Catholicism

[winsome]

You're probably right. If I could I show it to you in my history textbook. The night I posted this I was angry and had sort of a hateful encounter with a Catholic. I am sorry to anyone I offended and I thought what I was being taught at school was right. What I am trying to say is that Catholics are Christians but their beliefs sort of differ from what I have interpreted in scripture. Correct me if I am wrong but why do Catholics pray to saints? The only person I pray to is God. Such as St. Thomas Aquinas and St. Benedict. Yes what they did was pretty cool but Benedict wrote a rule book. This is not meant in offense, I am merely curious as to why you pray to saints.

Do not be misled by the term praying to, it is just a shorthand.
Perhaps we should say praying through or asking for their intercession, but pray to is a handy term. It does not mean that Mary and the Saints are the object of our prayer. And pray here just means ask.

PRAY from the Online Entymology Dictionary
c.1290, "ask earnestly, beg," also "pray to a god or saint," from O.Fr. preier (c.900), from L. precari "ask earnestly, beg," from *prex (plural preces, gen. precis) "prayer, request, entreaty," from PIE base *prek- "to ask, request, entreat" (cf. Skt. prasna-, Avestan frashna- "question;" O.C.S. prositi, Lith. prasyti "to ask, beg;" O.H.G. frahen, Ger. fragen, O.E. fricgan "to ask" a question). Prayer (c.1300) is from O.Fr. preiere, from V.L. *precaria, noun use of L. precaria, fem. of adj. precarius "obtained by prayer," from precari.

So pray means ask earnestly or beg. If you read old English plays you will find phrases such as "prithee sir

[desertknight]

The perfect example is a classic prayer to the Blessed Mother...

"Hail Mary, full of grace.
Our Lord is with thee.
Blessed art thou among women,
and blessed is the fruit of thy womb, Jesus.
Holy Mary, Mother of God,
pray for us sinners,
now and at the hour of our death.
Amen. "



We petition Our Lady to pray for us, we do not pray to her as if she were taking the place of the Son.

[k-pappy]

This thread is out of control.  Violations of the forum rules abound on all sides.  It is locked.

If another is started to bypass the lock, it will be deleted.

Bond