-
March 12, 2023“Do Catholics worship Mary the mother of God?” Short answer, no. Continue reading for the longer answer.
First and foremost, Catholics are called to worship almighty God and Him alone. God is Trinity, so we worship the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, three distinct persons in one God (we will cover the Trinity in the Easter season). Those who worship God as best they can by faithfully following Jesus (the Son of God – second person of the Trinity) are promised eternal life in the kingdom of heaven and we call those blessed people Saints. The Blessed Mother has many titles, one of them is Queen of all Saints because we believe that Mary is the Queen of heaven. Because Our Lady was conceived without original sin (she is the Immaculate Conception) she does not suffer from the effects of original sin (Genesis 3:16-19): pain during childbirth, working for food/tilling the soil, and death (although some theologians argue it’s a “fear of death”). Since death (or fear of death) is a consequence of original sin, Mary would be freed of that consequence and so she was Assumed into heaven. This does not make Mary divine in any way. There’s no divinity in Mary whatsoever. She simply does not suffer consequences of original sin since she chose to give her whole self to God from the moment of her Immaculate Conception. Since Mary does not suffer consequences of original sin she receives the reward: eternal life. We see everything we hope for in our Blessed Mother.
Mary’s titles involving Queen (Queen of all Saints, Martyrs, Heaven, Universe, Confessors, etc.) has everything to do with the honor and respect we owe her as Mother of God but does not mean she is divine like her Son. I can see why this is confusing to many protestants and non-believers, but hopefully this helps you explain it to them. We love Mary, she’s our mother and queen, but she is not divine, and we do not worship her. We seek her intercession as we seek the intercession of all holy people and saints, but because Mary is on a throne next to her Son, the King of the Universe, we have hope Jesus will listen to her and answer our prayer (John 2: 1-12).
The power of intercession is something we’re all familiar with, but often forget when it comes to Mary and the Saints. Seeking the intercession of the Saints is no different than asking people for prayer on earth. I get requests all the time asking me to pray for someone’s intention (sick family member, someone who just died, help finding a job, etc.). If you can ask me or your grandma or your neighbor who comes to Holy Mass every day to pray for your intention, why not ask someone we know is in heaven? Why not ask the mother of God who sits as Queen of Heaven? When you ask me to pray for your sick relative, you’re not worshiping me. You’re just asking me to join you in prayer. The same is true for Mary and the Saints. Asking them to pray with us for a particular intention is not worshiping them. Attributing an answered prayer to their intercession isn’t the same as claiming they actually worked a miracle. God alone works miracles. The Saints joined us in prayer to make it happen. There’s strength in numbers.
I hope this helps with your own devotion to our Blessed Mother and to explain why we love and honor Mary. If you’re not already doing this, PRAY THE ROSARY DAILY! It’s a powerful weapon to combat evil, temptations to sin, and to help deepen our faith, hope, and love. If you’ve done nothing else this Lent, get into a regular practice of praying the Holy Rosary daily. Start today and you will be thanking and praising God better come Easter Sunday.
