THIS Is Why Catholics Pray To Mary (and you should too)

Why Do Catholics Pray to Mary? | Unveiling Marian Devotion (Catholic Beliefs)

Curious about why Catholics pray to Mary? In this video, Cameron Riecker, a Catholic, dives into the reasons behind this tradition!

We'll explore:

The Biblical Role of Mary in God's Plan (Who was Mary in the Bible?)
Understanding Intercession: How Mary Prays for Us (Can Saints intercede?)
Deepening Your Faith Through Marian Devotion (Is praying to Mary biblical?)
Whether you're Catholic or interested in Catholicism, this video offers clear insights into Marian prayer.

Plus, learn:

Is Mary worshipped in Catholicism? (No)
Why do we Pray if God knows what we need?
Why do Catholics pray to Saints?
Can the Saints pray for us?

Subscribe for more Catholic faith content! #Catholicism #VirginMary #MarianDevotion #CatholicPrayers

[tylervigue]

Protestant here, and this is a really interesting video! I would love to chime into the conversation a little bit though, being as fair to you as I can be. Your main points (as I understood them, please correct me if these are not accurate summaries) are:

1. God loves using mankind to do His will.

2. The story of Moses depicts someone interceding for Israel, and that God's intention was always to save Israel and to do so because of Moses' intercession.

3. God is best honored by His creation that is in His image.

4. "In His image" means someone who creates and spreads goodness.

5. The best creature is the one who creates the most goodness.

6. Mary's statement that "all generations will call me blessed" (Luke 1:48b) reflect her knowledge that she was the good creation which could intercede for all generations.

7. Mary's statement that her soul "magnifies the Lord" (Luke 1:46) reflects her knowledge that she is like a magnifying glass that helps other people see the Lord more clearly through herself.

8. This one is short enough to quote directly: "God has chosen to lead the lower things to the higher things through the middle things, " and this is supported by Paul in 1 Corinthians 11:1.

9. The saints are more relatable than Jesus.

10. The motherhood of Christ is the highest honor that God could bestow on any human.

11. Because the motherhood of Christ is the highest honor, Mary must be the highest creature.


I have some respectful criticisms of most of these points though.

1. "God loves using mankind to do His will." I 100% agree so far.

2. "The story of Moses depicts intercession..." Yes, yes it does. I can't deny that. This demonstrates that God is (or was) open to intercession... From Moses. This point cannot be expanded to somehow include Mary without something that makes her qualified to do so, like a story of Mary interceding in any of the Gospel accounts. All this point can demonstrate is that God is open to intercession. But it takes more to prove to me that Mary is qualified for this. When we read the New Testament, after the veil comes down, only two types of intercession occur (from my memory). First, believers "intercede" for each other by praying for each other (intercede is in quotations here because I don't think that word is ever actually used for it in the New Testament, at least in English). Secondly, the Holy Spirit intercedes for us directly according to Romans 8:26 (The only actual occurrence of the word "intercession" in the New Testament that I could find). The tearing of the veil and the events of Pentecost mean that something has fundamentally changed about the way intercession works. Do I need Mary to intercede for me if God Himself, who now dwells in me personally, is doing the interceding? I don't think God needs Mary's help for that. So again, an Old Testament depiction of intercession means that intercession is a thing, but it doesn't prove that Mary somehow bears that role in the afterlife, I would need more evidence of that.

3. "God is best honored by His creation that is in His image." Yes.

4. "'In His image' means someone who creates and spreads goodness." Yes, but that doesn't necessarily mean intercession.

5. "The best creature is the one who creates the most goodness." Yes He is. The New Testament is covered with references to Jesus that make Him the archetype of a "New Adam." Jesus is the new man. Now, obviously I'm not trying to claim that Jesus is a created thing (like in the Mormon sense) but He certainly was a man. Beyond Jesus, I'm not sure I would ever classify anyone as the "best creature." ALL have fallen short of the glory of God (Romans 3:23). In any case, this is not a point that makes me more likely to pray to Mary, this argument still doesn't come together here.

