Mary is treated the same by Catholics and considered actually MORE sympathetic towards people than God/Jesus is.
Catholics pray to both Mary and God.
Catholics bow before images of both Mary and God.
Catholics capitalize the names of both Mary and God, something that is supposed to be reserved for Deity only.
Catholics claims that Mary was without sin, as was Jesus.
Catholics teach that Mary answers prayer as God does.
Catholics consecrate themselves to Mary, something I don't see encouraged or mentioned concerning Jesus.
No, we don't consider anyone more sympathetic to people than God/Jesus.
God is "love and mercy itself", we pray.
When we pray to Mary we are asking her to pray to God for us, which is not the same way we pray to God when in the Mass we sing the Gloria where we praise, bless, adore, and glorify Him.
I have already covered the bowing thing in a prevous post.
All proper names are capitalized in English (except for people like e e cummings), and so are proper titles, such as President Trump. No worship is implied.
Catholics claim that Mary was preserved from sin through God's grace, not through her own power--as the angel Gabriel says, she was "full of grace" (Luke 1:28) even before Jesus was conceived in her womb.
We teach that Mary can answer prayers by praying to God for us; we do not teach that she can answer them on her own.
On consecrating ourselves to Jesus, I have already mentioned the Act of Consecration to the Sacred Heart of Jesus in a previous post; and the Consecration to Jesus through Mary is also a consecration to Jesus.
I think that catches me up on all your posts to me.
Absolutely Catholics do.
Actaully, Catholics do.
When therefore we read in the writings of Saint Bernard, Saint Bernardine, Saint Bonaventure, and others that all in heaven and on earth, even God himself, is subject to the Blessed Virgin, they mean that the authority which God was pleased to give her is so great that she seems to have the same power as God. Her prayers and requests are so powerful with him that he accepts them as commands in the sense that he never resists his dear mother’s prayer because it is always humble and conformed to his will.... St. Louis de Montfort, in Treatise on True Devotion to the Blessed Virgin, #27, 246.
http://www.ewtn.com/library/Montfort/TRUEDEVO.HTM
Catholics claim that Mary was preserved from sin through God's grace, not through her own power--as the angel Gabriel says, she was "full of grace" (Luke 1:28) even before Jesus was conceived in her womb.
Being full of grace does not mean free from sin. On the contrary, if there is no sin in someone's life, there is no grace God can show them.
Grace is given only to those in sin. Without sin, there is no need for grace.
Also, ALL believers have the same grace as Mary does.
Mary and Grace
http://biblehub.com/greek/5487.htm
Luke 1:28 And he came to her and said, “Greetings, O favored one, the Lord is with you!”
The word grace used in this passage in Luke is used in one other place in the Bible and that is Ephesians 1 where Paul tells us that with this same grace, God has blessed us (believers) in the Beloved. IOW, we all have access to that grace and it has been bestowed on us all.
Ephesians 1:4-6 In love he predestined us for adoption as sons through Jesus Christ, according to the purpose of his will, to the praise of his glorious grace, with which he has blessed us in the Beloved.
Greek word “grace”
charitoó: to make graceful, endow with grace
Original Word: χαριτόω
Part of Speech: Verb
Transliteration: charitoó
Phonetic Spelling: (khar-ee-to'-o)
Short Definition: I favor, bestow freely on
Definition: I favor, bestow freely on.
HELPS Word-studies
Cognate: 5487 xaritóō (from 5486 /xárisma, "grace," see there) – properly, highly-favored because receptive to God's grace. 5487 (xaritóō) is used twice in the NT (Lk 1:28 and Eph 1:6), both times of God extending Himself to freely bestow grace (favor).
Word Origin: from charis
Definition: to make graceful, endow with grace
NASB Translation: favored (1), freely bestowed (1).
Prayers to Mary which disprove your claims both that Catholics pray to Mary for her to give them things, and not just to pray for them, and that Mary is considered more merciful than Jesus.
AND these prayers to MARY for salvation. They are asking her to save them and that certainly is asking her for something.
Lady of Perpetual Help Novenas
First Novena Prayer ( 1st. and 5th. Saturday)
Behold at thy feet, O Mother of Perpetual Help,| a wretched sinner who has recourse to thee and confides in thee.| O Mother of mercy, have pity on me. I hear thee called by all the refuge and the hope of sinners:| be then, my refuge and my hope.
Assist me, for the love of Jesus Christ;| stretch forth thy hand to a miserable fallen creature who recommends himself to thee, and who devotes himself to thy service for ever.| I bless and thank Almighty God, who in His mercy has given me this confidence in thee,| which I hold to be a pledge of my eternal salvation.|
It is true that in the past I have miserably fallen into sin,| because I had not recourse to thee.| I know that, with thy help, I shall conquer.| I know too, that thou wilt assist me, if I recommend myself to thee;| but I fear dear Mother | that in time of danger, I may neglect to call on thee,| and thus lose my soul.| This grace, then, I ask of thee, and this I beg, with all the fervor of my soul,| that in all the attacks of hell I may ever have recourse to thee.| O Mary, help me.| O Mother of Perpetual Help, never suffer me to lose my God.
3 Ave’s
Hail Mary , full of grace , the Lord is with thee. Blessed art thou amongst women, and blessed is the fruit of thy womb, JESUS. R: Holy Mary Mother of God, pray for us sinners, now and at the hour of our death. Amen.
Second Novena Prayer (2nd. and 4th. Saturday) O Mother of Perpetual Help, MBgrant that I may ever invoke thy most powerful name, which is the safeguard of the living and the salvation of the dying. O purest Mary, O sweetest Mary, let thy name henceforth be ever on my lips. Delay not, O Blessed Lady, to help me, whenever I call on thee; for, in all my temptations, in all my needs, I shall never cease to call on thee, ever repeating thy sacred name, Mary, Mary. O what consolation, what sweetness, what confidence, what emotion fills my soul when I utter thy sacred name, or even only think of thee. I thank the Lord for having given thee, for my good, so sweet, so powerful, so lovely a name. But I will not be content with merely uttering thy name. Let my love for thee prompt me ever to hail thee, Mother of Perpetual Help.
3 Ave’s
Third Novena Prayer ( 3rd. Saturday)
O Mother of Perpetual Help, thou art the dispenser of all the gifts which God grants to us miserable sinners; and for this end He has made thee so powerful, so rich, and so bountiful, in order that thou mayest help us in our misery. Thou art the advocate of the most wretched and abandoned sinners who have recourse to thee: come to my aid, dearest Mother, for I recommend myself to thee. In thy hands I place my eternal salvation, and to thee I entrust my soul. Count me among thy most devoted servants; take me under thy protection, and it is enough for me. For, if thou protect me, dear Mother, I fear nothing; not from my sins, because thou wilt obtain for me the pardon of them; nor from the devils, because thou art more powerful than all hell together; nor even from Jesus, my judge, because by one prayer from thee He will be appeased. But one thing I fear: that in the hour of temptation I may through negligence fail to have recourse to thee and thus perish miserably. Obtain for me, therefore, the pardon of my sins, love for Jesus, final perseverance, and the grace to have recourse to thee, O Mother of Perpetual Help. 3 Hail Marys.
http://motherofperpetualhelp.blogspot.com/2007/06/three-novena-prayers.html
*Jesus, my JUDGE*?????
Are you kidding me? A more warped view of Jesus cannot be found.