Praying to Mary?
This Catholic practice is not found anywhere in the bible
This is part of a series on some of the practices of the Catholic church. It’s meant to be a respectful outreach to my Catholic friends. A true friend will not withhold the truth; not if he really cares for you - he sincerely wants to share a better way.
The first in this series was about the Catholic practice of infant baptism, the next was about the Catholic priesthood, and the 3rd was about the saints.
The written version has links for sources and sharing and comments, but the audio has voice inflections that can never quite be conveyed in writing, so they both have advantages. My kids and friends say the audio is more like a personal conversation.
Praying to Mary
I can’t find the quote, but Christy in her ‘Trust Jesus’ substack said something about praying to Mary that stuck with me:
“When a wife wants to ask her husband for something, if instead of going directly to her husband, she asked her mother to ask her husband, that would be like the Catholic practice of praying to the mother of Jesus instead of praying directly to Jesus.”
What a roundabout way to pray.
I wondered what the Catholic answer would be and found this on catholicsay.com :
“As the Blessed Virgin Mary acts as the intercessor for us, so does Jesus Christ act as a mediator between humanity and the Father. St. Paul writes: “For there is one God, and there is one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus” (1 Timothy 2:5).”
The problem is that nowhere does the bible say that Mary “acts as intercessor” for us, and nowhere does it say or show any example of praying to Mary.
Rick Warren explains that Christians can pray directly to God:
“The Bible says that when Jesus died on the cross, there was a veil in the temple that separated the Holy of Holies, where God’s Spirit was, from where man was. Only priests could go behind that veil once a year. When Jesus died on the cross, God ripped that veil — about 70 feet — from top to bottom, symbolizing that there no longer was a barrier. You now have direct access to God. (he is assuming you believe in Christ and have repented of your sins and committed your life to following Jesus [AC]). You don’t have to pray through anybody else. You don’t have to confess through anybody else. You don’t have to fellowship with God through anybody else. Read your Bible, talk with the Lord, and fellowship directly with him.”
Not only can a Christian pray directly to God the Father in the name of Jesus our Savior, but the Catholic method of praying to Mary by ‘praying the rosary’ seems to fly in the face of scripture’s admonition against vain repetition.
“ When you pray do not go on babbling endlessly as the pagans do, for they believe that they are more likely to be heard because of their many words.” Matthew 6:7, New Catholic Bible
The New American Standard Bible phrases it this way -
“And when you are praying, do not use thoughtless repetition as the Gentiles do, for they think that they will be heard because of their many words.”
You can ask a question or make a public comment; or you can send questions or comments privately to me using the following ‘message’ button:
We have something in common, at least I hope we do.
We both believe that Jesus is the Son of God, that he was born of a virgin, that he loves us so much that he came to give his life to save us, that he was crucified, dead in a tomb for 3 days, then rose from the dead, and was seen alive by the apostles and others, and then rose to heaven and now sits at the right hand of God waiting for the exact right time to come back and judge the world.
That’s a lot to have in common. My appeal to you is to come out from the Catholic Church and find a non-denominational church that tries their best to stick to the bible and follow it as the inspired word of God. The Catholic Church hierarchy has perverted the Christian faith by adding many man-made traditions that are actually contrary to God’s word. But I’m counting on you to have a sincere desire to follow Jesus in Spirit and Truth. The only way you can do that is to come out, and hopefully bring others out - leaving the false doctrines behind.
It’s a big decision - but it’s of eternal consequence. I don’t believe you can continue to follow false teachers and anti-biblical doctrines and traditions and still end up in heaven. I want to see you at the marriage supper of the Lamb - will you be there?
The next part in this series will be a study on how the bible shows that Mary did not remain a virgin after Jesus was born - after the miraculous, virgin birth of Jesus, Mary and Joseph had a normal marriage and Jesus had brothers and sisters - the bible says so!
This article came through with kindness and truth. Thanks. I missed some of the previous articles. I will have to go back and read then. God bless as these continue.
My understanding is that Miriam, Queen of Heaven was a goddess in Egypt, and syncretists adopted this cult's worship into Roman Catholic tradition. I hope I am wrong about this. I'm afraid that many of our brothers and sisters in Christ have failed to investigate this and think critically about spiritual things, including prayer and the nature of the incarnation. (It is also confusing for Muslims and others who say they think Mary is one of the three gods of Christian belief, which is far from Christian belief in one and only one God.