Question: With all due respect, you have misunderstood
Catholics and our relationship with Mary. We do not worship her. We ask
her in prayer to intercede for us. We are asking her to pray for us,
thereby joining our prayers with hers. It is much the same as asking a
friend to pray for you, such as if I were to ask you to remember me in
your prayers.
Answer: It is not true that you are simply asking Mary to pray
for you. You go much, much further than that. Would you not agree that
Catholics believe the following?
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All graces God gives to human beings pass through the hands of Mary; no creature has received any grace from God except through the
hands of Mary.
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Those souls will fall and be lost who do not have
recourse to Mary.
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The Lord wants us to place our hope for salvation and for every blessing in Mary.
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When we pray to the Mother of God we are heard
more quickly than when we call directly on the name of Jesus.
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Mary is
the most faithful mediatrix of our salvation; she has been made the
ladder to paradise, the gate of heaven, the most true mediatrix between
God and human beings.
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In the name of Mary every knee should bend, of
things in heaven, on earth and under the earth. Mary saves all who have
recourse to her.
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Mary is the door through which sinners come to God.
Does that sound like asking Mary to pray for your needs in a similar
manner you would ask me to remember you in prayer?
Catholic response I don't deny that we believe the things you listed,
except the one about every knee should bend at the name of Mary. That
would mean we worship her, which we do not, and Church teaching is very
clear on this.
Answer I am glad that you recognize that bending every knee at the
name of Mary implies worship, for only the Lord is worthy of such
adoration. And since we should not worship Mary, if someone teaches us
that every knee should bend at the name of Mary, he would be inducing us
to idolatry.
Now, please read this quotation from a little book I have before me.
The title is “The Glories of Mary” and the author is St Alphonsus
Liguori. He says:
The whole Trinity, O Mary, gave you a name above every name,
after that of your Divine Son, so that in your name every knee should
bend, of things in heaven, on earth, and under the earth.
That is what your church teaches. And by your own admission, you are
being called to worship a creature, which is idolatry. I hope and pray
that you will repent of this sin, and turn wholeheartedly to the Lord.
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Look to Me, and be saved, All you ends of the earth! For I am God,
and there is no other. I have sworn by Myself; The word has gone out
of My mouth in righteousness, And shall not return, That to Me
every knee shall bow, Every tongue shall take an oath” (Isaiah 45:22,23).
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For it is written: As I live, says the LORD, Every knee shall
bow to Me, And every tongue shall confess to God (Romans 14:11)
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At the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of those in
heaven, and of those on earth, and of those under the earth, 11and
that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the
glory of God the Father (Philippians 2:10,11)