who do you pray to in church? Mary, God, Jesus???? I am a cradle catholic and have just become extremely interested in what i have been doing all my life. I know that Jesus is the son of God. Do you pray to Jesus, who took his life for us? Do you pray to Mary for she is the one that gave birth to Jesus? Is there a correct answer for this?

Fr_Chuck

yes, and we merely see the church that are in heaven as merely still part of the "church" There is really no difference in our minds, That is the only difference as to that.

But again, I don't think it should make a differnce, we don't care that you do not wish to include them, and merely hope others don't care that we see them as part of the church as a whole.

llink13

REMEMBER! Mary was just a normal virgin woman until she became pregnant. So pray to the trinity! Mary is not included in this, the Holy Ghost will help you with this, and God is God but Jesus is your savior. So pray to God, Jesus, and the Holy Ghost or the Holy Spirit but not Mary, all she did was give birth to him, nothing more.

llink13

PLUS we were covered by the blood of jesus and when he died, we became a new creature and we can pray to God directly rather than telling a priest or a saint to pray for us, we have a direct relationship with him, if we mess up we ask Him not a priest.

Fr_Chuck

but even the New Testement tells us to confess our sins to one another,
And it merely falls into what the denomination teaches, with the majority of Christians following the including of saints, confession either public or private.

Again, this post will degress as normal into denominatonal teachings,

speechlesstx

It doesn't have to digress if we will each genuinely and objectively discuss the issue, but I do recall a saying about a snowball...

Here's the thing to me Chuck, I've laid out scripturally why we believe as we do but I don't see a scriptural response from the Catholic side. Now I'm not one of those guys that thinks Catholics are heretics, and I don't think most of the differences between us matter just a whole lot, so my interest is genuine. When I study the issue and come across sites such as this I have to question things.

We believe Mary was necessary...but would never devote entire websites to her devotion. Our devotion is only to the one that died for our sins, and scripturally and objectively it seems to make sense. The bible says our devotion is to God alone. The bible says pray to God alone. The bible says pray for one another. I can't find the other stuff.

Donna Mae

Who you pray to--is the most important part of prayer.
God is the only one who will hear your prayers and if you are not praying to Him, your prayers are in vain. I know some people will disagree with this, all I can say is study your Bible. I can't stress this enough. The only way to know what is right is to study God's word.

"Through Jesus, therefore, let us continually offer to God a sacrifice of praise--the fruit of lips that confess His name. And do not forget to do good and to share with others, for which such sacrifices God is pleased." Hebrews 13:15-16

"Now to him who is able to establish you by my gospel and the proclamation of Jesus Christ, according to the revelation of the mystery hidden for long ages past, but now revealed and made known through the prophetic writings by the command of the eternal God, so that all nations might believe and obey him--to the only wise God be glory forever through Jesus Christ! Amen." Romans 16:25-27

MoonlitWaves

Absolutely!!

Fr_Chuck

Actually catholics and orthodox have more traditions in thier religions, and these are partially used esp in the early years of the Luthern and the Anglican churches, The idea is that Mary is highly respected but not worshiped, there is a large line between love and respect of a person for thier role in the life of our Lord and in thier worship. To many who have not spent years in it, they are judgeing it from thier teachings. We on the other hand have to ask why and how you can stop such traditions and customs ( since of course the Catholic and Orthodox teachings were the only ones for 1000 years of the history of Christianity)

So as one looks over the 2000 years of Christianity, those of us that follow Catholic and Orthodox Teachings and even Anglican teaching can't really understand how anyone would not feel that much love and respect for the mother of Christ

De Maria

Prayer in Church. You mean the Mass? The Mass is the most important prayer of the Church and is prayed daily if possible but at least on Sundays and the Holy Days of obligation.

The Mass is mainly a prayer to God in which we remember the life, passion, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. The Mass culminates in Communion, the eating of the Body and Blood, Soul and Divinity of Our Lord Jesus in the Holy Eucharist and thus becoming one with Him and with the Church.

During Mass we also ask for the intercession of the Saints and Angels when we pray:

I confess to almighty God,
and to you, my brothers and sisters,
that I have sinned through my own fault,
in my thoughts and in my words,
in what I have done, and in what I have failed to do;
and I ask blessed Mary, ever virgin,
all the angels and saints,
and you, my brothers and sisters,
to pray for me to the Lord our God.

You can and should pray out of Church as well. All prayer is directed to God but can be addressed to the Saints for intercession.


The nature of your prayer changes depending on whom you address.

God, the Holy Trinity
God the Father
God, Jesus
God the Holy Spirit

You address God with adoration, praise and requests.

Mary, the Mother of God
St. Joseph her spouse and foster father of Jesus
And the rest of the Saints and Angels

You address the Saints and Angels with prayers of intercession.


That is wonderful!!! Praise God!!!


Yes.


Yes.


Yes.


Yes.

I hope that helps. If not, don't hesitate to ask for clarification.

In the meantime, here are some great websites and books you can check out:

Welcome to the St. Paul Center for Biblical Theology

Books by Dr. Scott Hahn

Essential Resources

Catholic Community Forum Home

Sincerely,

De Maria

Jesushelper76

The Father, The Son, and the Holy Spirit. God is made up of many parts and collectively make the one God. As we are all made up of many different parts as well and we make one. When I pray in Church. I pray to God. God is all things, within all things and creator of all. His word is written in all of us, yet it is up to us to open ourselves to the word. Pray to the father, asking in Jesus name. There are other prayers, that are said in church that do include others. We are asked to pray for each other. That is what we should do.

As far as the correct answer for this. What does your heart, spirit and soul say to you. Have you listened for an answer? What is your spirit telling you to do? Abide by it and that is the correct answer for you personally.