6. "Mary's statement that 'All generations will call me blessed' reflects her knowledge that she was the good creation which could intercede for all generations." I really strongly disagree with this take. This just simply doesn't pass the Scriptural Context test. In the context of where this verse is written, nobody would ever conclude that she said that to mean that she was who Catholics were going to pray to long after she had died. All generations would call her blessed because she was privileged with being part of the Gospel story of Jesus Christ. This passage is not Mary talking about herself as much as she is praising God for what He was about to do through Jesus. Look at the last verse of her song of praise: "He has given help to Israel His servant, In remembrance of His mercy, As He spoke to our fathers, To Abraham and his descendants forever." She celebrating the coming the Messiah, the completion of the promise given to Israel. That's why she's blessed, is because she got to be a part of that story. The only way to think that she's talking about being prayed to in the future is to believe for some other reason that she was made to be prayed to and then read that theology into this text. So once again, I'm missing the biblical evidence that God made Mary so we could pray to her.

7. "Mary's statement that her soul 'magnifies the Lord' (Luke 1:46) reflects her knowledge that she is like a magnifying glass that helps other people see the Lord more clearly through herself." This has all the same problems as the previous statement plus one more. This word, "Magnify" is never EVER used that way in the New Testament. It means to "make bigger" or "to exalt." That is not the same as being the thing which makes something else appear bigger to someone else. This is a classic case of reading theology from words in English, and why we always have to check key words for their original language context. In this context, Mary is just making a statement of praise, and the supporting context of the passage and the meaning of the word in Greek both testify to this and deny any interpretation that Mary is talking about herself in the way Paul talked about later in 1 Corinthians 11:1. This also shows another problem I see in your argument. Even if Mary is a magnifying glass, why should I pray to her? I respect the work you put into this video, but you're arguing for two different things and smearing them together. You've conflated veneration of Mary's character with why we should pray to her. Ironically I think that hurts your argument because now it sounds like you should pray to her for reasons that sound a lot like idolatry.

8. "God has chosen to lead the lower things to the higher things through the middle things." I don't actually disagree with this part. As a general statement, I think that's fair and quite accurate. But it's also too general to be used as evidence for "Why I should pray to Mary" as your title says I ought to do. But yes, Paul does say to look to him as an example of Christ just as he imitates Christ. Mary does show some great qualities, as many people in Scripture do, and Protestants do tend to respect these qualities without feeling the need to pray to her.

9. "The saints are more relatable than Jesus." I can't disagree with that either. They are more relatable than Jesus for sure, but only because they are screw-ups like we are. When I relate to figures like the apostles, I relate to them because of the bad reasons, like Paul's "Two Natures" lament in Romans 7:14-25. When I look for good character, I look directly to Jesus if at all possible and only to the apostles and their wisdom for how it supplements the understanding of Christ that we get from the Gospel accounts. Everything they said must point back to Christ, and I'm not shooting to be like Paul, I'm shooting to be like Christ. All of this applies to Mary as well. And again, no matter how relatable Mary or Paul are, I'm not convinced I should pray to them yet.

10. "The motherhood of Christ is the highest honor God could bestow on any human." Sure, I'll give you that too. But again, why should I pray to her? This is an argument for the veneration of Mary. Should I pray to her because she's awesome? That would be blatant idolatry, brother. Love means I could not possibly understate this.

11. "Because the motherhood of Christ is the highest honor, Mary must be the highest creature." And this is more of the same. It is not an argument for why I should pray to Mary, I think it's quite a dubious claim that ignores many core Scriptural principles.

So, all in all, I respect what you're doing and I love to see good Christian content here on YouTube. But when it comes to this issue, I simply cannot agree. But I don't want it to just be, "I'm a protestant and you're wrong, " I want to make it clear why we argue the way that we do. Hopefully you can see why we can't go along with what you're saying here, from our perspective there are just too many holes in this argument.

