Bible Question:
You ask: "am I wrong in thinking that you pray to Mary and if you do, what confidence do you have, or faith or whatever it is that you want to call it, that she hears you and where in the Bible do you get this assurance? Catholics pray "to" Mary and the saints only in the same sense that we would ask a friend or family member to pray for us or with us about any matter. Catholics believe in the "communion of saints." That is we believe that God is the God of the living (Matt 22:32), and that all those who are in Christ are alive in him even after physical death. In a sense after they die they are with Him in an even deeper and intimate sense than we are here on earth. But still Jesus, is the vine and we are all the branches on earth heaven that trust in Him and obey (John 15:1-10). St. Paul in his epistles often asks for the prayers of his congregations and assures them of his prayers for them. He also speaks of being physically absent from them but with them in the spirit (1 Cor. 5:3, Col. 2:5). Although he was alive on the earth at the time he wrote, the same principle applies after death if God is the God of the living, not of the dead. Abraham, Isaac and Jacob are dead in the physical sense, but counted among the living by Jesus in Matt 22:32. And so to live in Christ is to transcend the separation of death by faith, hope and charity (1 Cor. 13:13). In the Book of Revelation we see the Church in heaven praising God (Rev 4) and praying before God for the Church on earth (Rev 6:9-11 and 7:9-8:5). See also Hebrews 11 especially 11:40 through 12-4 that speaks of how those who have gone before us are bound together with us in salvation and are a great cloud of witnesses as we continue in our struggle against sin. So we ask them to pray with us and for us before the throne of God, starting with Mary, God's own chosen vessel, and all the saints throughout the ages as well as those struggling here with us. |
Bible Answer: This all sounds real sanctimonious but you still have averted the question, how do you know with Biblical proof, that they hear your prayers? I don't know of many that were any closer to the Lord then Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob not to mention David and many others: yet when the Disciples came to Jesus and ask that he teach them how to pray either those who had gone on before were not to be prayed to, or he forgot to mention them. I would imagine that in your synopsis that the later would have to be considered as the probability. My self I think that I would rather go with the sure thing and just pray to the Father as Jesus recommended. Just think, what if one of those saints that you have been praying to all of these years really didn't make it to heaven. He might be one of those the Christ spoke of in Matthew. Matthew 7:21-22 Not every one that saith unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven; but he that doeth the will of my Father which is in heaven. 22Many will say to me in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in thy name? and in thy name have cast out devils? and in thy name done many wonderful works? Notice the first word in verse 22, many. He goes on to say in verse 23 And then will I profess unto them, I never knew you: depart from me, ye that work iniquity. They might have known a lot of saint and gone through all the rituals but they didn't have a personal relationship with Jesus and he said that He never knew them, what a shame, so near yet so far! In His precious name, CDBJ |