No, I won’t do that. As I explained, and pointed out to you, these Mary prayers call her “our life, our sweetness and our hope,” and include statements of people dedicating themselves to her completely, body and soul, trusting her for salvation, etc., when, on that last point alone, the Bible is clear, including in Jesus’ Hebrew name of Joshua, that the Lord is our salvation, and “the Lord is my strength and my song and has become my salvation.” How can expect true, eternal good to come from contradicting God’s own Word? I shouldn’t and don’t.
God’s Word also says that those who call on the name of the Lord shall be saved, and Jesus Himself said that this eternal life: to know His Father, and Jesus Christ whom the Father sent (John 17:3).
Our prayers are something the Lord uses for us to get to know Him. He could just give us everything and solve all of our problems, or never let us have any in the first place, but our problems compel us, if we believe in Him, to go to Him, and through them, He teaches us about Himself, and we also experience Him and learn all sorts of things, especially about our relationship with Him.
So I know that eternally speaking, it is best and the only truly right way to pray, to pray only to God Himself, usually to the Father through the Son. The Lord’s Prayer isn’t exactly in that form, but since Jesus gave it to us, that is also in a sense going through Him. And over the years I’ve grown in my trust and love for the Lord by doing so, and even see when things are most troubling and threatening is when I seem never more aware of His love, concern and closeness, and learn so much about Him and the life we have in Him. He said tribulations would come, and His Word says they will all work for our good, and also says that if we delight ourselves in Him, He will give us the desires of our heart. And He has been giving me them, while showing me that to begin with I truly didn’t even know or understand that much about those desires compared to what He does.
So, I want my prayer life to help me in my spiritual life to get to know the Father and Son better, as God’s Word says, and to be in obedience to His Word on prayer and what He says about Himself.
You can get no closer to God than being with Him during the Holy Eucharist, something Catholic and Orthodox Christians have been doing for the last 2,000 years. Something your ancestors did before Martin Luther broke up Christ’s church some 500 years ago. You are truly in heaven when you’re participating in the Holy Eucharist. I feel so sorry for protestants because they can’t experience Holy Communion in the company of the Lord. No experience on earth comes close.
It’s really a shame that so many people don’t have enough trust in the promises of Jesus concerning prayer that they think that they can;t come boldly to the throne to find grace in time of trouble.
Praying to Mary and the saints displays a lack of trust in God, His faithfulness to us as He promised, and His willingness to provide for our every need as He said He would.
God is NOT a respecter of persons. He treats us all with the same love, not based on our performance, or some perceived merit system, but while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. How much more will He freely give us all things?
He’s not a stingy God, doling out grace in little packets to those who perform properly, but He LAVISHES His grace on us out of the abundance of His mercy and love.
God is not an intolerant taskmaster who needs to be appeased, but a loving Father who longs for our intimacy and fellowship. And that’s not the way God is portrayed in Catholicism with it’s constant emphasis on having to do this, that, or the other thing to qualify, or earn, God’s favor, His grace. Cause then it’s not grace any more but wages due, owed to us by God for duties performed.
It’s a sad situation to be in such bondage.
“ Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name. Your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread, and forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil.
For if you forgive others their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you, but if you do not forgive others their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses.
Luke 11:1-13 Now Jesus was praying in a certain place, and when he finished, one of his disciples said to him, “Lord, teach us to pray, as John taught his disciples.” And he said to them, “When you pray, say:
“Father, hallowed be your name. Your kingdom come. Give us each day our daily bread, and forgive us our sins, for we ourselves forgive everyone who is indebted to us. And lead us not into temptation.”
And he said to them, “Which of you who has a friend will go to him at midnight and say to him, ‘Friend, lend me three loaves, for a friend of mine has arrived on a journey, and I have nothing to set before him’; and he will answer from within, ‘Do not bother me; the door is now shut, and my children are with me in bed. I cannot get up and give you anything’? I tell you, though he will not get up and give him anything because he is his friend, yet because of his impudence he will rise and give him whatever he needs.
And I tell you, ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives, and the one who seeks finds, and to the one who knocks it will be opened. What father among you, if his son asks for a fish, will instead of a fish give him a serpent; or if he asks for an egg, will give him a scorpion? If you then, who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will the heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him!”
Luke 18:1-8 And he told them a parable to the effect that they ought always to pray and not lose heart. He said, “In a certain city there was a judge who neither feared God nor respected man. And there was a widow in that city who kept coming to him and saying, ‘Give me justice against my adversary.’ For a while he refused, but afterward he said to himself, ‘Though I neither fear God nor respect man, yet because this widow keeps bothering me, I will give her justice, so that she will not beat me down by her continual coming.’”
And the Lord said, “Hear what the unrighteous judge says. And will not God give justice to his elect, who cry to him day and night? Will he delay long over them? I tell you, he will give justice to them speedily. Nevertheless, when the Son of Man comes, will he find faith on earth?”
John 14:12-14 “Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever believes in me will also do the works that I do; and greater works than these will he do, because I am going to the Father. Whatever you ask in my name, this I will do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son. If you ask me anything in my name, I will do it.
James 5:13-18 Is anyone among you suffering? Let him pray. Is anyone cheerful? Let him sing praise. Is anyone among you sick? Let him call for the elders of the church, and let them pray over him, anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord. And the prayer of faith will save the one who is sick, and the Lord will raise him up. And if he has committed sins, he will be forgiven. Therefore, confess your sins to one another and pray for one another, that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous person has great power as it is working. Elijah was a man with a nature like ours, and he prayed fervently that it might not rain, and for three years and six months it did not rain on the earth. Then he prayed again, and heaven gave rain, and the earth bore its fruit.
1 John 5:14-15 And this is the confidence that we have toward him, that if we ask anything according to his will he hears us. And if we know that he hears us in whatever we ask, we know that we have the requests that we have asked of him.
Hebrews 4:14-16 Since then we have a great high priest who has passed through the heavens, Jesus, the Son of God, let us hold fast our confession. For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who in every respect has been tempted as we are, yet without sin. Let us then with confidence draw near to the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need.