Should You Pray to the Virgin Mary?
ARY is a familiar figure to most people who know anything about Christianity. The Scriptures relate that Almighty God particularly blessed this young woman by choosing her to be the mother of Jesus. Jesus’ birth was unique in that Mary was a virgin when she conceived him. Certain churches of Christendom have long reserved a special veneration for Mary. In 431 C.E., the Council of Ephesus proclaimed her “Mother of God,” and today many people are taught to pray to her.*
Sincere worshippers know that they must address their prayers to the right person. What does the Bible teach in this regard? Should Christians pray to the Virgin Mary?
“Teach Us How to Pray”
The Gospel account of Luke records that one of Jesus’ disciples requested of him: “Lord, teach us how to pray.” In response, Jesus began: “Whenever you pray, say, ‘Father, let your name be sanctified.’” During his Sermon on the Mount, Jesus likewise instructed his followers to pray: “Our Father in the heavens, let your name be sanctified.”—Luke 11:1, 2; Matthew 6:9.
The first thing we learn, then, is that prayer, or worshipful address, should be directed to Jesus’ Father, who is Jehovah. Nowhere does the Bible authorize us to pray to anyone else. This is appropriate since, as Moses was told when he received the Ten Commandments, Jehovah is “a God exacting exclusive devotion.”—Exodus 20:5.
What About the Rosary?
Many who pray to Mary have been taught that blessings can be gained by the repetition of set formulas—prayers such as the Hail Mary, Our Father, and others. For Catholics, “the most widespread form of Marian devotion [that is, devotion to Mary] is without doubt the rosary,” says the book Symbols of Catholicism. The rosary is a religious exercise in honor of the Virgin Mary. The term also refers to the string of beads used to count prayers. “Five sets of ten beads, separated by an individual bead,” explains the same book, “are an invitation to fifty recitations of ‘Hail Mary’, five of ‘Our Father’, and five of ‘Glory be to the Father.’” Does God listen with favor to the devout recitation of the rosary?
Again, the instructions that Jesus gave to his disciples provide us with an authoritative answer. “When praying, do not say the same things over and over again, just as the people of the nations do,” he said, “for they imagine they will get a hearing for their use of many words.” (Matthew 6:7) So Jesus specifically told his followers to avoid repeating set formulas in their prayers.
‘But didn’t Jesus teach his disciples to repeat the Our Father, which is part of the rosary?’ someone may ask. It is to be acknowledged that Jesus provided a model prayer, which has come to be known as the Our Father, or the Lord’s Prayer. We should note, however, that he did so immediately after giving the above warning against saying “the same things over and over again.” That Jesus did not intend for the model prayer to be repeated by rote is also evident from differences in his expressions in the two recorded instances in which he taught his disciples to pray. (Matthew 6:9-15; Luke 11:2-4) The ideas Jesus expressed on those occasions were similar, but his words were not the same. This leads us to the conclusion that Jesus was simply providing models or examples of how his followers can pray and of what they can appropriately pray for. Most important, his words indicated who should be the recipient of prayer.
Respect for Mary
The fact that the Scriptures do not teach Christians to pray to Mary in no way implies a lack of respect for the role she played in the outworking of God’s purposes. The blessings that come through her Son will be to the eternal benefit of all obedient mankind. “All generations will pronounce me happy,” Mary herself stated. And her cousin Elizabeth said that Mary was “blessed . . . among women.” Indeed, she was. It was a wonderful privilege for Mary to be chosen to bear the Messiah.—Luke 1:42, 48, 49.
However, Mary is not the only woman whom the Scriptures call blessed. Because of the actions that Jael took for the benefit of the ancient nation of Israel, she too was said to have been “most blessed among women.” (Judges 5:24) Faithful Jael, Mary, and many other godly women mentioned in the Bible are certainly worthy of our imitation—but not of our veneration.
