I was reading over your web site about Catholicism. I have had doubts about the Catholic Church before, and the one thing I knew to do was to pray. So I prayed and the next day God led me to a website. Since I read your web site, I ask that you may read this website and see if you can find the answers to your questions. Make sure you have your Bible with you so that you can make references. By the way, we don’t worship Mary. We honor Mary for the birth of Jesus, and prayers to her are asking her to pray for us sinners. If you ask me to pray for you does that mean you are worshiping me? No, I am helping you to relay a message to God.<\/p>\n\t
Isn’t it odd that you claim to have doubts about Roman Catholicism but instead of reading God’s instructions which He has already given you run off to the work of uninspired man? Actually, your recommendation is no different than the Mormons who ask people to pray to the Holy Spirit as to whether the book of Mormon is true or not. The answer to both prayers has already been given: “Beloved, while I was very diligent to write to you concerning our common salvation, I found it necessary to write to you exhorting you to contend earnestly for\u00a0the faith which was once for all delivered to the saints<\/strong><\/em>” (Jude 3).<\/p>\n In regards to Mary, your true colors are showing. You did not justify your prayers to Mary by God’s teachings. Instead, you attempted to present a philosophical argument that makes your pre-decided action sound plausible. Your claim is that you are not worshiping Mary, just praying to her. However, the very statement is a contradiction. The Greek word for prayer is proseuchomai.<\/em>\u00a0It means to beseech or ask favors of God. To pray to Mary, by implication, is to treat her as a deity.<\/p>\n You try to make prayers to Mary as equivalent to asking a friend to pray on your behalf. But it is not the same. I don’t go to my room in private and pray to my friend across town to offer a prayer on my behalf. It doesn’t work because he cannot hear my prayers since he is not God. I have to go to him and ask him face to face. Of course, you might object, “that can’t happen with someone who is already dead.” Precisely! Concerning the dead, the Bible says, “For the living know that they will die; but the dead know nothing, and they have no more reward, for the memory of them is forgotten. Also their love, their hatred, and their envy have now perished;\u00a0nevermore will they have a share In anything done under the sun<\/strong><\/em>” (Ecclesiastes 9:5-6). The dead of mankind has no contact with those who are living. They cannot hear your prayers according to what God has told us.<\/p>\n If you wish to claim that Mary is different, as Catholics are wont to claim, you will have to show so by the word of God. There is no record in the Bible that Mary was given any special status in the Church or in heaven.<\/p>\n One of the interesting things about Catholicism is that it is so large and has existed for so long that its own members, even among the notable scholars, are unable to keep track of its varied positions. However, to demonstrate what Roman Catholicism says about Mary, allow me to quote from\u00a0Glories of Mary<\/em>, by Liguori.<\/p>\n “Whoever asks and wishes to obtain graces without the intercession of Mary, attempts to fly without wings” (page 189).<\/p>\n “Very glorious, oh Mary, and wonderful, exclaims St. Bonaventure, is thy great name. Those who are mindful to utter it at the hour of death, have nothing to fear from hell, for the devils at once abandon the soul when they hear the name of Mary” (page 163).<\/p>\n “The devils have presented my sins before the tribunal of the Lord, and already they were dragging me to hell, but the holy Virgin came and said to them: ‘Where are you taking this youth? What have you to do with one of my servants who has so long served me in the congregation?’ The devils fled, and thus I have been saved from their hands” (page 667).<\/p>\n “Father Bernardine de Bustis relates that a hawk darted upon a bird which had been taught to say\u00a0Ave Maria<\/em>; the bird said\u00a0Ave Maria<\/em>, and the Hawk fell dead” (page 96).<\/p>\n “Wherefore those who are servants of Mary, and for whom Mary intercedes, are as secure of paradise as if they were already there” (page 280).<\/p>\n “What poor sinners we should be if we had not this advocate, so powerful and so merciful, and at the same time so prudent and so wise, that\u00a0the judge, her Son, cannot condemn the guilty, if she defends them<\/strong>. … Precisely the same thing does Mary continually in heaven, in behalf of innumerable sinners: she knows so well how to appease the divine justice with her tender and wise entreaties, that God himself blesses her for it, and as it were thanks her, that thus\u00a0she restrains him from abandoning and punishing them as they deserve<\/strong>” (page 220).<\/p>\n “God was also subject to her will<\/strong>” (page 201).<\/p>\n “And therefore, says St. Peter Damian,\u00a0the Virgin has all power in heaven as on earth<\/strong>” (page 201).<\/p>\n “She seems to command rather than request” (page 202).<\/p>\n “Thou, then oh\u00a0Mary, being Mother of God, canst save all men by thy prayers<\/strong>, which are enforced by a mother’s authority” (page 211).<\/p>\n “But now,\u00a0if God is offended with any sinner, and Mary undertakes to protect him, she restrains the Son from punishing him and saves him<\/strong>” (page 133).<\/p>\n “She possesses, by right, the whole kingdom of her son<\/strong>” (page 280).<\/p>\n “St. Bernardine of Sienna does not hesitate to say that\u00a0all obey the commands of Mary, even God himself<\/strong>” (page 202).<\/p>\n “Holy Virgin, Mother of God, succor those who implore thy assistance. Turn to us. But,\u00a0having been deified<\/strong>, as it were, hast thou forgotten men?” (page 331).<\/p><\/blockquote>\n The following is from\u00a0True Devotion to the Blessed Virgin<\/em>, by DeMontfort:<\/p>\n “… Mary whom\u00a0He has made sovereign of heaven and earth<\/strong>, general of His armies, treasurer of His treasures, dispenser of His graces, worker of His greatest marvels, restorer of the human race, mediatrix of men, exterminator of the enemies of God, and the faithful companion of His grandeurs and His triumphs” (page 15.)