one for cathoics to ponder ?

You can ask this question to10 different Catholics and you will get 10 different answers. This is evidence that no all of them know why they do what they do.

The truth is this. They have statues of mary. They will bow to the statue in their church. They will offer prayers to her. They may claim that they don't pray to saints...but they do. They are so blind. They pray to Jude, Christopher, some other dead people.

But get them to confess that they worship graven images and they will tell you a story.

Just one for us to ponder? Heck, I can come up with a whole bunch of questions for you to ponder:

When was the last time you were in a Catholic church and saw us sacrificing a goat to a statue of Mary? Catholics worship God the Father Almighty and Him alone.

Do you have a picture of your mom or best friend in your house? How about that pretty landscape painting or angel statue? Tsk tsk. . ."graven images," the lot of them. They only become idols if you worship them -- see question #1.

Was Jesus lying when He said, " For he is not a God of the dead, but of the living: for all live unto him." (Luke 20:38)? For folks who claim to believe in Sola Scriptura, you Protestants certainly seem to like calling Jesus a liar by not accepting His words as true.

Do Protestants not understand or accept the notion of the Communion of Saints -- i.e., all those believers who are on earth or in Heaven, joined together as the Body of Christ? That would include your friend at church, your mom, or any other believer -- including the saints in Heaven.

Is asking another person to pray for you 'necromancy?' (sic) If Jesus wasn't lying and every Christian in Heaven is alive to God, then there's nothing wrong with asking Mary or a saint to pray for us.

Oh, and one more for you to ponder: do you know what that little "Check Spelling" button to the right of the text box is used for? If you expect any reasonably intelligent person to take you seriously, you might want to use Spell Check.

First of all, look at the definition of Pray. You will notice that there are several definitions.

One is for worship. That is for God, Jesus, and the Holy Spirit. Not for any human

Now your charges that we pray to the dead are erroneous in the fact that we all have immortal souls. Hence when we petition ie. ask ie. pray for intercession, ie. have some who has gone before us to pray for us, that is just adding their prayers with the prayers we have already said.

Now you big mistake is calling St Michael dead. He is an ANGEL, He's IMMORTAL through and through. Angels do hear our prayers and have acted upon them, it is biblical. So

Then you also suggest the graven image. Well guess what, the empty cross is a graven image also. Oh, so is the pictures of the Last Supper, and of Jesus' head that seems to be so popular with you protestants. As usual it's pick and choose and not even get it right.

I suggest that you do more research before bringing up tired old arguments that have been proven wrong, time and again.

Pax et Bonum

pray

Pronunciation: (prā), [key]

—v.t.

1. to offer devout petition, praise, thanks, etc., to (God or an object of worship).

2. to offer (a prayer).

3. to bring, put, etc., by praying: to pray a soul into heaven.

4. to make earnest petition to (a person).

5. to make petition or entreaty for; crave: She prayed his forgiveness.

6. to offer devout petition, praise, thanks, etc., to God or to an object of worship.

7. to enter into spiritual communion with God or an object of worship through prayer.

—v.i.

to make entreaty or supplication, as to a person or for a thing

They are asking for the saints and Mary to help pray to God and Jesus. The idea being that those who have passed away are closer to God and might have more influence. As for the statue. They are not praying TO the STATUES. They do NOT WORSHIP the STATUES. The whole idea of IDOL WORSHIP is just that WORSHIPING AN IDOL OF STONE, expecting the STONE to solve their dilemmas.

NOT Catholic but I will stand up for them since I have studied their beliefs as well as others, so should others if they really want to KNOW what they do rather than ASSUMING!

Mary is not dead. Where does it say in the Bible that she is?

St. Michael is an angel...he is not dead either. Again, no biblical evidence to support that they are dead.

Prayers to the dead mentioned in Deuteronomy, if read in context, forbid the pagan practice of praying to the dead to gain favors from false gods. This is not the same thing as asking Mary or any other person to pray for us.

We are assured that those who die in the flesh, but believe in Christ, have eternal life. Certainly Christ has granted his own mother this blessing.

If the Mother of God were dead and still in the ground...where is her grave? Certainly it would be a shrine since the early Christians revered her. Her death is not recorded in the Bible.

