[Mad Dawg]

So should we never pray to Jesus for knowledge? What sorts of things can we pray for that don't involve auto-suggestion? (I'd like an automobile, please. Um who's the patron saint of Lottery tickets?)

But the suggestion WAS to pray to Jesus, as I said. So the rebuke about praying to Mary, which was what I was responding to, wasn't really apposite.

Now the contention is that, even though faith in Jesus is salvific and nothing else is, asking Jesus to enlighten one's mind about Mary is dangerous. So trust Him, but not too much?

If somebody trusts warm fuzzy feelings and is fool enough to EAT grilled cheese sammiches, much less make them, much less look at them once made, then he probably hath said in his heart "There is no God." (I love grilled cheese, but talk about your basic carbohydrate, salt, and cholesterol trifecta!)

I wouldn't, and haven't told Jesus how to answer my prayers. I tell Him what I want, and what I really, Really want, and then apologize for being so jejune, and ask Him to give me what I need. So I would rear back and remind Him that I am a suspicious and persnickety guy and if He can keep a fleece dry in a dew fall, then I'm probably going to require that he make it wet when all around it is dry before I'll believe anything, but tht's my problem.

"Batter my heart (and not just my heart, but my mind, too) three-person'd God ..."

But, you know, there actually are, on the face of the earth and known to me personally, devout Catholics who are not superstitious, sexually conflicted, emotionally driven simpletons. It seems difficult for some to believe other than that taken all together we cannot muster the intelligence of a pile of rocks, or to credit that we're not as anti-pleasure as Carrie Nation and not as foolish as a new-ager who sprinkled too much acid on his mushrooms.

We believe that God does miracles and we see them all around. We trust Him, and we believe our life is Him teaching us to trust Him more and more.

[HarleyD]

So should we never pray to Jesus for knowledge?

I didn't say that now did I?

What sorts of things can we pray for that don't involve auto-suggestion? (I'd like an automobile, please.

If we spent more time praying that God's will would be done and less time on our own will, then we wouldn't have a problem with auto-suggestions.

Um who's the patron saint of Lottery tickets?

I Googled "saints lottery tickets" and got St Paul of Minnesota so I guess he's it.

Now the contention is that, even though faith in Jesus is salvific and nothing else is, asking Jesus to enlighten one's mind about Mary is dangerous. So trust Him, but not too much?

This is the way heresies and apostasies have started. By some wacky "feeling" idea. It is pure Gnostic to think God is going to reveal a truth to you that He hasn't revealed in scripture. Isn't that what the Church always complains that Protestants do? At least we have it in writing.

But, you know, there actually are, on the face of the earth and known to me personally, devout Catholics who are not superstitious, sexually conflicted, emotionally driven simpletons.

You either go with the Church as your authority and if the Church tells you to pray to Mary then have at it; or you go with the scriptures and if they tell you not to pray to anyone but the Father than have at it. But to say "Pray that Jesus would reveal His truth to you about Mary." is La-La Land. It is either revealed through the scripture or the Church; it is not an individual experience. That is Gnosticism.

We believe that God does miracles and we see them all around.

Why do you need a miracle?