer, repeated millions of times is Catholics praying TO MARY and asking in prayer for her to “pray for us sinners, now and at the hour of our death.”
If this is not praying to Mary then one is not praying to the Father either in the Rosary.
God says to ask Him— not Mary. Only God can answer ones prayer. So it becomes useless to pray to a saint, any saint no matter how great they may be.
Despite the rejections of saying they are praying to Mary or saints the Catholic Church does encourage praying to Mary as these excerpts from the Catechism of the Catholic Church prove:
...“Beginning with Mans unique cooperation with the working of the Holy- Spirit, the Churches developed their prayer to the holy Mother of God”.... (Catechism 2675) They do this claiming they are centering it “on the person of Christ manifested in his mysteries.”
“But a person would have to pray to Mary if they are asking her something because she is not physically here.”
No they don’t. All they have to do is say, “Mary, Mother of God, pray for us.” or “Saint whomever, Pray for us”.
“However we do not entrust the world to one or ask protection and guidance from someone who in turn is going to ask God!”
Never said we do or should, simply that we *can* ask them to pray for us in addition to our own prayers to God.
“If this is not praying to Mary then one is not praying to the Father either in the Rosary.”
The Rosary includes the Our Father. We do not ask anything of Mary other than to simply hear our prayers and to pray for us to God. That’s it.
“God says to ask Him— not Mary.”
He commands that we are to pray FOR one another. Mary is commanded to pray FOR us, as we are for one another. It’s not an either/or question, but both.
“Only God can answer ones prayer. So it becomes useless to pray to a saint, any saint no matter how great they may be.”
Again we are not PRAYING TO the saint. We are simply asking them to pray for us as we would our friend down the street. You seem hung up on the fact that she is not here in the flesh presently. I don’t understand this at all. You believe that the Holy Spirit is inside of you, helping you to pray, and that Christ is right there beside you.
I agree, only God can answer our prayers, but we are all called to pray for us, and we can ASK each other to do so at any time.
I’m glad to see you’ll willingly dig dig dig, but cannot understand a simple statement also in the catechism.
The catechism says that we can ask any of the Saints to pray for us to God.