Dozens of times in the King James Version of the Bible the word "pray" clearly means not "worship," but "ask" (the following are just the first 3 examples that turn up):
Genesis 18:4
Let a little water, I pray you, be fetched, and wash your feet, and rest yourselves under the tree
Genesis 19:2
And he said, Behold now, my lords, turn in, I pray you, into your servant's house, and tarry all night
Genesis 19:7
And said, I pray you, brethren, do not so wickedly.
Our beloved dead are alive in the Lord, and love us more dearly, and speak to the Lord more freely, than when they walked this earth. So, for instance, I can ask my departed mother's prayers now, even more confidently than I could when she lived here in my own home.
Or as I might even ask you, friend: "Please say a prayer for me."
I wonder how they explain bilocation?
St. Pio appeared in two places at once a number of times.
Good post. To sum up, the phrase, “Pray to X” doesn’t necessarily mean worshiping “X”.
Padre Pio, I pray you pray for us!
Of course Shakespeare was writing at the same time and folks were always saying 'I pray thee', were we would say 'I ask you'. These days, of course we don't often use 'pray' in this way, nor do we use the second person singular (thee), except for religious or poetic purposes. The language changes meaning over time, pays to remember that.
No, I get the different meanings of the word ‘pray’. :-)
My husband is from India, and he’s a Hindu, as is his family. No offense intended, but they also ask for intercessory prayers, pray to statues and pictures of their favorite gods, etc. I consider their religion to have idol worship in its center (I once got in trouble for pointing at a statue and asking who it was, and I ‘offended’ that particular god to my in-laws). Catholics also pray to statues of their favorite saints (I attended Catholic church as a child when we lived in Boston, although we were protestants) but it isn’t considered idol worship, correct?
Is it considered ‘rude’ or sacrilegious to point at a Catholic saint’s picture or statue? Or are they considered just statues...but then why is such a fuss made over them by some people?
I find these religious studies fascinating. Thanks for any input.