the Catholic church says they do pray to Mary...but who needs them to say that ? when a person is fingering their rosary or prayer beads and saying Hail Mary (etc) that is a prayer. Prayer beads mean anything?
quite the false rabbit trails. sounds like someone is ashamed of what Catholics do and is trying to dodge and run
saying Mary was sinless is a lie. the Bible says no such thing and it is one of many false beliefs of the Catholic church
don't make this about a red herring...besides, Catholics do pray to Mary
First of all, Catholics actually do spend a lot of time praying directly to God the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. We do not have to look too far, just a casual peruse of the text of the Mass is evidence enough that the whole celebration is centered on worshiping God the Father, through the Son and in the Holy Spirit.
As to why Catholics “pray to” the saints, more precisely, we petition to the saints to pray for us before God, or to pray with us to obtain favors from God. This is actually not strange at all if we see the saints as our friends.
Both Protestants and Catholics alike would readily agree that it is a Christian practice that we pray for each other and with each other. This is what the disciples did in Jesus’ time, and what the early Christians did in the time of the Acts of the Apostles. Both Protestants and Catholics practise intercession today. We would gather with brothers and sisters to pray for the needs of the community. We would also ask others to pray for particular special needs.
“Interceding through the saints is the same, except even more powerful. As Catholics, we believe the saints are alive and active before God. And they are also our friends and heroes. We want them to pray with us and pray for our needs, just like we want our brothers and sisters on earth to do the same.”
yup as Catholics we believe something other than what scripture states
Catholic site for source
so cute the way they try to dodge it though by saying we pray to the saints (not just Mary but most of us know at least that much) to pray for earthlings to obtain favors fro God and the last indented paragraph there states using saints to pray to so they will pray for, is even more powerful
this is a crazy religion. throw out the NT, forget Jesus as your mediator and High Priest and run around after dead people who have more sway with God then you do