Praying to Mother Mary?

Image via WikipediaOne the common allegation my Protestants friends have is that Catholics pray to Mary and some are even told that Catholics worship Mary (as God) and not God!

Perhaps, one of the hyms at Novena will clearly explained as in “Mother dearest, Mother Fairest” chorus:

“Mary help us, help we pray, Mary help us, help we pray,
Help us in all care and sorrow, Mary help us, help we pray”

Whenever I am asked if we pray and worship to Mary, I will always ask them to qualify what they meant by praying and worshipping? If they think that we worship Mary as God, then we don’t and that’s a fact. Mary is no God.

When we say we pray to Mary, it is really talking to her and requesting for her help to pray with us and for us to the Lord our God. Our worship of Mary is a simple remembrance and honoring of our Blessed Mother.

The common questions that follows is why not pray directly to God? But who says we are not? We pray directly to God and we ask Mother Mary to pray with us and for us. We send her our petitions and ask her to help intercede for us with her Son.

Jesus is the only only mediator between man and God (1 Tim. 2:5), but this in no way means we cannot or should not ask our fellow Christians to pray with us and for us (1 Tim. 2:1–4). It is not very different from praying for a friend or asking a friend to pray for us when we needed help.

The difference is Mother Mary is a Saint while we are sinners and her prayers will be much more powerful than ours. Not just Mother Mary but all the other Saints and Christians who are in heaven, who have already had their sanctification completed, for "the prayer of a righteous man has great power in its effects" (Jas. 5:16). And this has been proven effective for centuries and continues to be effective. Just attend the Novenas and hear for yourself.

What one need to understand is that all petitions and prayers that are answered are not granted by Mother Mary – she has no power to do so. Everything is granted by God. Mother Mary has cared for Jesus disciples for centuries and continues to do so. She has also helped and lead many people to her Son. Whenever she appears, she will instruct the people she appeared to to pray and to pray to her Son – Jesus.

As a result of her intercession, many people have come to know her love and more importantly, the love of God and she alone has converted more people that you can ever imagine. Yet, there are so many people who misunderstood her and do not give her the due respect that she deserved.