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GUEST
ARTICLE
DO CATHOLICS REALLY
PRAY TO MARY?
I have noticed
over the years how various cults tend to deny, at
times, their own teachings that they cherish. It
seems they do this to help make their religion seem more Christian and
acceptable than it actually is, especially when conversing
with a possible convert or one that has influence.
Catholics do this
very thing regarding praying to Mary, that is, sometimes
Catholics will deny (lie) that they pray to Mary. They
attempt to cover over this fact by stating they pray through Mary
only. While
it is true they pray through Mary, they also
pray directly to Mary and this
is easily proven. The
following is one of their own prayers to Mary that was
written by a man they have exalted to sainthood after
his death, Alphonsus Liguori. These
prayers to Mary (including the others which follow) are
taken from My Prayer Book printed by Regina Press
and copyrighted in 1981. This
book contains the Nihil Obstat from Otto L. Garcia,
j.c.d. and the Imprimatur from Francis J. Mugavero,
d.d., Bishop of Brooklyn, NY. (All
emphasis in these prayers is my own):
The Catholic Saint—
Liguori’s Prayer To Mary
O Most holy and Immaculate Virgin,
my Mother; you are the Mother of my Lord, the Queen
of the world, the advocate, hope, the refuge of sinners,
and I, the most miserable of those sinners, come to you
today.
I venerate you, great Queen,
and thank you for the many graces that you have
bestowed upon me, and I especially want to thank you
for having saved me many times from the punishment
of God, a punishment which I deserved.
I love you, most lovable Lady,
and by the love I have for you, I promise that I will
always serve you and do as much as I can to make others
love you. I put all of my hope and my entire salvation
in you.
Receive me as your servant,
O Mother of Mercy,
and cover me with the mantle of your protection.
Since you are so powerful with
God, free me from all temptations or, at least, obtain
the graces for me to overcome them until death.
I ask of you a true love for Jesus
Christ, and through you I hope to die a good death. My
Mother, by the love you have for God, I beg you to always
help me, especially at the last moment of my life.
Do not leave me until you see
me safe in heaven.
I hope to thank and praise you
there for ever. [pages 209, 210.]
Alphonsus Liguori
was also exalted by the Catholic Church and given the honored
title of Doctor. This
is especially significant when one realizes there are less
than three dozen total doctors that the Catholic
church recognizes.
If you carefully
read over that prayer to Mary and know the
New Testament message, it is painfully clear that Catholicism
has dangerously fabricated a “Mary” and exalted her to
the position that Christians carefully reserve for only God
and the Lord Jesus.
Furthermore, it
is beyond question that idolatry is a foundation
to Catholicism’s doctrine of Mary, as is also shown from
the above and elsewhere.
In addition, the
Mary of Catholicism allegedly has a major role in salvation itself. In
fact, Ligouri showed by the above prayer that he was
trusting in Mary 100% for his salvation with no mention
of Jesus. This
single error in doctrine is enough to send one to hell.
More Evidence
Unfortunately, a
prayer like that to Mary is not isolated. Notice the similar
concepts in the following prayer to Mary under the heading
of In honor of Our Lady of Czestochowa:
Holy Mother of Czestochowa, full
of grace and goodness, I bring my thoughts, my words and
actions for your blessing. Bless my life and bless your
people and make us free. Give us joy amidst suffering and
strength in persecution. Guide our ways on earth and
bring us to eternal life. Amen. [ibid., p. 168.]
Yet a different
prayer to Mary reads:
. . . Since you are the ever Virgin
Mary and Mother of the true God, obtain for us from
your most holy Son the grace of keeping our faith,
sweet hope in the midst of the bitterness of life, burning
charity and the precious gift of final perseverance. We
ask this through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son, who lives
and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever
and ever. Amen [ibid., p. 167].
Then we have The
Thirty Days’ Prayer to the Blessed Virgin Mary. The
last part of that prayer is cited below:
. . . Obtain for me likewise, O
sacred Mother of God, perseverance in good works, performance
of good resolution, mortification of self-will, a pious
conversation through life and, at my last moments, strong
and sincere repentance, accompanied with such a lively
and attentive presence of mind, as may enable me worthily
to receive the last Sacraments of the Church, and die
in your friendship and favor.
Lastly, obtain, I beseech you,
for the souls of my parents, brethren, relatives, and benefactors,
both living and dead, life everlasting. Amen. [ibid.,
p. 220].
It is pitifully
sad to know that nearly one billion Catholics are believing
such things about a non-existent Mary that slowly developed
over the centuries into their present-tense “life, sweetness
and hope,” as unashamedly declared in the Rosary. To
be more precise, the Mary of Catholicism is not the
Mary of the Bible, but instead an invented and dreamed-up,
sinless, queen of heaven who is supposed to be the mediatrix
and dispenser of all graces. The
Mary of Catholicism doesn’t exist anymore than Santa Claus
or the Easter Bunny. Again,
their Mary is not the Mary of the Bible,
but instead a counterfeit and spiritually deadly replacement
for the Lord Jesus and God himself. She has no role in
obtaining everlasting life for us, final perseverance,
grace to overcome, etc. If
you place your hope for entire salvation in her (as
shown by the above prayers) you will surely perish. Please
be aware of this.
Remove All Doubt
Rather than wondering
if these statements are true or not, please read through
the entire New Testament for yourself and learn
God’s truth first hand. You will quickly notice
that the real Mary is hardly mentioned and never has
any role in obtaining grace, protection or salvation. She
has no special influence with God through the Lord Jesus,
as show when the 120 were gathered together in the Upper
Room. The
real Mary was present there and prayer was offered to God without her
special intercession or help.
At Cana, Mary had
no more influence with Jesus to perform a miracle than
Jairus had in Mark 5:22-42; the unnamed Canaanite woman
of Mt. 15:22-28; etc.
Be assured that
this information is accurate, was written in true Christian
love and with the desire that some will love the truth
and find the real salvation that only comes from turning
from all sin and placing a submissive faith in the
Lord Jesus (our real life, sweetness and hope) for salvation. This is written to help you, not hurt you.
Our love for
Catholics is so great that we are willing to be hated,
falsely labeled Catholic bashers, and other untrue
names, etc. to get this information about salvation to
you. It
is not being loving or merciful to treat a sincere Catholic
as a Christian when he has been grossly and fatally
deceived by his leaders, including the Catholic apologetic
teachers.
If the Catholic
Church ever had the truth about salvation, it could
never endorse such evil prayers and/or a teacher such as
Liguori. Neither
could those other Catholic leaders endorse this prayer
book from which these prayers were quoted. To
do so only helps reveal its idolatrous doctrinal
position that continues to remain within this religious
system about their counterfeit Mary and salvation plan,
as well as, continuing to stumble sincere people into hell.
So No One Would Stumble
The Bible cites
one occasion where a woman tried to exalt Mary on the basis
that she gave birth to Jesus and raised him, just like
Catholicism does today. The
Lord Jesus quickly and publicly rebuked and refuted that
concept so no one would stumble:
As Jesus was saying these things,
a woman in the crowd called out, “Blessed is the mother
who gave you birth and nursed you.” He replied, “Blessed
rather are those who hear the word of God and obey it” (Luke
11:27,28).
Dan and Cheryl Corner
Evangelical Outreach
PO Box 265, Washington, PA 15301
http://www.evangelicaloutreach.org/maryprayer.htm
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