Mary was a faithful follower of Jesus. She was present on various occasions during his earthly ministry and also at his death. After Jesus’ resurrection she was “persisting in prayer” with Jesus’ brothers. This gives us reason to believe that along with them she too was anointed with holy spirit at Pentecost 33 C.E. and thus shared the hope of being part of the bride class that will reign in heaven with Christ.—Matthew 19:28; Acts 1:14; 2:1-4; Revelation 21:2, 9.
None of this, though, authorizes us to pray to Mary. Heartfelt prayer is an essential part of worship, and Christians are encouraged to “persevere in prayer.” (Romans 12:12) However, all such worshipful devotion should be directed to Jehovah alone, through Jesus Christ.—Matthew 4:10; 1 Timothy 2:5.
Winn: I know i'm judged every day but all i care is God's judgement, ;)
Judiciary power or judiciary police?
Only God Can Judge Me
الله فقط يمكنه محاكمتي
I am you and you are me, if you love i love, if you suffer i suffer
أنا أنت, و أنت أنا, إذا أحببت نفسك أحببت نفسي, إذا عانيتَ عانيتُ
Platao: You are being judged everyday, n not by God!
Btw, ever heard of something called Judiciary?? :-p
At the end of our life our questions are simple: Did I live fully? Did I love well?
Mary who???
wINN: lOL
Only God Can Judge Me
الله فقط يمكنه محاكمتي
I am you and you are me, if you love i love, if you suffer i suffer
أنا أنت, و أنت أنا, إذا أحببت نفسك أحببت نفسي, إذا عانيتَ عانيتُ
Smartbuddy: When praying to Mother Mary it is said:
"Holly Mary, mother of God
beg* for us, sinners,now and when it's time to die
Amen"
* the word in portuguese would be Rogai
But this may have several interpretations.
Jesus and Mary aren't Gods, just related to God.
Only God Can Judge Me
الله فقط يمكنه محاكمتي
I am you and you are me, if you love i love, if you suffer i suffer
أنا أنت, و أنت أنا, إذا أحببت نفسك أحببت نفسي, إذا عانيتَ عانيتُ
smartbuddy: Why worship only God!!
I worship 'London Diary' praline n cream.(Cold stone too)
I worship "Pringles".
I worship everything a dietician would call sinful..!!
I worship 'Heineken, Foster, Jack daniels".... (darn the list is soo looooong...)
I worship 'Whiskey Shisha n ganja beedis" - believe me it gives you an out of body, spiritual experience!!
"Dum maro Dum..."
A patron asked the Zen Librarian for a translation of Sartre's Being and Nothingness. The Zen Librarian gave her a torn, empty envelope from his wastebasket. Then he took it back.
_______________________________________________
At the end of our life our questions are simple: Did I live fully? Did I love well?
What is beautiful about this thread is it disproves all the MUSLIMS who falsely and inaccurately try to translate the shahada as 'There is no God except Allaah..." as the Christians believe this in principle but yet it will not make them a Muslim....
The real meaning of the shahada is "There is no God WORTHY OF WORSHIP except Allaah..."
Which most Christians would have a hard time abiding by theologically.
They call it the American dream because you have to be asleep to see it... --George Carlin
I not only think that but I do believe so. Umm, again who are you to tell other people when it comes to what they believe in?
Preacher perchance?
A monk was driving in India when suddenly a dog crosses the road. The car hit and killed the dog. The monk looked around and seeing a temple went to knock on the door. A monk opened the door. The first monk said: "I'm terribly sorry, but my karma ran over your dogma."
At the end of our life our questions are simple: Did I live fully? Did I love well?
I do respect other people beliefs but don't u think worship is only for GOD?
magnificentkid -- Oh... another BORED member???
“Learn from yesterday, live for today, hope for tomorrow.”
"smart"buddy... there's a thing about respecting what others believe in. I do believe that's mentioned in all holy scriptures. Non??!!?
Simple logic, worship the creator and NOT the creations.
Worship God alone, not the messengers of God or mother of the messengers.
