[Antoninus]

At least, that's how my initial thoughts on the subject are. I'll have to do more reading.

Your thoughts are pretty much on the money. All great saints, including the Blessed Mother, lead to Jesus. As John the Baptist said, "I must decrease so that He may increase." When a seemingly holy person aggrandizes him/herself instead of Christ, its a sure sign that they are not who they claim to be.

One of the most famous ancient icons of Eastern Christianity is the Hodegetria--she who shows the way. It was claimed that the original was painted by St. Luke himself. Here's an image of it:



The important aspect of this icon is that Mary gestures to her Son. She leads the believer to Christ. Mary herself would not wish to be "worshiped". If a pious Christian made that mistake, she would direct that person to Jesus and say, "Do whatever he tells you." (ie, the Marriage Feast of Cana).

When we pray to her, we ask for her to interceed on our behalf with her Son, Jesus. I have always found it odd that Protestants would ask other living men to pray for them, but neglect to ask those who are alive in Heaven to do likewise. There's just something deeply wrong there.

[ChurtleDawg]

I have a similar icon of The Theotokos and The Christ in my living room.

I absolutely love the art of the Eastern Christians. Nothing in the west can compare.

One icon that everyone should look at is the icon of Jesus Christ Pantocrator, because the Face of Jesus, in that icon, is almost identical to the face on the Shroud of Turin.

http://www.shroudofturin4journalists.com/pantocrator.htm

[EarthBound]

My wife is Catholic, and I consider myself a non-denominational Protestant, though I was raised Southern Baptist. I have attended Mass with my wife and her family for the past several years (since before we were married) as my own family had more of a Easter/ Christmas deal.

When we pray to her, we ask for her to interceed on our behalf with her Son, Jesus. I have always found it odd that Protestants would ask other living men to pray for them, but neglect to ask those who are alive in Heaven to do likewise. There's just something deeply wrong there.

This is an interesting statement. My understanding is that the dead are dead until the Resurrection. How then can there be anyone in heaven other than the Father and Christ my Redeamer? How could any of the dead pray for me? This has been one of my central issues with the Church. All of the Saints I'm to ask for help, and even Mary herself are dead unless they were bodily assumed into heaven (which I don't see any proof of). As such, of course we would ask family and friends for their prayers.

The above isn't in topic with the thread, so I'll add one that is. In your above statement, I've bolded something that, to me, contradicts (or at least undermines) Christ's role as Redeamer and Intercessor to the Father. It's as though Catholics are adding an unneeded step into the mix. Would one need to eventually ask a Saint to ask Mary to pray to Jesus for me? Please note I mean no disrespect, it's an honest question.

[CharlesWayneCT]

If you pray to Mary, and her response is “do whatever Jesus tells you to do”, what’s the point — we alreay knew to do what Jesus tells us to do.

And taking the story literally, if we pray to Mary, and she goes to Jesus, and he says “Woman, what have I to do with thee?”, it doesn’t sound like it’s very helpful, especially when she comes back to us and says “Just do whatever he says, he won’t listen to me”.

[OLD REGGIE]

When we pray to her, we ask for her to interceed on our behalf with her Son, Jesus.

And if she didn't intercede Jesus wouldn't hear our prayers?

[Marysecretary]

Could be because we don’t believe they are alive in Heaven?

[Paved Paradise]

It’s interesting that Luke just happened to be a painter and painted in the style of all the Greeks who came way after him.... sometimes a little skepticism is good.

[Paved Paradise]

If you do not also ask your dead family members (the ones you know loved our Lord) to intercede on your behalf then this argument is weak.