Should we pray to Mary as our Helper and Mediator?
No!
First, Prayer is a form of worship that is reserved to our
Triune God alone. As Jesus said to Satan in Matt. 4:10, “It is written, 'You shall worship the LORD your God,
and Him only you shall serve.'”
Second, In Matt. 6:9,
when Jesus taught his disciples to pray He said “In this manner, therefore,
pray: ‘Our Father in heaven,
Hallowed be Your name’”. Also, the Apostle Paul taught us in Phil. 4:6 who it is that we should pray
to, saying, “Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and
supplication, with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God”. And even James the brother of Jesus said
in James 4:8, “Draw near to God and
He will draw near to you.”
Therefore, No prayer is ever directed to Mary nor should it
ever. The Catholic would have you believe that we should cast our cares and
petitions to Mary, but Scripture is quite clear that we Christians should pray
ONLY to Jesus, “casting ALL your
care upon Him, for He cares for you.” (1
Pet. 5:7)
Now some Catholics might object saying, “We don’t pray to
Mary, we ask Mary to pray for us, just like you would ask your family or
friends to pray for you, because Mary has direct access to Jesus and can see
Him face to face”
There are two problems to this statement.
1. The Bible says “Let us then approach God’s throne of
grace with confidence, so
that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need.” (Heb. 4:16; NIV). The Bible also tells us that it’s because of Jesus that we
may approach God. As Eph. 3:12
proclaims, it’s “in whom [Jesus] we have boldness and access with confidence
through faith in Him.” (NKJV). “So
we can confidently say, ‘The Lord is MY HELPER; I will not fear; what can man
do to me?’” (Heb. 13:6, ESV)
Believers in Christ can approach the throne of grace with
confidence. Therefore, true believers have direct access to God Himself, which
was signified at Christ’s death on the Cross when the veil in God’s Temple was
ripped top to bottom, showing that all believers can now pray to God directly.
There is no need for Mary or the saints to give you access to Jesus, since all
those saved by Christ through faith can now enter into direct fellowship with
God.
2. When a Catholic claims that they can pray to Mary or ask
Mary to pray for you, he or she is assuming that Mary has the divine attributes
of Omnipotence and Omnipresence which only God alone has. It is ridiculous to
claim that Mary can answer prayers or pray for those asking her to pray for
them, when millions of Catholics cry out to her at the same time, which would
assume that Mary, a mere human being, is to a certain degree omnipotent and
omnipresent. This is blasphemy. Mary is not our Mediator nor can she ever be
our Mediator.
Now another Catholic might object saying, “Well, we don’t
worship Mary, we venerate her.”
My response would be that, “the bigger issue is, how is it
you venerate her in practice. You see it doesn’t matter what you call it, what matters
is how it is in reality. Whether you call it worship or veneration, it’s all
just semantics. One could say “We don’t eat, we feast”, or “We don’t cry, we
weep” or “We don’t scream, we yell”. It’s all semantics, because in reality,
when one venerates, one is giving their devotion, their heart, their life to a
person who is no longer here on Earth.
For example look at these pictures of people venerating
Mary.
Looking at these pictures one realizes that no matter how
you put it, this is worship of an idol.
The Word of God in Exodus
20:3-4, says “You shall not make for yourself a carved image—any
likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth
beneath, or that is in the water under the earth; you shall not bow down to them nor serve them. For I, the
LORD your God, am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the
children to the third and fourth generations of those who hate Me” (NKJV)
Now we true Christians do respect greatly Mary, mother of
our Lord Jesus Christ, but not in a way that belongs to God alone. The Glory,
worship, honor, and praise belonging only to God, must be given to God alone
and to no one else, not even to Mary. Scripture tells us in 1 John 5:21, “Little children, keep
yourselves from idols. Amen.” (NKJV)
And in Deuteronomy
4:15-19, “Take careful heed to yourselves, for you saw no form when the
LORD spoke to you at Horeb out of the midst of the fire, lest you act corruptly
and make for yourselves a carved
image in the form of any figure: the
likeness of male or female, the
likeness of any animal that [is] on the earth or the likeness of any winged
bird that flies in the air, the likeness of anything that creeps on the ground
or the likeness of any fish that [is] in the water beneath the earth. And [take heed], lest you lift your eyes to
heaven, and [when] you see the sun, the moon, and the stars, all the host of
heaven, you feel driven to worship them and serve them, which the LORD your God
has given to all the peoples under the whole heaven as a heritage.”