<\/p>\n “The divine Mary<\/strong>\u00a0is the terrestrial Paradise of the New Adam …” (page 2-3, 40-41, 59, 117, and 129).<\/p><\/blockquote>\n The following is from\u00a0New Interpretations of the Mass<\/em>, by Borgmann:<\/p>\n “Now He lifts His eyes to her, knowing that she is His mother. At every nod of her eyes\u00a0He plays the part of the ‘subdeacon’ and grants her every wish<\/strong>” (page 57).<\/p><\/blockquote>\n Thus we see that Roman Catholics not only claim a divine nature to Mary but they are wont to claim that she has power over and above both God the Father and God the Son; all based on the philosophies of men and not a word from the Holy Word of God.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Question: I was reading over your web site about Catholicism. I have had doubts about the Catholic Church before, and the one thing I knew to do was to pray. So I prayed and the next day God led me to a website. Since I read your web site, I ask that you may read…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[20],"tags":[278,1599,84],"class_list":["post-6219","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-answer","tag-mary","tag-roman-catholic-church","tag-worship"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":18531,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/catholics-venerate-mary-they-dont-worship-her\/","url_meta":{"origin":6219,"position":0},"title":"Catholics venerate Mary, they don’t worship her","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"April 28, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: Allow me to begin by saying that I am not a member of your congregation. Please attend to your own flock before this is taken into account. I am a practicing Catholic that believes strongly in building character through criticism. I also do my best to apply this in\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":6745,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/further-objections-to-the-idea-that-catholics-worship-mary\/","url_meta":{"origin":6219,"position":1},"title":"Further objections to the idea that Catholics worship Mary","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"June 26, 2006","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: Your answers are generally very straightforward, and I assume that you appreciate straightforward responses, so I'll get directly to the point: you're not telling the truth about the Catholic Church and its teachings about Mary.\u00a0 As someone who seems devoted to the Truth (though somewhat misled on several important\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":32280,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/where-did-you-get-your-facts-what-you-say-about-roman-catholic-beliefs-doesnt-match-what-i-was-taught\/","url_meta":{"origin":6219,"position":2},"title":"Where did you get your facts? What you say about Roman Catholic beliefs doesn’t match what I was taught.","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"March 25, 2012","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: Hello, As a fresh convert to Catholicism, I have some questions regarding the information on your site. What I learned directly from my parish priest contradicts several things you state in \"What is wrong with Catholicism?\", particularly at the end of your article. I want to say right now\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":6624,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/i-have-my-doubts-about-catholicism-but-where-do-i-go-for-the-truth\/","url_meta":{"origin":6219,"position":3},"title":"I have my doubts about Catholicism, but where do I go for the truth?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"June 14, 2006","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: Your answer is what is getting to me the most. I pray day and night about it, and maybe this is one of my answers. I noticed Mary is more worshiped in South America than what she might be here. I have always felt funny about it. I was\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":23668,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/i-dont-think-you-were-fair-in-your-analysis-of-the-roman-catholic-church\/","url_meta":{"origin":6219,"position":4},"title":"I don’t think you were fair in your analysis of the Roman Catholic Church","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"June 3, 2010","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: I don't mean to be disrespectful, but I do not\u00a0believe that your answer to the question \"What is wrong with the teachings of the Roman Catholic Church?\" is fair nor factually accurate. First off, you started with the statement, \"Catholicism has its roots in Christianity, but it has long\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":40398,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/why-is-it-so-important-to-you-that-mary-had-other-children-what-difference-does-it-make\/","url_meta":{"origin":6219,"position":5},"title":"Why is it so important to you that Mary had other children? What difference does it make?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"September 23, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: I have always been puzzled why the members of the church of Christ are so adamant that Mary, the mother of Jesus, had additional children with her husband, Joseph. I know the Catholic teaching is that Mary was a perpetual virgin; why does it matter to the church of\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6219","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6219"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6219\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6219"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6219"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6219"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}