I know. I can read between the lines. I just want to make sure...
but it's NOT addressed to you so PLEASE...be careful with what you write as you can see/read...nothing in my (earlier)post/comment was a response to your comment(except these 2 posts which I called your attention to)...
but the creator of this topic (read the above title stated By magnificentkid on Thu, 18/09/2008 - 8:43pm...
and I will not answer your question coz NO ONE ever wins when RELIGION is to be discussed...so IF you're aiming for one from ME...I apologize but I will not answer it...You might as well address it to someone who's up to it...
As I said, I have nothing against ANY post by ANY MUSLIMS about their beliefs as I respect it/them...but to question MY faith and belief or what I believe in...is like invading my personal space.
Tears will help you learn grow you re better off to let them flow
you know the problem their is some people when the find is hard to answer they thought that we are against them. i respect all the religions but i ask that cause you re the only one who can answer me if you r really christion and if u know about your relegion . so if u dont have answer to my question just keep quiet and let other one answer me. you said i m kid . is ok as long i want to learn
Tears will help you learn grow you re better off to let them flow
my dear by the way my name is maria so i believe on her but as mother of jesus( issa) that we have to respect them .
so that s way i hope you answer my questions
how come to said one god and you pray for 3 ? could you please answered me that ?
and also if you can tell me the 2 quetion about from where you get this pictures?
and for the respect of course we have to respect all the mother i respect my mum but i m not taking her as a god
and though I would like to comment of what i know and believe in, it would only create questions...
If the MUSLIMS wants to profess their beliefs in this site, no one is against it. But for the one who created this thread, I sure have a lot to say but I will refrain from doing so...
Only one thing is for sure...you're a "kid" and not magnificent as you deemed yourself to be bcoz questioning or initiating such topics about Mother Mary as to cast doubts of her...is blasphemy in my book. My guess is, if you're a Christian...you're not a Catholic. because no catholic will question the divinity of Mother Mary.
IMHO...
Tears will help you learn grow you re better off to let them flow
i m not christian because i believe in my religion as muslim and im very happy lucky to be muslim alhmodolilah . and i believe that there is only one god (allah)
but when u ask the christian how many gods u have they will answer is only one but when it will come to pray or ask the bless they said that they pray for father son and mary so how come to believe on one and you pray 3. ?and how come that 3 be one ?and if is mary and jesus and father is one so why they have diffent pictures?
for me when you told me 3 on 1 or 2 on 1that we can say only for NESKAFE LATTE sachet ( milk +coffe+carmel)
sorry to say that i dont wantyou misunderstand me but i want really to answer your self for that before you will answer me
Not being a christan, can tell that christians don't pray to Jesus but only God and Mother Mary
Only God Can Judge Me
الله فقط يمكنه محاكمتي
I am you and you are me, if you love i love, if you suffer i suffer
أنا أنت, و أنت أنا, إذا أحببت نفسك أحببت نفسي, إذا عانيتَ عانيتُ
Tears will help you learn grow you re better off to let them flow
please i want to know about that.
when you pray do you ask jesus or mary of god to bless you?
from where you get the pictures of jesus and mary ?is just imagination from your mind or its really their photos in that case. where the third picture for father of jesus?
sorry did not read the whole article... will only comment on the title itself...
I respect Mother Mary, she is included in the prayers we catholic pray/recite.. no further explanation..
[img_assist|nid=12867|link=none|align=left|width=|height=0]Nothing in life is to be feared. It is only to be understood.
Flowers, exactly my point, don't forget to include Moses (PBUH)and Mohamed (PBUH)as Allah's creations, like all of us.
Only God Can Judge Me
الله فقط يمكنه محاكمتي
I am you and you are me, if you love i love, if you suffer i suffer
أنا أنت, و أنت أنا, إذا أحببت نفسك أحببت نفسي, إذا عانيتَ عانيتُ
One should ONLY pray to the CREATOR..God, The One and Only God that is worthy of worship...ALLAH. The Arab Christians use the word "Allah" for God as well. No one should pray to CREATIONS...such as Mary (may Allah be pleased with her), Jesus (peace be upon him), sun, moon, buddha,animals, trees,girl goddesses, etc. So why worship what He has created or what you have created with your own hands..statues, idols, etc., instead of solely worshiping Him ALONE?