I don't know if anyone is going to read all of that, but I hope it was at least challenging and edifying to anyone who did.

-Tyler

[teejay]

Thank you so much for telling me what Jesus wanted to do and what he didn't want to do!

[junglequeen]

God bless you and your family. Thank you for putting this into view for me. The more I dig into the faith, the more everything makes sense. I could not do this on my own, only follow those closely who do have the spirit. Please pray for my baptism, as I will pray for you and your family. ❤

[HoneyButter_Biscuit]

We don't need to pray to the saints to talk to Jesus for us. When Jesus died on the cross, the curtain ar the temple ripped in two, meaning the Holy Spirit is free that way we can pray directly to him. We are told to take all things to Jesus, not Mary or any of the saints. God Bless.

[JOEGAMESLAB]

I read most of the comments here, the Protestant ones in particular. Let me first say that they, as victims to false teachers, are taught well to play on words and verses, mainly to sink someone's in useless debates.
One example is when they use one verse out of context, to prove something not related to the subject initially. Of course sometimes a verse is self interpreting, but sometimes, it relate to other ones to complete the real context.
Another point is, they always refuse Jesus teachings about Authority and who can bind and loose Laws. Since they're mainly mislead by false teachers initially, they, ironically, put themselves in contradiction with Jesus Himself, not even only with the Catholic Church.
Their reasoning basically is to avoid the "Authority" and "who can bind and loose".

Doing so, they ignore that Jesus is the God of order and wisdom, not the God of chaos and ignorance. Since neither Jesus asking St. Peter to shepherd his sheep three times, yes, three times, and neither "You're Peter" till "anything you bind on earth is bound in heaven" doesn't seem to ring a bell, i'm certain "give what's Cesar to Cesar.." won't do better, and i'm pretty sure even, they ain't capable to establish any relation to order and wisdom.

Since Cameron already mentioned that most of the issues will be treated in later videos, i'll restrain from further.... well, let me say exposing. Only one thing, strictly related to the subject at hand, and it's about how God wants to venerate some chosen people.. Two examples, one from the O.T. is when God disregarded Moses disobedience in divorces laws.
The second is when, the same God, broke a divine project course, only to venerate his earthly Mother, when he transformed water to wine. Protestant or anyone else, are you better than God and Jesus?..

[TeacherTom]

That make so much sense! Thank you!!!!

[residentleon]

Amazing video. Cheers from Brazil. We love catholicism... God bless your newborn

[BannanaBreadd]

As a prot considering catholicism, thank you for this video!

[John_Six]

Based and Christ-pilled.

Christus vincit! Christus regnat! Christus imperat! 🇻🇦

[throrgrim]

I was raised catholic, baptised, made my communion and confirmed. All as a child and young man. Now I'm Christian alone. . Praying to a mortal woman is idolatry and one of the things that never sat right with me. Prayer and worship is for God alone.

[muffinfan]

The Bible warns against necromancy (talking to spirits of dead people). Even if it is possible to do it though mediums, God forbids it many many times.

And even if Mary did hear the prayers, she probably gets a 1000 prayers every minute. How could she forward all of the requests in time?

Praying to (making spiritual contact with) Mary, a dead human, is not allowed in Christianity.

Leviticus 20:6
“If a person turns to mediums and necromancers, whoring after them, I will set my face against that person and will cut him off from among his people."

Deuteronomy 18:10-12
"There shall not be found among you anyone who (...) tells fortunes or interprets omens, or a sorcerer or a charmer or a medium or a necromancer or one who inquires of the dead, for whoever does these things is an abomination to the Lord. (...)"

Take care brother, trust in the Lord and know he is all powerful. He will hear your prayers.

[dylanboz]

Your taking away from jesus. She is bleesed because she is Jesus's mother but you take it to extremes. She needed saving just like the rest of us. This is coming from a catholic whos learning and seperating from the catholic faith.

