You’ve made a just point about my saying “YOU see,” ,”YOU put little emphasis,” etc. I am guilty as charged! Sorry about that.
But let me follow up -— contritely-—by asking these questions:
In the context of Catholic devotion to the Blessed Virgin Mary, do you tend more to see Blessed Mary as a transparent window of prayers to God, or as a wall that blocks us/ detours us away from praying to God?
Do you see the Body of Christ as uniting the faithful on earth and in heaven in constant, effective, mutual love and prayer as “members of each other,” or do you tend to see all this stopping at death -— so one should not ask or expect an effective spiritual link (prayer) with the saints in Heaven?
This is your opportunity to set me straight!
Again I am sorry for writing generalizations instead of questions in my last post.
Good night and peace be with you.
Has Catholicism taught you this limitation of only TWO choices here?
I see Mary for what she was described as in the bible.
Nothing more; nothing less.
I don't have to send prayers out the window for GOD to hear them or to knock down a wall for them to get thru to Him.
Tell us what you believe:
Do you believe you HAVE to go thru Mary for your prayers to be received by the Father?
Gladly.Your phrasing of questions presumes a basis of truth that does not exist. There is only one basis of truth - God. Not what we feel, see, or wish.
For the believing Christian, everything he or she believes as true comes back to God Himself. What does He reveal, declare, teach?
In the context of Catholic devotion to the Blessed Virgin Mary, do you tend more to see Blessed Mary as a transparent window of prayers to God, or as a wall that blocks us/ detours us away from praying to God?
The believing Christian sees Mary as revealed by God in the Holy Scriptures. Out of all Jewish women, she was graced to bear Messiah. She was blessed *AMONG WOMEN* and not above women.As such, God never reveals a role for Mary in prayer at all.
Not in prophecy in the Hebrew Scriptures.
Not in prophecy in the NT Scriptures.
Not by angelic words.
Not by the Son of God.
Not by the Apostles.Ever.
She has no power to hear, repeat, nor put the motherly squeeze on Christ to bend Him to her will as a favor. It is all bogus. It is all made up out of pagan cloth.
What we "see" or prefer is irrelevant.
What God declares, reveals, and creates is everything to the believing Christian.
NOR could Mary ever be a block nor a wall in the believer's prayers to God. Neither is true to the believing Christian who looks to God for truth.
The believer has instant access to *boldly approach* the Father.
The believer has the Holy Spirit interceding for him or her - even when we do not know what to pray.
The believer has Christ as his or her Advocate before the throne of God the Father!Mary is not a conduit of prayer - nor needed. Ever.
She would be a very cheap and worthless substitute for the Father, Son and Holy Spirit!
Anyone trying to substitute dear Mary as a "conduit of prayer" isn't a believer in what God has declared.
Do you see the Body of Christ as uniting the faithful on earth and in heaven in constant, effective, mutual love and prayer as “members of each other,” or do you tend to see all this stopping at death -— so one should not ask or expect an effective spiritual link (prayer) with the saints in Heaven?
All believers in the Savior of all time are united in *the Body of Christ" - which is His bride and church.It is in Him that we are united (today) positionally. Someday, experientially.
That is different than to say they can talk, hear, respond, etc. in the present age. Scripture never says such a thing. Again, regardless of what we "see" or believe or desire to be true - and especially because we heard it from someone.
You will search the Scriptures in vain to find a place where an Apostle prayed to a departed saint, or taught believers to do so.
The doctrine you refer to was not Apostolic, but pagan. Lots of pagans pray to demigods or demigoddesses. As they entered Rome, they were given substitutes to use. Churches were built on their temples. Paganism was incorporated into Rome, as Ratzinger has stated.
Scripture also teaches a day will come that this barrier between the Church age on earth will end and departed saints and living saints will be in full communion as one body.
This will not surprise any student of the Scriptures. Today, believing saints on earth are enlivened by the life of Adam - which is fallen. Someday, after death or translation, the believer will leave behind the life of Adam and have only the life of Christ - sinless in nature, glorified with his Savior. Never-the-less, positionally, the saved believer is in Christ, risen in Christ, seated in the heavenlies in Christ. Experientially, he still has the life of Adam while on earth.
Kind regards.