Nothing is more relaxing than flying like an Eagle in Heaven !!
chichi... the post is christian!realize this from the type of his posts! i guess
is it possible to know your religion?
Nothing is more relaxing than flying like an Eagle in Heaven !!
mother mary is the mother of Jesus! for christian ... she is mother of God. We should pray for her because she can help us. We should consider her our spiritual mother.
praying to her is always good. but for our brothers, the muslims, it is so different! they consider her virgin mary. so pure. mother of prophit Eissa but never pray for her! they just pray for Allah and Mohammad!
So that brings us to the eternal question 'Is God Male or Female'.
Fine too, 2 days is too short :)
Saturday went to a friend's party got home at 5 am, slept all sunday, or almost :)
Only God Can Judge Me
الله فقط يمكنه محاكمتي
I am you and you are me, if you love i love, if you suffer i suffer
أنا أنت, و أنت أنا, إذا أحببت نفسك أحببت نفسي, إذا عانيتَ عانيتُ
Yup my friend it has been great for me all this month. thanks for asking, how about yours?
Poverty is not for the sake of hardship. No, it is there because nothing exists but God. Poverty unlocks the door -- what a blessed key!
- Jalaluddin al-Rumi
RS: on the spot, once again ;)
Hope u had a nice weekend ;)
Only God Can Judge Me
الله فقط يمكنه محاكمتي
I am you and you are me, if you love i love, if you suffer i suffer
أنا أنت, و أنت أنا, إذا أحببت نفسك أحببت نفسي, إذا عانيتَ عانيتُ
Fair enough...thanks Realsomeone.
MM qatarliving has never been a place to learn about someone's religion confrontations has been there for long time here.
if you want to learn about other people's faiths its better to establish a direct communication with people you like to talk to.
there are Islam bashers and so are Christian and western bashers, and obvious you cant expect any religious point of view when things go nasty.
so QL is not the place to learn about Religions.
Poverty is not for the sake of hardship. No, it is there because nothing exists but God. Poverty unlocks the door -- what a blessed key!
- Jalaluddin al-Rumi
I sometimes believe that the posters are "inciting" these arguments just to see how riled up everyone will get, but I guess in the long run, you are right, I will ignore the religion threads so I don't have to see the carnage going on. It just upsets me because sometimes I read the religion threads to learn more about everyone's religion, and while I am reading it, a fight breaks out and even though it is online, it still upsets me.
"I think its better to ignore, what you can do is just go for threads you like and ignore those you dont . its that SIMPLE."
Realsome: 1000% with you
Only God Can Judge Me
الله فقط يمكنه محاكمتي
I am you and you are me, if you love i love, if you suffer i suffer
أنا أنت, و أنت أنا, إذا أحببت نفسك أحببت نفسي, إذا عانيتَ عانيتُ
Mjamille: Yes i know you didn't ;)
MikaylasMom: This part of the forum is religion, politics and culture, why you wanna do such a thing like banning who, in his free will makes religious posts, should religion be banned from this forum?
Only God Can Judge Me
الله فقط يمكنه محاكمتي
I am you and you are me, if you love i love, if you suffer i suffer
أنا أنت, و أنت أنا, إذا أحببت نفسك أحببت نفسي, إذا عانيتَ عانيتُ
Lots of people pray to Mary. The church's teaching is that u ask Mary to intercede for u and present ur prayers to god , likewise the saints. Though u can pray directly to god like someonenew said. Mary n the saints r supposed to b with god in heaven or wherever he is, close to him.
I understand your concern but that is not usually the poster's fault it most often comes from the commentators, should they be banned too?
I think its better to ignore, what you can do is just go for threads you like and ignore those you dont . its that SIMPLE.
Poverty is not for the sake of hardship. No, it is there because nothing exists but God. Poverty unlocks the door -- what a blessed key!
- Jalaluddin al-Rumi
I guess there is no right answer to that Realsomeone. I understand that religion is integrated into some people's lives, but I am tired of the religion bashing, name calling and hateful attitudes. Then of course when things get out of hand, threads get deleted, feelings are hurt, people are insulted.