If you understand that our souls are eternal, and the flesh dies but the soul lives on in Christ's promise and sacrifice, there is no difference between the living soul of those on earth and the living souls of those who have died in the flesh. Their souls continue to live and they continue to be one with us in the body of Christ. Therefore we can ask them to pray for us just as we ask any soul here on earth to pray for us.

Ponder what? An ill-informed accusation (there was no real question here) that has been slung around since the mid-19th century?

BTW, we do no "go" Mary Mother of God pray for us sinners now and at the hour of our death. We pray to Our Blessed Mother in these words from the Hail Mary: "Hail Mary, full of grace,the Lord is with you. Blessed are you among women, and blessed in the fruit of your womb, Jesus. Holy Mary, mother of God, pray for us sinners now and at the hour of our death."

Yawn !!! This is a drink question we have time and time again from you lot!

Why do you care what we Catholics do??? doesn't affect you does it, and don't tell me you are trying to save us, if it wasn't for the Catholic Church Christianity wouldn't be here and your 380000 of Church's and Christianity denominations wouldn't be here neither!

These in heaven are not dead they have spiritual life that's even in your KJV read it again! As for the rest it's called intercession and since when is the Angel St Micheal dead?? do you have inside information from Heaven now???

Oh by the way we pray DIRECT to God and Worship God Only!!

So, when my younger cousin had surgery last year, was it necromancy when I said to my friend, "Hey, my cousin is having surgery, will you and your family pray for him?" I doubt it. How is asking Mary to pray for us any different? How is asking St. Michael to pray for us any different?

Jesus conquered death - those who died are not dead - they are alive in Heaven. Christians profess belief in eternal life - which means Mary is alive in Heaven. They aren't asking the statue of Mary to pray for them, they are asking Mary herself to pray for them. Catholics do pray to Jesus too.

Peace!

Mary is not dead.. God is for living people.. the Bible says for the Living God... an example they are living in the heaven.... as you know jesus said.. God is for living people.. soo nobody of them is dead..

Some people may argue that Jesus died. Why then, pray to Him?

If Christ is alive, and those who believed in Him are alive with Him, by this logic, Catholic do NOT pray to the dead. The people alive in Christ are therefore also alive.

Groan! sorry but this question is just like a wound that never seems to close over and heal.

How many times must we Catholics suffer this persecution even though we have explained this hundreds of times here, does hatred for Catholics really run this deep?and can non-Catholics praise and love Jesus Christ with such animosity in their hearts?

I really do not want to answer this again but for love of God, the Blessed Virgin and the Saints I will.

The divine injunction included the prohibition of every representation of God by the hand of man. Deuteronomy explains: "Since you saw no form on the day that the Lord spoke to you at Horeb out of the midst of the fire, beware lest you act corruptly by making a graven image for yourselves, in the form of any figure. It is the absolutely transcendent God who revealed himself to Israel. "He is the all," but at the same time "he is greater than all his works. He is "the author of beauty.

Nevertheless, already in the Old Testament, God ordained or permitted the making of images that pointed symbolically toward salvation by the incarnate Word: so it was with the bronze serpent, the ark of the covenant, and the cherubim.

Basing itself on the mystery of the incarnate Word, the seventh ecumenical council at Nicaea (787) justified against the iconoclasts the veneration of icons - of Christ, but also of the Mother of God, the angels, and all the saints. By becoming incarnate, the Son of God introduced a new "economy" of images.

The Christian veneration of images is not contrary to the first commandment which proscribes idols. Indeed, "the honor rendered to an image passes to its prototype," and "whoever venerates an image venerates the person portrayed in it. The honor paid to sacred images is a "respectful veneration," not the adoration due to God alone: Religious worship is not directed to images in themselves, considered as mere things, but under their distinctive aspect as images leading us on to God incarnate. The movement toward the image does not terminate in it as image, but tends toward that whose image it is. The Catechism of the Catholic Church. <http://198.62.75.1/www1/CDHN/comm1.html%3E.

The veneration of sacred images is based on the mystery of the Incarnation of the Word of God. It is not contrary to the first commandment, and we must bear in mind that it was believed by idol worshippers that their so called diety actually inhabited the idol itself and it was this offence that angered God, Catholics do not believe that Christ or His holy Mother or the Saints inhabit statues or images, they are used purely as visual aids to draw an intimacy of the heart to the subject, much like a family photograph enables us to hold a loved one in a moment of intimacy.