'Our Lady'

[Le Chat]

I'm sure this must've been asked before at some point (but I don't know how to find out!!)
Why is the Catholic Religion so keen on The Virgin Mary?
They seem to pray to her rather than God, as though she is able to 'answer prayers' when I was under the impression (wrongly?) that only God could answer your prayers.
I get that she gave birth to Jesus, which is a big deal but as far as the Bible goes, there's not an awful lot more about her....or is there?
The same can be said of praying to various saints. Why use (as I see it) a third party. Why not just pray to God directly? Is he too busy?

[boxtops]

Catholics believe that the VM, as Jesus' mother, can intercede with him/God on thier behalf.

[Psybbo]

Perhaps they think of her as being able to intercede with her son on their behalf

[wolf63]

Maybe because a virgin birth is more believable than an imaginary super being.

:-)

[Psybbo]

Snap boxy

[vodkancoke]

I'm Catholic and I wouldn't say we pray to her more than God.

[ummmm]

Catholics believe that lots of saints can do that.

Who is the saint of lost causes again?

[boxtops]

There's the Hail Mary, vodka, you don't get that in the Protestant church.

[Psybbo]

ummmm, St Jude?

[woofgang]

Some of the saints have special jobs, like Saint Anthony for lost items and St Jude Thaddeus (the Occupational Therapy saint) for lost causes and hopeless cases. The BVM if asked will intercede with her son for the sinner (see the Wedding at Cana, the first miracle) Not saying I believe it but I have called on St Jude in my time.

[vodkancoke]

That's it though Boxy! lol we say one prayer to her and most of the other prayers relate to God and Jesus

[Le Chat]

Why would she need to intercede with him though boxtops? Does she have a quiet word with him on the side? Why not just pray straight to him and have done?
vodkancoke - There are shrines of TVM all over the world, where people pray constantly. I have just come back from Medjugorgie in Bosnia and thats what millions of Catholics travel many, many miles just to do.

[woofgang]

Because the first miracle he ever did, according to the bible, was at the request of his mother (wedding at Cana)

[vodkancoke]

Well I can only answer from what I know from the Catholic services and as i said before there is one prayer to TVM. I don't know why they would travel to pray to a statue, then again I'm not the best Catholic in the world! lol

[vodkancoke]

This may answer some of your questions Le Chat

http://en.wikipedia.o..._Jesus)#Catholic_view

[jomifl]

Religious people are very keen on intermediaries This is encouraged by religious authorities as it enables them to step into this role so as to pass off their own opinions as decrees issued by their deity. Hence islam depends upon the alleged word of god delivered by 2 intermediaries, an angel and mohammed and christianity depends on a lot of writings very few of which are attributed to god other than the ten commandments(which are not the alleged original commandments)which were delivere via Moses. The mormons had an intermediary who was the only person able to read the inscriptions on the gold tablets (delivered by an angel)before anyone else had a chance to se them as they were later taken back by the angel. Even Jesus was delivered by an intermediary (Mary). Why an omnipotent deity couldn't just knock off a being (made in his own image of course) instead of the virgin birth nonsense, after all he had done adam and eve 5000 years earlier so he couldn't have forgotten how to do it.
If only god could issue his proclamations directly it would save a lot of misunderstandings.
I think people pray to saints because at least there has been some evidence of their physical existence whereas god? not a smidgin.

[naomi24]

Mary, the mother of God, and the saints, are deemed to be intermediaries, although, bearing in mind God is reputedly all powerful, why intermediaries are necessary is anyone’s guess. However, did you know that one train of thought says that the couple married at Cana were Jesus and Mary Magdalene? The reasoning? Why would a guest (Mary the mother of Jesus) be concerned that wine was in short supply – or indeed, take it upon herself to request further supplies? The Jews pride themselves on being excellent hosts – and in my experience they are - but if she were not closely involved with the arrangements for the wedding, that would be rather rude, don’t you think?

[mike11111]

The only flaw in that flight of fancy is that according to the gospels Jesus meets Mary Magdalene long after the wedding at Cana.

[naomi24]

And of course the gospels are always right - even though they're impossibly contradictory.

[DTCwordfan]

And they lived happily ever after and were buried in Rosslyn Chapel.