Question:
Answer:
Firstly, the Bible says that every human being that dies, sleeps in the grave until the resurrection. Therefore, Mary is asleep in the grave, until Jesus returns to take us all home to heaven. So, praying to Mary is fruitless, as she cannot hear.
Job 3 11 “Why did I not die at birth? Why did I not perish when I came from the womb?
12 Why did the knees receive me? Or why the breasts, that I should nurse?
13 For now I would have lain still and been quiet,
I would have been asleep; then I would have been at rest
14 With kings and counselors of the earth, who built ruins for themselves,
15 Or with princes who had gold, who filled their houses with silver;
16 Or why was I not hidden like a stillborn child, like infants who never saw light?
17 There the wicked cease from troubling, and there the weary are at rest.
18 There the prisoners rest together; they do not hear the voice of the oppressor.
19 The small and great are there, and the servant is free from his master.
Job 14 10 But man dies and is laid away; indeed he breathes his last and where is he?
11 As water disappears from the sea, and a river becomes parched and dries up, 12 so man lies down and does not rise. Till the heavens are no more, they will not awake nor be roused from their sleep.
21 His sons come to honor, and he does not know it; they are brought low, and he does not perceive it.
Psalm 6: 5 For in death there is no remembrance of You;
In the grave who will give You thanks?
Psalm 115: 17 The dead do not praise the Lord, nor any who go down into silence.
Ecclesiastes 9 5 For the living know that they will die; but the dead know nothing, and they have no more reward, for the memory of them is forgotten.
6 Also their love, their hatred, and their envy have now perished; nevermore will they have a share in anything done under the sun.
10 Whatever your hand finds to do, do it with your might; for there is no work or device or knowledge or wisdom in the grave where you are going.
1 Thessalonians 4 15 For this we say to you by the word of the Lord, that we who are alive
and remain until the coming of the Lord will by no means precede those who are asleep.
16 For the Lord Himself will descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of an archangel, and with the trumpet of God. And the dead in Christ will rise first. 17 Then we who are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And thus we shall always be with the Lord.
Secondly, Jesus is called the only Mediator, or Intercessor between God and man, in the Bible. To pray to Mary as an intercessor between man and Jesus, does not appear in the Bible at all, and makes Jesus out to be Someone who is reluctant to hear our prayers, and to act on our behalf, which is blasphemy. Prayer is to be made to God the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit only, not to Mary, angels and saints (who are also asleep!), as the Catholics do.
1 Timothy 2:5 For there is one God and one Mediator between God and men, the Man Christ Jesus.
Matthew 4:10 Then Jesus said to him, “Away with you, Satan! For it is written, ‘You shall worship the Lord your God, and Him only you shall serve.’”
Exodus 20 4 “You shall not make for yourself a carved image—any likeness of any-thing that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth; 5 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, 6 but showing mercy to thousands, to those who love Me and keep My commandments.”
And finally, to say we don’t worship the one we bow down to, kiss their statue, pray to, makes not sense at all. God said to worship Him only, not images or statues, not angels or saints or Mary. Stick to praying to the Godhead, the Trinity, and you will be safe. God bless!
