Catholics, where in God's word is Mary or a Saint identified as an object of prayer?

Luke 1 is a compendium of all the major Marian doctrines.

1:28 And coming to her, he said, "Hail, favored one! The Lord is with you."

29 But she was greatly troubled at what was said and pondered what sort of greeting this might be.

30 Then the angel said to her, "Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favor with God.

31 Behold, you will conceive in your womb and bear a son, and you shall name him Jesus.

32 He will be great and will be called Son of the Most High, and the Lord God will give him the throne of David his father,

33 and he will rule over the house of Jacob forever, and of his kingdom there will be no end."

34 But Mary said to the angel, "How can this be, since I have no relations with a man?"

35 And the angel said to her in reply, "The holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you. Therefore the child to be born will be called holy, the Son of God...............

46 And Mary said: 16 "My soul proclaims the greatness of the Lord;

47 my spirit rejoices in God my savior.

48 For he has looked upon his handmaid's lowliness; behold, from now on will all ages call me blessed.

49 The Mighty One has done great things for me, and holy is his name.

50 His mercy is from age to age to those who fear him.

Prayers thru Mary, mother of God, is just a recitation of the above biblical verses... In 1:28+, Mary was the favored one to bring forth the Son of God and in verse 1:46+, her acceptance of the mission. She is blessed from generations to generations, as fulfilled by the Catholic church up to this days. It is just right and fitting that we honor the Virgin Mary, as God so willed and one of His dominions; just as Jesus honored and obeyed her thru out His life.

1) Catholics, where in God's word is Mary or a Saint identified as an object of prayer?

In the very same place that

a) Christmas is identified as falling on Dec 25th

b) praying with palms together or fingers interlocked is identified as appropriate practice

c) the building of edifices for the sole purpose of Christian worship is identified as appropriate

etc. etc. etc.

2) Who in our Bible is identified as the intermediary between God and man.

Jesus is identified as the only mediator between **the Father** and man. However, there are many passages in the New Testament that point out the value of intercessory prayer. When you ask someone to pray for you, are you using another mediator? When Roman Catholics ask Mary to pray for them, are *they* using another mediator?

3) is there something in the Bible that I'm missing?

I would say "yes". All of the non-biblical religious practices that *you* practice, and all of the non-biblical doctrines that *you* believe. Why are your non-biblical things OK, but the Roman Catholic non-biblical things a problem?

4) If it's not in the Bible, did someone make it up?

Not necessarily. Remember: Christianity existed for about 300 years before there was a bible, and it spread like wildfire during that period. Since there *was* no bible, did all of those Christians for the first 300 years of Christianity make it all up?

Understand: I (Fundamentalist Christian) do not agree with the seeking of saintly intercession. However, simply because it does not appear in the bible does NOT make it a false doctrine. Christianity existed for **300 years** without a single bible! An example that is more to the point: praying for saintly intercession is no more invalid that worshiping in a church building because in the bible there **are no church buildings**. Did you just make church buildings up? Is it *wrong* to worship in a church building because NO Christian in the bible ever did so?

If you can show from the bible that asking a Roman Catholic "saint" for intercession is wrong even though asking a Christian next to you for intercession is right, I will agree that you have a valid point. If you cannot show that - why complain about someone *else's* non-biblical practices when you (and I and every other Christian) are *also* worshiping with non-biblical practices?

Jim, http://www.christianwebprogramming.com/br/selector...

You seem to be reading an incomplete Bible.

The Communion of Saints IS in Scripture.

If one accepts the fact that our Church Fathers were so reliable that, without error, they helped assembled our Bible correctly, then does it make sense to overlook the fact that these same Church Fathers embraced Catholic doctrines? These brilliant, prayerful guys studied the heck out of Scripture, and they studied the heck out of what the apostles had taught while on Earth.

