Verified answer

Firstly Protestants do not understand or reject all truths about Mary:

She was immaculately convieved

That she was the biological mother of Jesus both human and divine

she carried God inside her own body for nine months and nourished him

She knows and loves God more than any other human can hope to.

Praying to Mary is not the same as worshiping Mary

Mary was the mother of Jesus both human and divine, and to separate Jesus two natures is both false and immoral. Because of Mary's unique position and privilege to bring Jesus into this world, God created her at the moment of her conception with out original sin or personal sin. Many protestants will argue that Mary was just an ordinary woman like any other, but to even think that God Jesus deserves to live and grow for nine months in anything less than perfect is completely scandalous, degrading and unjust. So God made Mary the perfect human singled out from all women to carry and care for his Son our savior.

Mary through her own free will chose to say yes to God and to be the mother of Jesus. Many protestants will argue that she was just an instrument to bring Jesus into the world. This is grossly wrong, because how can Jesus who is love come into the world unless through pure love of God, which is what Mary possessed- true, pure, unending love for God .

Mary held God Jesus in her body and nourished him. She held him, loved, him, taught him to walk, and to say the words that will save all the people of every nation. She knew Jesus in such an intimate way, as a Son. Mary was the closest person to Jesus and Mary loved him more than we can ever hope to because she loved him not only as God but also as her only son. Mary sacrificed her whole life for Jesus and because of her undying love for her for him she suffered true pain, "a sword will pierce your heart", as she saw her only son tortured and killed for us.

Now Mary was sinless because God created her without sin to carry is divine son, Jesus did not have to die for HER. Yet she stayed at the foot of the cross where Jesus brought us OUR rewards, gaining nothing for herself. She was a creature full of God given grace, love, and humility. Now Jesus is love and he loves each of us with a burning passion, think of how much more he would love his mother who brought him into this human world and did everything for him. So when Jesus rose from the dead he gave us the promise that we will also rise body and soul because of him. It is only fitting that the first person to rise body and soul (human nature is body and soul) than his own beautiful and sinless mother. And because Jesus loved his loved his mother more than anything he gave her the highest position of all humans as Queen of Heaven and Earth, Queen of the Universe, the Blessed Virgin. But Jesus being God is still above her, as God is greatly above Queen.

Many Protestants know that we do not worship Mary but still consider praying to her worshiping her and thus blasphemous, so why pray to her right? .So i ask you this is asking the person who brought Jesus to this world for help us be closer to God. Is asking the one person to truly knows Jesus that we may one day meet her son wrong? The answer is No. Jesus will literally go out of his way to listen to his mother like in the Wedding at Cana- The family in distress goes to Mary first, and she asks her son to help them. Jesus responds "Dear woman, why do you involve me? My time has not yet come." He clearly does not want to do this but he does it for his mother, and Mary says "Do whatever he tells you". And by answering Mary's plead Jesus preforms his first Miracle. Jesus honors his mother like in the ten commandments, but because he is God, and Mary is immaculate Jesus comes to honor her exceptionally greatly. Jesus will listen to his Mother Mary much more than he will listen to you or me, and that is why we pray that she will bring us closer to God because she is closest to God.

So my questions to protestants is would Jesus appreciate you insulting, bad mouthing, and dishonoring HIS BLESSED MOTHER?

Now that you have read this i ask you to please swallow your pride and honor Mary, because Jesus definitely does.

~The Marlboro Man~

Notice that most are not answering the fundamental question. They are explaining WHY they have issue with it, or are saying "I don't" - but not WHY they think we do, IF we don't admit it, or why we wouldn't admit it, if we did.

PERSONALLY, I see this almost as if they are calling us Liars. As if in the back of their minds, there is this idea that we are sneaky and trying to hide our pagan beliefs OR, and some have said this to me.. that what the Catholic Heirarchy believes and teaches is hidden from even Catholics. Anotherwards.. our Priests, Bishops, Cardinals, and Pope are hiding the truth from the Catholic layity ourselves.

Which is perhaps even MORE insulting.

Many will attempt to break apart individual Catholics.. from their church and make the arbitrary distinction that they believe Catholics are Christians, but not their church or what it teaches. As if what we believe is different then what our Church teaches (again making us ignorant children or the Church itself some shady organization that hides the truth from its members. )

No matter WHAT.. the fact that SOME Protestants say we do.. and no Catholic says we do.. makes SOMEONE a liar, or at least mistaken.

Obviously those that say this think WE'RE the ones mistaken.. thus either

A) We are liars and part of some vast Catholic conspiracy to hide our beliefs and sucker in the masses

OR

B) They know our faith better then we do, and are Catholic Theologians and Canon Lawyers, or at least possess far superior understanding of Catholicism then any individual Catholic on this planet.

The Conclusion is inescapable.. which is why most so far I've read are sidestepping the question all together.

It depends on your definition of "worship". If you pray to Mary, this is considered worship in the Protestant ranks. Besides, prayer to anyone other than God is ridiculous. Would this not be like worshiping a false idol as was clearly stated as being wrong in the old testament? Though she was able to give birth by the power of the Holy Spirit, ultimately Mary was a human being, and died as every other human.

I think the Catholics from Southern Europe, not from the Northern countries, but France, Spain, Italy, etc who worship Mary the mother of Christ as well as a myriad of saints.

We even admit to embracing "the cult of Mary"

http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/medny/halsall4.html...

but even the dedicated monastics in the order don't think Mary is God.

I've come to believe the problem lies in SOME certainly not all Protestants refusal to accept the etymological roots and understandings of key words such as "pray" "worship" and the word "cult" for that matter.

Oh well, some actually do the research and become some of the strongest defenders of the faith see Cardinal Newman and our own Fr. Joseph here...

Peace; DD

Jesus said " Don't worship false idols"

Mary is not historically the mother of Jesus,

He was the son of a Spanish soldier, and had

a brother and a sister.

Mary is clearly an impostor

and as such is a false idol.

Giving lip service to Jesus while you worship Mary does not change the fact that you put Mary on the same, if not a higher pedestal than Jesus, otherwise you'd be praying "Hail Jesus full of grace". Even assuming the absolute best of your intentions, the fact remains that you are bowing down to false idols when you fail to acknowledge that Jesus is the one and only door, not one of many doors including Mary, Peter, Paul, etc.

If Catholics did worship Mary, and did admit it it would not make a lick of difference to some protestants because you see they are too stuck on the supposed superiority of their form of Christianity to even allow for the existence of a valid form of worship other than their own.

I'm a protestant who has nothing against Catholics. Love God, accept salvation through Christ, and act in accordance with Christ's teaching. Mary was a faithful servant of God and worthy of respect and admiration. I don't honestly think you need to confess your sins to a priest or do a certain number of Hail Mary's or whatever to "earn" salvation, but if that's what you do I have no issue with that and don't think you are any less "Christian" than I am (or vice-versa). Some people just seem to like to dwell on every detail and make issues where they don't exist I guess.

I have lots of Catholic friends and they mostly believe in the Blood of Jesus over the worship of Mary. I think the biggest misconception is that Catholic churches have so many statues of her, and they say "Hail Mary's" as rites of forgiveness, it gives the appearance of worship. Hope that helps. Have a Blessed Day

lmao....well put!

Some just can't get enough of scandalous conspiracy theories. I have a Protestant Christian friend, and one day while talking about denominations he very matter-of-factly accused Catholics of worshiping the Pope.

I knew the truth, and I was disgusted, but for some reason I chose not to contradict him. Looking back, I think I did the wrong thing. Religious misconceptions only breed more intolerance and distrust.