I just told you I didn't. I think I know better what is going on in my mind when I pray than you do.
IT is GOD that forbids it. Your church says it is wrong yet permits it. Doesn’t correct anyone, encourages it.
As I said, the Church explicitly teaches against it. I could take the trouble to show you where in Church teaching it teaches this if I didn't know you would just ignore it. The teaching is there for all to see; it is not the Church's fault that many Catholics are too lazy to learn their Faith at an adult level.
My question to you, is WHY would you kneel and pray to an IMAGE of Mary when God invites you into a personal relationship with him as FATHER through the Holy Spirit and Jesus.
Catholics don't pray to images, they pray to the Saint in heaven who is represented by the statue. When non-Catholics kneel beside their bed with a Bible in their hands, they are not praying to their bible (I hope) but to God.
It's been said a billion times in these forums but I'll just repeat it for those who are not closed-minded anti-Catholics: Praying to Saints is just the same as one Christian asking another to pray for them. The only reason Protestants see this as worship is because they have an impoverished idea of worship where prayer and singing is the highest form of worship there is. Catholics recognize that worship is much more than that, thus we have the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass which Christ himself instituted at the Last Supper and which thereafter the Church, beginning with the Apostles, followed his commandment to "do this in memory of me).
Sorry, but I don't have time to get bogged down in the same endless debates repeatedly dug up by rabid anti-Catholics in these forums again and again, ad nauseum. Don't have a sincere desire to understand Catholic teaching, then don't be a Catholic. It's as easy as that. Have a blessed evening.
Catholics don’t pray to images, they pray to the Saint in heaven who is represented by the statue. When non-Catholics kneel beside their bed with a Bible in their hands, they are not praying to their bible (I hope) but to God.
Is not one obviously better than the other?
The only conclusion I can arrive at is YOU DO NOT HAVE A RELATIONSHIP WITH GOD THE FATHER.
He is a JEALOUS GOD. JEALOUS IS HIS NAME
There is a huge difference between Gods Word and an image of Mary. The problem is you see the Bible as just another relic. God is a living God and His Word is living, he not far away.
If my earthly father were still alive, I would go directly to him, not through his accountant or business organization. But you make your own choice.
I do not say the above to prove I am right and you are wrong. I say the above to remind us both of who God is.