Catholics believe the “Bible Alone” doctrine is unbiblical since Scripture never says Scripture is the “sole authority” or “only authority” or that it’s “sufficient” or that it’s “OK to personally develop doctrines from Scripture that contradict the original Church teaching.” Instead, Scripture tells us that “the pillar and foundation of truth” is the Church. (I Tim 3:15), and that personal interpretation of Scripture is not permissible. (2 Pet 1:20)

Scripture is the Word of God, so it is more than just a bunch of words. It contains specific truthful teaching that cannot be changed from one century to the next. If Scripture taught the Real Presence in the centuries after the apostles (which is precisely what the early Christians believed Scripture taught), then that’s what it still teaches.

We look at history and see that only the Catholic Church has preserved constant and unchanging interpretations of Scripture since Christ’s time.

When two interpretations of Scripture contradict one another, only one can be truthful.

Jesus promised the Holy Spirit would lead His Church “into ALL truth” (John 16:13)

There are more than 25,000 Christian denominations that believe that Scripture is all you need to properly interpret Scripture, but they all come up with a different interpretation of the Bible.

The Word of God rules our lives as Catholics. But the Word of God must be interpreted in the same way it was intended to be interpreted by God. To ensure we do not obscure Christ’s original teaching, Christ established a Church.

The words of the Hail Mary are in the bible. Also the early church followed the oral traditions of the church. The bible (NT) was not written till near the end of the lifetime of the Apostles, because they realized that the second coming was not going to happen right away and felt that someone need to write everything down. But some of what they did was not written down, but passed on orally. The Bible is only one source for the Church. Holy tradition and reason being the other two.

Firstly,before anybody asks a question,or indulges in a discussion about the entity referred to as God,they should state what they understand this God to be,and should be obligatory.Therefore,since you have not stated what you understand God to be,I will state what

understand God to be,considering what I have read and heard about

same.That It is:Infinite(without limitation/can not be encompassed)

Eternal(without beginning or ending),Immortal(unaware of birth or death),Incorporeal(not material),Omnipotent(All Powerful,the Only Power),Omniscient(All Knowing,the source of All Knowledge),

Omnipresent(the Only Presence,there is not a place that It could not be),and more.

Therefore,if the aforementioned is true of God,then the word of God must

be Infinite,and all the books that have been printed,and all those to be printed,could not contain the Word of God.Moreover,since God is supposed to be Omnipotent and Omniscient,then nobody could

alter It's Word.Therefore,all the reprints and variations of the Bible

would be impossible.

We do not pray to anyone except God, but we do ask all of the saints, including Mary, to pray for us.

But you know what, you must be right. I mean, after 2000 years, and Billions (not millions like you wrote) of Catholics, you have figured out that you are smarter than the Church!!! I really must congratulate you. You have got to be the first person to ever ask this question, and now you are going to lead all Catholics to your Protestant groups!!

Grow up and post an original question sometime.

Where in the Bible does is say God wants you to ask your friends to pray for you when times are rough?

To my knowledge it doesn't yet thousands of Protestant Christians do this.

Just think of Mary or the Saints as bffs to the Catholics and when the Catholics are going through a rough time they ask their bffs to speak with their main man God in hopes he'll help them out.

Mary is the intermediary between Jesus and heaven.

So, Jesus being God, think about it for a moment.

She is the gate simply by being the vessel for Him to enter into the world.

She herself says that "My soul doth MAGNIFY the Lord."...what do you think this means? You quote one part of the bible, expect another part to take the carpet out from under your proud feet.

and as a side note, is there a place in the bible where Jesus asks us to pray to Him?

Where in the Bible does it say to pray to Jesus?

We don't use them as objects of prayer. We believe that believers in Christ never fully die (so to say). Our bodies die but how can one with Christ be dead? So we believe that we can ask them to pray for us, they are our friends and our family. The saints are peole that God works through in ways He does not normally use people for, so we believe that they can help us VIA God. God uses them to help us- get it? It's not "Oh marry give me money" its "Mary, I need help paying bills, pray for me."