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I have a friend with a different religious background
asking me why we are praying to Mary and the other saints
for intercession.
They said God cannot answer our prayers because the saints
are dead and therefore cannot intercede for us.
Please help!
Thanks,
Loida
{
If
the saints are dead; is the Rosary vain repetition and
should we call Mary, Mother of God? }
Eric
replied:
Hi, Loida —
For an extensive treatment of this search our knowledge
base for keywords "saints intercession".
Briefly, proof that departed saints are alive and
have a role in our prayers is in Revelation 5:8 and
Revelation 8:5.
Also see Hebrews 12:1 and preceding verses (the
saints surround us like fans cheering us on),
Hebrews 12:23-24 (the souls of the departed saints
are present with us in liturgy),
Jeremiah 15:1 (the departed saints intercede
for us in heaven), and
James 5:16 (the prayer of the righteous is powerful
and effective).
Also consider the Transfiguration, when Jesus spoke
with Moses who was dead.
My non-Catholic friend asked me some questions about
the Rosary. Based on what I know, the rosary is the
mystical life of our Lord Jesus, starting from His
birth to His Resurrection.
Why can't they understand why we called
Mary, the Mother of God?
The part of the prayer:
Holy Mary, Mother of God, pray for us sinners
now and at the hour of our death.
to them, is a form of paganism like the repetition
of prayers.
Sometime it hurts to hear these things from her.
Again, any help you can provide would be appreciated.
God bless.
Loida
Eric
replied:
The answer to your first question can, again, be
found in our Knowledge base. As to why Mary is called
the Mother of God, see this posting:
The quick answer is that calling Mary the Mother
of God says more about Jesus than it does about Mary;
it's a beautifully concise way of communicating delicate
truths about Jesus that are hard to otherwise communicate.
Those three words (two in Latin, one in Greek) refute
centuries worth of heresies.
Also, note that it is condemning vain repetition,
not repetition per se. What this means is that some
pagans thought they could control their gods by multiplying
the repetition of their names. They weren't being
sincere in calling upon their gods, but just trying
to manipulate them by going on and on endlessly about
them. Think of the Hare Krishna's who think that
salvation is attained by saying the name of their
god thousands of times a day. Repeating prayers sincerely,
especially meditating on the mysteries of the Gospel,
is not vain. As the article I cited pointed out,
even the Psalms use repetitive prayer.
Eric
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