The command is clear. One must not bow down to idols of any
kind including Marian statues.
And even scripture shows us that no one was to worship any
person whether human or angel. For example, in Acts 10:24-26, it says “And the following day they entered
Caesarea. Now Cornelius was waiting for them, and had called together his
relatives and close friends. As Peter
was coming in, Cornelius met
him and fell down at his feet and
worshiped him. But Peter lifted
him up, saying, "Stand up; I
myself am also a man.”
Also in Acts 14:11-15,
“Now when the people saw what Paul had done, they raised their voices, saying
in the Lycaonian language, "The
gods have come down to us in the likeness of men!" And Barnabas
they called Zeus, and Paul, Hermes, because he was the chief
speaker. Then the priest of Zeus, whose
temple was in front of their city, brought oxen and garlands to the gates, intending to sacrifice with the
multitudes. But when the
apostles Barnabas and Paul heard this, they tore their clothes and ran in among
the multitude, crying out and saying, "Men, why are you doing these things? We also are men with the same
nature as you, and preach to you that you should turn from these
useless things to the living God, who made the heaven, the earth, the sea, and
all things that are in them” (NKJV)
And in Revelation
19:9-10, “Then he (the angel) said to me, "Write: 'Blessed [are] those
who are called to the marriage supper of the Lamb!' " And he said to me,
"These are the true sayings of God."
And I fell at his feet to
worship him. But he said to me, "See that you do not do that! I am your fellow servant, and of your
brethren who have the testimony of Jesus. Worship God! ...” (NKJV)
Finally, Rev. 22:8-9,
“Now I, John, saw and heard these things. And when I heard and saw, I fell down to worship before the feet
of the angel who showed me these things. Then he said to me, "See that you do not do that. For I am
your fellow servant, and of your brethren the prophets, and of those
who keep the words of this book. Worship
God!" (NKJV)
As the Bible has shown, idolatry is a very serious matter
that no one is allowed to worship any other thing or person, except God
Himself.
Mediatrix of all Graces
There are two ways in which
Catholics call Mary the Mediatrix of all Graces.
The first meaning is that Mary gave birth to Jesus. And since Jesus
brings grace to all men, Mary can be said to be Mediatrix of all Graces. True
Christians aren’t really opposed to this first meaning, nonetheless we wouldn’t
use the term Mediatrix of all Graces.
The second meaning, however, is the one that causes Christians to rightly
worry. We read in The HarperCollins Encyclopedia of Catholicism that “through her
continual intercessions, Mary was seen as the dispensatrix (Latin) who distributed and applied the
graces of Christ” (“Mediatrix”, ed. Richard P. McBrien, [HarperCollins
Publishers, Inc., 1995], p.848).
Vatican II declared as fact that Mary is in Heaven supposedly continuously
distributing and applying grace to all mankind till the end of the world. As it
states, “This maternity of Mary in the order of grace began with the consent
which she gave in faith at the Annunciation and which she sustained without
wavering beneath the cross. This maternity will last without
interruption until the eternal fulfillment of all the elect. For taken up to
heaven, she did not lay aside this saving role, but by her manifold acts of
intercession continues to win for us gifts of eternal salvation. By her
maternal charity, Mary cares for the brethren of her Son... the Blessed Virgin is invoked by the Church under the titles of
Advocate, Auxiliatrix (Helper), Adjutrix (Benefactress), and Mediatrix.” (Lumen
Gentium, 62)
Catholic Theologian Ludwigg Ott explains
in his book, Fundamentals of Catholic Dogma, that “Since her assumption into
Heaven, Mary cooperates in the application of the grace of Redemption of man.
