At 06:58 PM 6/21/2003 -0500 Robert Seeberger wrote: >My father is dead and I talk to him in my prayers. Does this mean that I >accord my father the same status as God? >I pray to the saints for intercession. Does this make them gods? >Doctrine says no, but also implies that praying to dead people may be >useful. This may be one of those old pagan carryovers that infest >christianity such as Christmas. >I think the simple explaination is that prayer to saints is in sort of a >gray area that lies between worship and conversation (monologous as it may >be).
No. Prayer is simply a means of conversaion between this world and heaven.
Worship is a specific set of communications that may be made by any means.
For example, the prayer "please pray for me that my friend might recover from her illness" is not worship. Saying that to you over the telephone is likewise not worship.
On the other hand, the prayer "You are holy, great, and merciful in all things" is worship. Likewise, saying the same thing on your knees in front of an Earthly emperor would be worship.
>> Before you answer that, let me try to parse this out: IOW, You're saying >> that Mary is prayed to because she has access to God? That she might >> 'have His ear' so to speak? So she's not really worshipped, but merely >> acts as a 'prayer conduit'? Then prayers to Mary are really requests >> that she might act as an advocate with God on our behalf? >> >> Do I understand correctly? >> > >That is accurate enough for me.
I think that "prayer conduit" is a poor choice of words. We pray to Mary to ask her to pray for us. As a free-willed being, Mary presumably has the choice whether and how much to pray for us.
We may be talking different languages here, but I'm still trying to understand why (if I'm understanding correctly at all) Catholics would _need_ to have Mary pray for them? Does the Catholic church teach that ordinary people do not have direct access to God via prayer? Or am I just missing something here?
-- Ronn! :)
God bless America, Land that I love! Stand beside her, and guide her Thru the night with a light from above. From the mountains, to the prairies, To the oceans, white with foam� God bless America! My home, sweet home.
-- Irving Berlin (1888-1989)
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