Praying to Mary harms your relationship with the Father

Reasons Not to Pray to Mary

There are many reasons not to pray to Mary or anyone else who has died. The main reason is it is a sin to do so. The official position of the Catholic Church is that you do not pray to Mary or saints. You ask them to pray for you. If we can ask others to pray for us then why can why can we not ask dead people to pray for us? Yet the Church makes a big argument that Mary and saints can hear our prayers. All Catholics that I have ever known believe they are praying to Mary and to saints. The make requests from them. They do not ask them to pray on their behalf.

1. It is a sin to pray to Mary because the first commandment of the Ten Commandments is You shall not have any other gods but Me. Only God can hear you pray. To be able to hear prayers you have to be omniscient (all knowing) and omnipresent (existing everywhere). These are qualities that only God has.To try and pray to or ask a dead  person to pray for you is to elevate them to being equal with God.
2. It is a sin because we are to worship only one god. The meaning of the word prayer is “a solemn request for help or expression of thanks addressed to God or an object of worship”. Catholics claim not to worship Mary. That can not be true because prayer is an act of worship.
3. It is a sin because the Bible teaches that Jesus is the only mediator between God and man. 1Timothy 2:5 says “For there is one God, and there is one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus”.  The Bible is clear that there is only one mediator between God and man. That mediator is not Mary or a saint. The early Church Fathers teach in many places that Jesus is the only mediator because he is the only one qualified. They say that the only way to be qualified as a mediator between God and man is to be both God and man. Jesus was the only person ever to be both God and man. The Catholic Church may claim that  Mary is not a mediator between God and man but the Official catechism of the church says "Therefore the Blessed Virgin is invoked in the Church under the titles of Advocate, Helper, Benefactress, and Mediatrix." CCC 969 The Bible teaches us that Jesus is our advocate, helper, benefactor and mediator. To give Mary these titles is to elevate her to Gods level and thus an act of worship.
4. It is a sin to pay to Mary because it denies Jesus role as our only High Priest. Almost half of the book of Hebrews is committed to proving that Jesus is the only one qualified to be our High Priest. It makes it clear that only the high priest can inter the presence of God and petition for man.
5. It is a sin to pray to Mary or saints because it denies the role of the Holy Spirit in our lives. If you are a true believer and are born again God Himself comes to live inside of you in the form of the Holy Spirit. If God himself lives in side of you then why would you pray to a dead human when God is right there.
6. Praying to Mary or saints wrong because the entire concept is based on the notion that God does not really love you as an individual. If you are catholic you are familiar with the concept of Mary going before you to soften the heart of God. I have seen hundreds of these posts. God however does l love you and has come to live inside of you.
7. Praying to Mary or saints is based on the false concept that you are not holy enough to pray directly to God. This denies the Bibles teaching that the blood of Jesus cleanses you from all sin. If you are holy enough for God to come and live inside of you then you are holy enough to pray to Him.
8. Mary and Saints can not hear us pray. How can a human being hear millions of people pray to them? Only God is all knowing.
9.  There is not one verse in the Bible that suggest that we can pray to or ask someone who is dead to pray for us. There is also not one example in the church writings of the first three centuries of the church. The earliest examples of this teaching developing is in the late 4^th century. Is it not better to follow the examples the apostles gave us.

The Main Reason Not to Pray to Mary or Saints

The main reason is that God loves you. He loves you with an everlasting love. His love for you is greater than you can imagine. If you personally receive Jesus as you savior you have the God of the Universe living inside of you. You can commune with Him all day. When you pray to Him you know He can hear your prayers because he is living inside of you.

I Cor 2:10-12 God has revealed to us through the Spirit. For the Spirit searches everything, even the depths of God. For what person knows a man's thoughts except the spirit of the man which is in him? So also no one comprehends the thoughts of God except the Spirit of God. Now we have received not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit which is from God, that we might understand the gifts bestowed on us by God.’

There is no limit to how much intimacy we can have with our Heavenly Father. The passage above says. God’s spirit knows everything about him, our spirits know everything about us and God has given us his spirit.  Since we have God living inside of us should we not spend our time praying and communing with him instead of Mary or a saint that can not hear our prayers?