The Subtle Deception of Mary Worship Examined
The subtlety of Mary Worship is that many who practice it don't even realize they're either praying to Mary (for those who claim they don't) or that they're doing more than just giving her honor, they're worshiping her. Born Again Christians do honor Mary in the biblical way as an example to follow, she as the mother of Jesus is to be honored because she knew she was a sinner and she wasn't even worthy of that honor and she did everything according to God's Word. Honoring doesn't necessarily offering prayers to the person. What's worse is that there are many things taught about Mary in the Roman Catholic religion that don't match up with Scripture or are taught with Scripture taken out of context. But again, you know many Roman Catholics are so emotional to the point they'll just say, "Go ahead born again Christians, tell Jesus His mom isn't important." or "All you born again Christians are just like Pharisees! All you do is pick on us!"
When some Roman Catholics claim they don't pray to Mary and some of them may not even think they pray to Mary at all, you can see the deception works. I remembered reading a catechism while I was still a Roman Catholic and part of the many lessons was that I was told to pray three Hail Marys. When I remembered having a confession while I was still a Roman Catholic, I remembered the priest would say something like, "Pray X Our Fathers and Y Hail Marys." If that's not praying to Mary at all then I wonder what is. Worse, in their denial that they actually worship Mary and in their claim they just "respect" her, they need to reconsider their actions. We're told to respect our parents and authority figures but we're never told to pray to them. They can claim they're asking her for intercession but if they needed intercession between them and God, shouldn't they consult 1 Timothy 2:5? While it's okay for you to ask a friend or your pastor to pray for you but asking Mary who's a dead woman in Heaven is also a very act of necromancy. Asking dead people to intercede for you in the spiritual realm is no different than conjuring sorcery in an attempt to communicate with the spirit of the dead.
The very problem is that Roman Catholics tend to think that they're just honoring Mary but they're not. If you're just honoring Mary, you wouldn't go beyond what honoring a person is. But instead, why are they attributing the titles that belong to God alone. Some of these titles according to Roman Catholic sources such as "Litany of the Blessed Virgin" and "Litany of Loretto" also call her these titles and most of them are for God alone:
- Mother of God
- Conceived without sin (please check on 2 Corinthians 5:21)
- Our intercessor (please check on 1 Timothy 2:5, Hebrews 7:21-25)
- The ark of the covenant
- Gate of Heaven (please check John 10:1)
- Our life, our hope, our salvation
- Queen of Heaven (please check Jeremiah 44)
- Glory of Israel (please check 1 Samuel 5:29)
- Morning star (please check Revelation 22:16)
- Our Help (please check Hebrews 13:6)
- The way, the truth and the life (please check John 14:6)
- Author and finisher of our faith (please check Hebrews 12:2)
To attribute any of those titles to any human being is idolatry plain and simple. If they think they're not worshiping or praying to Mary, it's really because the deception has worked. While they claim not to pray to Mary yet this prayer by the late Alphonsus Ligouri is more than honest to admit that he does indeed worship Mary:
Most Holy and Immaculate Virgin! O my Mother! Thou who art the Mother of my Lord,the Queen of the world, the advocate, hope, and refuge of sinners!I, the most wretched among them, now come to thee.I worship thee, great Queen, and give thee thanks for the many favors thou hast bestowed on my in the past; most of all do I thank thee for having saved me from hell, which I had so often deserved.I love thee, Lady most worthy of all love, and, by the love which I bear thee, I promise ever in the future to serve thee, and to do what in me lies to win others to thy love. In thee I put all my trust, all my hope of salvation. Receive me as thy servant, and cover me with the mantle of thy protection, thou who art the Mother of mercy! And since thou hast so much power with God, deliver me from all temptations, or at least obtain for me the grace ever to overcome them. From thee I ask a true love of Jesus Christ, and the grace of a happy death. O my Mother! By thy love for God I beseech thee to be at all times my helper, but above all at the last moment of my life. Leave me not until thou seest me safe in heaven, there for endless ages to bless thee and sing thy praises. Such is my hope. Amen.
What's even sadder is that many Roman Catholics are still stuck in their system where they think they can't go to Jesus directly even when Scriptures say they can. Nowhere in Scriptures is it even suggested that you need to go through Mary to go to Jesus. If they just read in context and understand what John 2;1-12 says, they'll realize Mary only said in John 2:5, "Do whatever He tells you to do." and not "Do whatever I tell you to do."