She participates in the distribution of grace” (p.213)
For this reason, Pope Pius VII proclaims Mary as the “Dispensatrix
of all graces” (Pius VII, Ampliatio privilegiorum ecclesiae B.M.
Virginis ab angelo salutatae in cenobio Fratrum Ordinis Servorum B.M.V. Florentiae,
A.D., 1806; Armand J. Robichaud, S.M., “Mary,
Dispensatrix of all Graces”, Maiology, II, p.429)
Advocate
The Vatican Church also teaches that
Catholics should pray to Mary and offer their needs and petitions to her, which
she supposedly brings to Jesus as maternal intercessor, and that Mary turns
away God’s anger and wrath for people. Catholic feminist theologian Elizabeth Johnson states that, “Mary
had a maternal influence over God, that she could turn away Christ’s just anger
and obtain mercy for sinners” (“Blessed
Virgin Mary”, ed. Richar P. McBrien, The
HarperCollins Encyclopedia of Catholicism, p.833)
Saint and Doctor of the Church, Alfonso de’Ligouri states in his book, The
Glories of Mary, “Be comforted then, O you who fear’ will I say with
Saint Thomas of Villanova; ‘breathe freely and take courage, O wretched
sinners; this great Virgin who Is the Mother of your God and Judge, is
also the Advocate of the whole human race: fits for this office, for
she can do whatever she wills with God, most wise, for she knows all the means of
appeasing Him” (Alphonsus
Liguori, The Glories of Mary, [Tucker
Printer Perry’s Place, 1852] p.161)
Pope Pius XI proclaimed “O Blessed Mother, our Queen and Advocate...gather together our prayers and we beseech you (our hearts one with yours) present them before God’s throne...that we may reach the portal of salvation” (Pius XI, papal allocation to French pilgrims present for reading of ‘de tuto’, Canonization of Antida Thouret, 15 August 1933, L’Osservatore Romano, August 15, 1993).
Furthermore, Pope Pius XII declared, “Our Advocate, placed between God and the
sinner, takes it upon herself to invoke clemency of the Judge so as to temper
His justice” (Pius XII, papal allocation
at the Canonization of Louis Marie Grignon de Monfort, 21 July 1947, AAS 39, 408).
Some Catholics believe that the
doctrine of Mary as Mediatrix of all graces is not official Catholic doctrine,
and thus, they do not have to accept or justify it. However, this doctrine is regarded
by the Vatican Church as part of the infallible teaching of the Ordinary
Universal Magisterium. In others words, since this doctrine has for a long time
been accepted and supported by Popes and by bishops united with them, it is
infallible for all Catholics because the Vatican claims the Church could not
have been in doctrinal error at such a high level within the Hierarchy for such
a long time.
On the subject of this doctrine,
Catholic Mariologist Mary Miravalle states
in her book, Introduction to Mary, that “in light of the fact that the
doctrine of Mary as Mediatrix of all graces has been universally taught in the
Church by popes of the last two hundred years and by the bishops in union with
them (ordinary Magisterium), and in virtue of this universal teaching of the
Church, it has been the opinion of certain modern Mariologists that the
doctrine of Mediatrix of all graces already possess the nature of a defined
doctrine of faith. In short, the Marian roles of Co-Redemptrix and Mediatrix of
all graces represent essential Catholic teaching through the order of the
ordinary Magisterium. This charism of the universal teaching authority of all
bishops who, when in union with the pope, can exercise the ecclesial element of
infallibilty, is disussed in Vatican II’s Constitution
on the Church (Lumen Gentium, No. 25).” (p.111)
Some Catholics believe that these teachings are not
official and therefore they do not have to believe them or defend them.
However, these teachings constitute what is known as infallible teaching of the Ordinary Universal Magisterium. That is
because these have been affirmed for so long by Popes and bishops in union with
them it is infallible for Catholics since according to Rome the Church could
not be in doctrinal error for so long in such a high level.