Huh?
I have been told time and time again that catholics don't pray to Mary.
Obviously I've been misinformed.
But we certainly pray to her in the sense of petitioning her - in other words, ask her to pray for us, to help us, to guide us to her Son.
That's what Mary does - she's a helper on the road to Christ - a major helper, an important helper, queen of the saints and Queen Mother to her Son the King.
Everything she does is pointed towards her Son, from the moment that she said to the Angel, "Be it done unto me according to thy word," Luke 1:38, to her last words in the Bible, "Whatsoever he saith unto you, do it." John 2:5.
You might say that when I am feeling the weight of sinfulness very heavily and am ashamed to lift my head to the Lord Jesus, I can take hold of a corner of Mary's mantle and ask her to stand beside me and help me to make a good confession, do penance, amend my life and approach the Lord's altar again. I am here to tell you that she will help you like a good friend when you stumble and fall.
The whole Mary/canopy of saints theology kind of reminds me of a man trying to get ahold of customer service.....:”RINNNNNNG, RIIIINNNNNG...bzzzzzzCaller: Uh father in Heaver I’m having a little trouble with tempt.....”beeep, Hello, this is Jesus Christ, I’m out at the moment spinning a new galaxy into being, please leave your petititions with Mary or one of the lesser deities uh errr saints and I will get back to you with them at the earliest possibility; any confessions of sin can be made at any local parish Catholic church or sent up the temporal chain of cammand depending on perceived severity. Have a good day and remember, I love you and my Mom REALLY loves you!” BEEEP.
Caller” wait wait come back, I really need you now and I’m not anywhere near a priest, saint, catholic church... hmmm I wonder what the Bible says...oh I see...temple veil torn in two, go boldly before the the throne of Grace, advocate with the Father”
Lord God, I am tempted and I need to see my Lawyer, Jesus Now!...I am a sinner in need of Grace....
and suddenly a whisper and an inner rising ebullience
(I’m here with you always my child and MY FRIEND; let us talk about what is troubling you...!)
And I will repeat what you have been told by other catholics though choose to disregard. Catholics DO NOT worship Mary. The word "pray" means to address a solemn petition. It is no different from you asking any of your friends to "pray" for you. The difference here is that some of our friends are in heaven. When it comes to Mary, she holds a special relationship as the Mother of God. From the cross, Jesus entrusted His mother to His followers. The 10 commandments tell us to Honor our mother and father. When catholics "pray" to Mary, they are honoring the mother entrusted to them by our Lord and Savior, as requested by Christ.
I have been told time and time again that catholics don't pray to Mary.Obviously I've been misinformed.
Yes, you have been misinformed. We Catholics most certainly pray to the saints, including Mary. The problem though is not that we pray, but that others are offended by this. This is due to ignorance and a deprivation of true worship, which makes people conflate actions like prayer and singing into worship. While prayer can be worship, it is also possible for it to be otherwise. The word 'prayer' means to implore, beseech or beg. That is all. It doesn't mean to worship or adore or to ask in a way only befitting to God, or any other such thing. It doesn't even have anything to do with whether the person being asked is alive or not.
Speak the speach, I pray you, as I pronounced it to you...Hamlet
Is Hamlet worshiping the player? Is Shakespeare ignorant about English? Is Shakespeare suggesting that the player is dead, or worse yet, that he is God? Of course not. To pray is to ask earnestly, beg, plead, implore, and so on. If churches today still retained the true Eucharistic worship our Lord gave us, wherein we were able to participate in the offering of the High Priest himself, people would stop going around pretending that singing a song about somebody is worship, or talking to them is worship, or drawing a picture of them is worship. The paranoia that all of these things is worship is simply evidence that there are many people out there who are not doing very much by way of true worship of the Lord, and so in turn just try to make out that everybody else are engaged in idolatry.
Yes, we pray to the saints and the Blessed Virgin Mary. If some Catholic out there says otherwise they are confused.