[rexlion]

You begin on a solid footing, and then you veer into quicksand. Yes, God does move upon living people to be a blessing to other living people. Jesus counsels us to "remain in the vine" (God) and to "bear much fruit" (works). But nothing in Scripture says or even suggests that deceased, departed people have jobs or works to fulfill in heaven; in fact, Scripture suggests the opposite is true. When Paul was about to be killed, he wrote to Timothy (2 Tim 4:7), "I have fought a good fight, I have finished my course, I have kept the faith." Rev. 14:13 says in part, "Blessed are the dead which die in the Lord from henceforth: Yea, saith the Spirit, _that they may rest from their labours..." According to Holy Scripture, the departed saints are finished with their "race of faith" and are at rest! They don't have work to do! Their tasks and acts of obedience & love toward the living people on earth are at an end!

Revelation does mention angels standing with bowls of the saints' prayers, but we can't draw firm conclusions from this vision. Angels are not redeemed, departed humans; they are separate beings altogether. The bowls of prayers are probably from saints on earth, but it does not say that saints in heaven intercepted them, nor does it suggest that the bowl contains _all_ prayers, so we really can't tell what or how many prayers the saints in heaven have been made fully aware of. It is all quite speculative, and in addition it is a vision... and the RCC tends to teach that one cannot take prophetic visions in Revelation literally! (Do you believe there will be a literal 1, 000 year reign of Christ on earth after the 2nd Advent, for example?)

Besides, you are _assuming_ that the departed saints have been endowed with super-human capability to know the content of millions of prayers, both spoken _and unspoken, _ being prayed _simultaneously, from all over the globe._ If you ask me (a living mortal person) to pray for you, you can have a reasonable expectation that I receive your request, because we have open avenues of communication (the living can speak to one another face to face, they can mail, they can phone, they can text, etc.) and because those avenues make positive connections between two people. But when you speak or merely nonverbally think a prayer to a departed saint, you have no good reason to know that the person is capable of receiving your transmission. Human beings can't read minds. Humans can't hear other humans beyond a certain distance without the aid of messengers or electronics. There's no mail service to heaven, no cell service to heaven, no internet in heaven. On top of that, humans are incapable of hearing several people's verbal messages *when they all speak at once.* _Upon what Biblical basis do you assume that Mary or St. Anthony or St. Whatshisname in heaven has become capable of super-human perception of your prayer alone, let alone accurate reception of yours plus thousands or millions of other prayers, from all points of the globe, all at one time? You are ascribing abilities to the departed saints which are impossible for human beings to innately possess, _ and departed saints are still human beings (although they lack their physical bodies), so _the only way they can hear all of our prayers_ (including the unspoken prayers, which requires that they read our minds!) _is if God imbues the departed saints with His own God-like ability_ to hear all prayers. What evidence do you have that the saints, _prior to the general judgment and the resurrection, would be granted such immense capabilities and given tremendous workloads_ to "listen to" and _pass along_ millions of prayers every day?

When Mary said she magnified the Lord, she was doing so personally with her words, her thoughts, and her obedience to God. Taking that word "magnify" and applying it to a "magnifying glass" is a false equivalence. Mary didn't say or imply that she was making the Lord easier for others to see! This use "magnify" is a disingenuous, deceptive claim.

Mary and the Apostles were great examples for us to follow, truly. So riddle me this: where in Scripture do you read of Mary or the Apostles praying to deceased people? If you can't see your "great example" doing it, _maybe you shouldn't do it, either!_ Did you ever think of that???

For that matter, did Jesus ever pray to deceased people? No, He didn't. (He did command some of them to return to mortal life, though, so we know it's okay for us to raise the dead if the Father tells us to.) Jesus is our ultimate example! Jesus didn't pray to the deceased, and neither should we.

Why should we be innovating and doing things our Biblical exemplars neither practiced nor advocated?

Cameron, I admire your dedication and sincerity. I know you really believe what you've been taught. But remember that you have a long road of life ahead of you, and God has not finished maturing your faith yet. May you never lose sight of Jesus, our head (which is easy to do since the body is so big, it sometimes obscures our view of the Head).