MikaylasMom i think that is kind extreme, religion is integrated in some people's lives and as you know this site is public forum with every type of human beings.
so i think that suggestion is naive.
Poverty is not for the sake of hardship. No, it is there because nothing exists but God. Poverty unlocks the door -- what a blessed key!
- Jalaluddin al-Rumi
I think it should be deleted and the person banned because it causes a bunch of commotion and fighting. Is this not one of the reasons QL has been so turbulent lately? All these religious threads that get carried too far and fights and name calling ensue?? I am tired of all this confrontation, aren't you??
i could use a lesson in theology,..but im afraid it's too long for me to read everything...
Why should regigious threads be deleted and the poster banned?
The forum it's posted in is called "Politics, Culture and Religion". What else do you expect to find in here?
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Heard your wife left you,
How upset you must be.
But don't fret about it...
She moved in with me.
This is one of the same people posting religious threads. They should be banned, and the post deleted.
but i didn't say trolling...
mjamilla: Sorry, i was making the question based on the 3 comments made by you, azilana and Amoud
Only God Can Judge Me
الله فقط يمكنه محاكمتي
I am you and you are me, if you love i love, if you suffer i suffer
أنا أنت, و أنت أنا, إذا أحببت نفسك أحببت نفسي, إذا عانيتَ عانيتُ
Yes I do........
" Hatred is the coward's revenge for being intimidated"
....G.B. Shaw
hmm, there found it...
mjamille28
the pie is anywhere you wish
just eat another pie
No I dont pray to Mary. Although I respect Mary as the mother of Jesus Christ I dont think I need a mediator between me and Jesus to pass the prayers on. I think I can pray directly to God.
I dream of a better tomorrow where Chickens can cross the Road without having their motives questioned - Unknown
All i can say is, Mary is honorable women in Islam, the mother of our beloved prophet Jesus (pbuh).
Poverty is not for the sake of hardship. No, it is there because nothing exists but God. Poverty unlocks the door -- what a blessed key!
- Jalaluddin al-Rumi
platao, did i say trolling? i dont think i did...
Sorry, but no one throwing a bate to anyone, just made a question.
Only God Can Judge Me
الله فقط يمكنه محاكمتي
I am you and you are me, if you love i love, if you suffer i suffer
أنا أنت, و أنت أنا, إذا أحببت نفسك أحببت نفسي, إذا عانيتَ عانيتُ
sorry....not taking the BAIT...
STOP addressing me in this thread..please...
Mamoud/mjamille/azilana: Why you call it trolling?
Maji: I full agree with you
Only God Can Judge Me
الله فقط يمكنه محاكمتي
I am you and you are me, if you love i love, if you suffer i suffer
أنا أنت, و أنت أنا, إذا أحببت نفسك أحببت نفسي, إذا عانيتَ عانيتُ
When I was on a bus in Albania going thru hairpin bends I prayed to Virgin Mary, said a buddhist Mantra etc etc
in times of peril i will try anything
i know azi...
Stupid post/er....he's trying to incite reactions from Christians and that's absurd...
I refuse to take the bait....I'm outta here...
azi, was just about to type SP, you beat me to it.. oh well, where is that pie???
IGNORE THIS TOPIC....and rate is as an absolute "SP"...
Oh no here we go again.........
just eat another pie
are u thinking when u post this? are u a preacher in bible or a preacher in koran?
We only have one God.... Christian & Muslim are the same so no need to urgue with this topic....
Would these posts be considered trolling?
Mary is only mother of a Jesus there are humans as us how come she will bless you....
Why are you ingrat and ask other than your GOD to bless you...
ALLAH is one god only he is the one who create adam and eve The One who create humanity and humans The ONE who create mary and jesus The ONE to who you will return and THE ONE who will judge us
So before is to late because the die can come any time is a surprise for all humans.....RECOGNIZE GOD and all what HE CREATE....
ALLAH Is ONE and MUHAMED IS THE MESSAGER OF ALLAH
target -> targer.
Nice post (how many points have scored and what is your targer . just kidding)
Best wishes