Absolutely correct.
Did you ever ask your mother to pray for you? DOES she pray for you? Does that make your mother God?
Do you have a photo of your mother? Do you worship it?
Have you ever kissed your mother? Is that worship?
When you asked your wife to marry you, did you get down on one knee? Did you think she was God?
Worship does not consist in gestures or words, but in an act of the intellect and will. Catholics are well aware that God is God and that Mary is a creature.
Oh??
Bonaventure: …the gates of heaven will open to all who confide in the protection of Mary. Blessed are they who know thee, O Mother of God, for the knowledge of THEE is the high road to everlasting life, and the publication of thy virtues is the way of ETERNAL SALVATION . Give ear, O ye nations; and all you who desire heaven , serve, honor Mary, and certainly you will find ETERNAL LIFE.
Ephem: …devotion to the divine Mother…is the unlocking of the heavenly Jerusalem.
Blosius: To the, O Lady, are committed the KEYS and the treasures of the kingdom of Heaven.
Ambrose: …constantly pray ‘Open to us, O Mary, the gates of paradise, since thou hast its KEYS.
Fulgetius: …by Mary God descended from Heaven into the world, that by HER man might ascend from earth to Heaven.
Athanasius: …And, thou, O Lady, wast filled with grace, that thou mightiest be the way of our SALVATION and the means of ascent to the heavenly Kingdom.
Richard of Laurence: Mary, in fine, is the mistress of heaven; for there she commands as she wills, and ADMITS whom she wills.
Guerric: …he who serves Mary and for whom she intercedes, is as CERTAIN of heaven as if he were already there…and those who DO NOT serve Mary will NOT BE SAVED.
Anselm: It suffices, O Lady, that thou willest it, and our SALVATION is certain.
Antoninus: …souls protected by Mary, and on which she casts her eyes, are NECESSARILY JUSTIFIED AND SAVED.
My mom died in 2007, 3 months short of her 103rd birthday. I have pictures but I do not worship them. She is dead just like Mary. My mom was the most wonderful Christian lady we have ever known and there is no telling how many people she influenced over her long life. I never, ever heard her say one bad thing about anyone. She never changed her church membership from her small childhood Primitive Baptist Church. She was deeply loved by everyone and is missed.
Did you ever ask your mother to pray for you? DOES she pray for you? Does that make your mother God?
Good grief....are you really trying these arguments?? While we are instructed in the Word to pray for each other, and this refers to living people on earth, we are never instructed to pray to anyone in Heaven other than to God/Jesus.
Plus I've never prayed to my mom nor have I relied upon my mom for my salvation, nor do I think I can get things done through my mom that Jesus won't do for me as catholics believe about Mary.
Do you have a photo of your mother? Do you worship it?
While we all have pictures of our parents, kids, etc, the difference is we do not bow down in front of those pictures and invoke prayers to those pictures as catholics do Mary.
Have you ever kissed your mother? Is that worship?
Good grief....that is about as lame an attempt at apologetics as I have ever seen. I guess priests don't receive much formal apologetics training.
When you asked your wife to marry you, did you get down on one knee? Did you think she was God?
No, wait....this was about as lame as your prior question. Again, I've never prayed to my wife nor do I invoke her name for salvation as catholics do Mary.
Worship does not consist in gestures or words, but in an act of the intellect and will. Catholics are well aware that God is God and that Mary is a creature.
From their actions you would not be able to determine this about catholics.
This is what GOD has to say about gestures.
Exodus 20:4-6“You shall not make for yourself a carved image, or any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth.
You shall not bow down to them or serve them, for I the Lord your God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children to the third and the fourth generation of those who hate me, but showing steadfast love to thousands of those who love me and keep my commandments.
He is talking about acts and gestures here. Physical actions done by a physical body.
And Catholics bow down before images of Mary. An objective fact, capable of being observed, not a subjective judgment of what is going on in someone's mind.
Therefore, they sin in the eyes of God.
Since Catholics weasel around with definitions and semantics, there's no point in going there because it becomes a he said/she said kind of argument.
But making images is making images and bowing is bowing.
Additionally, anyone who prays this pray is serving, another sin.
Lady of Perpetual Help Novenas
First Novena Prayer ( 1st. and 5th. Saturday)
Behold at thy feet, O Mother of Perpetual Help,| a wretched sinner who has recourse to thee and confides in thee.| O Mother of mercy, have pity on me. I hear thee called by all the refuge and the hope of sinners:| be then, my refuge and my hope.
Assist me, for the love of Jesus Christ;| stretch forth thy hand to a miserable fallen creature who recommends himself to thee, and who devotes himself to thy service for ever.| I bless and thank Almighty God, who in His mercy has given me this confidence in thee,| which I hold to be a pledge of my eternal salvation.|
It is true that in the past I have miserably fallen into sin,| because I had not recourse to thee.| I know that, with thy help, I shall conquer.| I know too, that thou wilt assist me, if I recommend myself to thee;| but I fear dear Mother | that in time of danger, I may neglect to call on thee,| and thus lose my soul.| This grace, then, I ask of thee, and this I beg, with all the fervor of my soul,| that in all the attacks of hell I may ever have recourse to thee.| O Mary, help me.| O Mother of Perpetual Help, never suffer me to lose my God.
3 Ave’s