[ELChamuco-ugtf]

There is no issue asking Mary for intercession. All the churches that were established by the Apostles pray to Mary for intersession. The issue is that you follow a man-made religion with no connection to the Apostles. Your religious sect was formed by an egocentric man and his Bible interpretations that you follow are based on his own arrogance and ignorance. But you can still be saved. Join an Apostolic church before it’s too late.

[sopad]

The Mother of Jesus is Holy, pure, sweet and charitable. Jesus as King of the Universe and can do whatever He wants including bringing His Mother right beside Him in Heaven when Mary’s time on earth was over. We are the children of God and God wants us all to stay in love, peace and always charitable with each other here on our temporary lives on earth. Love and serve one another, peace and pure as children of God. And Mary is the best example daughter that God has of His children. Obedient Jesus and Mary.
When having His Son on earth, God chose not just any woman to be the mother of His only begotten Son, but God chose the most blessed, the most pure, the most obedient daughter ( opposite of disobedient Eve who gets fooled by the evil serpent ) that will carry His Divine Son, in her womb. She is the Ark of the Covenant. And she is the Queen in the Book of Revelation.

[Tmnt]

I haven't watched the whole video yet so i an cautious to post this but i will anyways and will edit it if I am incorrect. However, in the first minute or so you say that Jesus could have gone on his own and preached the gospel to each person and ascended when everyone had been baptized, OR what Jesus actually did (die on cross, resurrect, send the Spirit and the apostles etc.). This is just not true. The death and resurrection of Jesus was necessary for our salvation, so he couldn't have just taught everyone the correct knowledge and dipped out as if that was the need to be with God after death.
It seems to me like there is a misunderstanding of what "the gospel" means. in definition meaning "the good news" the only thing that makes the gospel worth sharing is the death and resurrection of Christ, since, if that never happened we shouldn't believe any of it.
Also, Jesus couldn't have gone to each and every person just on a time level, while yes he was and is God, whilst in human form on earth he limited himself to the constraints that we all have. So no, he could not go individually and make sure everyone on the planet knew the gospel, since that's not humanly possible.

[LoMovieMaker]

“Jesus said to him, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.”
‭‭John‬ ‭14‬:‭6‬ Plain and simple.

[eugenekuehl]

Your analogy of Jesus being a flower and Marry being a magnifying glass to get closer to Jesus is rather more like you going to someone you admire to learn more about someone else you admire more….you will never get close to that person you truly want to get close to until you make that person the go to person, just like a friendship or relationship.

Seems you’re closer to Mary or Saint Paul than Jesus from my pov. Something is off when you can see yourself relate to Paul more than Jesus. When the whole point is to know and get closer to Jesus. Appreciate your thoughts on this.

[donnamari]

Where does tge holy spirit factor in? Doesn't he help us like a middle man?

[windyday]

moses and the golden calf---that day 3000 men were struck down, the rest who lived, yet had sinned against God with the calf, he sent a punishment of plagues upon them.
the entire israelite nation was not saved, and never was, throughout their generations.
only a faithful remnant. moses is a picture of jesus who ever lives to intercede on our
behalf (hebrews) a priest forever. while moses was alive, he interceded for israel.
mary and the saints that you pray to are dead. mary never interceded for the saints.
so then, why don't you pray to moses? is moses praying for christians?
as for paul and the apostles---"the gospel is the power of God" to save those who believe. someone's gotta preach it. faith comes by hearing. you should learn what exegesis is.
you have no scripture to back up any of what you say. "God has ordained that people be saved thru the prayers of mary". uh, where is that? mary magnifies the Lord? hilarious.
john 14:21 (christ alone) he that has my commandments and keeps them, he it is who loves me, and my father will love him, and i will love him and MANIFEST MYSELF TO HIM.
he will magnify himself to us. no middle man. 13 minutes--i am done.
read luke 11:27, 28 ...."blessed rather are those who hear the word of God and keep it"