Happy New Year to all here!
Too often specific doctrines are taken out of context and ridiculed without appreciation for the fullness of our Faith. Plese accept my explanations below in Christian charity.
We believe that Mary’s body was assumed to heaven at the time of her death. As the Mother of God, she is also the Queen Mother of the new King of David. So yes, we honor her above other women— as Scripture says, “all generations will call me blessed.” Do you?
Asking the Mother of God to pray for us is just what children do when they ask their earthly moms to intercede on their behalf, just as many once asked The Queen Mother to intercede for them in ancient Israel.
If you believe that asking the blessed Mother to pray for us is so extra scriptural, then I assume you don’t ask earthly friends, relatives, or other prayer warriors to pray for you.
Though it is commonly believed that we Catholics worship Mary, it is because many denominations no longer worship God in the Mass which is the NT worship God laid out for the ancient Jews—including incense, liturgical music, recitation of the psalms and OT readings now with NT and Gospel readings. We now add the Eucharistic Meal in the fullness of Jesus’ commands in John 6, which was foreshadowed in many OT events but most particularly in the 12 loaves of showbread and flagon of wine placed outside the Holy of Holies in the Tabernacle in the desert and later in. The Temple.
A careful reading of the NT shows the Apostles going from place to place, singing Psalms, reading OT scriptures foreshadowing Jesus the Christ, sharing their own NT experiences of Jesus, and His Gospel teachings, then “Breaking Bread” as Jesus taught them to do. This was the nascent Mass. Some of the prayers in today’s Mass were old when documented in 250 AD by Hippolytus.
The Apostles laid hands and anointed priests and bishops, and the Church continues this unbroken tradition of anointing men who celebrate the Mass in persona Christi.
The Mass is the NT fulfillment of the Jews’ worship in the Temple, but no longer open to only the Jewish people in the Temple. We accept Christian Baptisms that are formulated according to Scripture in the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit (Ghost).
All that said, we Christians, as well as fellow conservatives are our own worst enemies fighting over the little we disagree on rather than fighting for the 85-90% we agree on. Peace and a very Happy New Year! OMG! Obama Must Go!