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So i've been wandering the ED forum for a bit now, and i keep finding all sorts of postings claiming they will tell people the "truth" about what Catholics believe. Well i may not know how honorable their intentions are, but i will say this, the vast majority of these "truths" are lies that are based on heresay and no actual fact whatsoever.

So instead of posting in the forums, i'm just going to post here in my journal whenever i can and lay it out for anyone who wants to know what the Catholic Church really does believe.

Topic 1: Intercessory prayer (Praying with the Saints and Mary)
Big misconception here is that Catholics pray to Mary and the Saints (this is seen as idolatry as it breaks the First commandment). The simple truth is, and you can ask any Catholic who knows their faith this, that Catholics don't pray to anyone but God alone. We pray with the Sainyts and Mary to God for God's help.

To see it ina simpler way, if you needed something from lets say a king (or any leader) wouldn't you want someone who is already close to the king to help get your message to them? The Saints and Mary are people who we know are in heaven based on miracles and signs that have been preformed during their lives and after their deaths (there is an actual process that occurs before anyone is declared a saint). Since the Saints and Mary are already with God in heaven, we pray for their help in asking God to help us, this doesn't mean that we can't just pray to God, or that God won't hear us unless a Saint or Mary prays for us, it just means that we would rather have as much help in petiontioning the king as possible in order that our prayers are pure and not selfish in any way.

Long story short, Catholics do not pray to Saints or Mary, we pray with them as they are our brothers and sisters (and Mother, since Jesus, by our baptism, has made us God's children then that means that Mary is also our Mother and our sister in Christ).

On one more note, intercessory prayer (praying with the saints) is found in the Bible as well, it is found in Paul's letters as well as the letter of James (which most Protestant bibles have removed for reason i will discuss at another time). So to those that would say the the Catholic practice of praying with the Saints and Mary is un-Biblical, i urge you to re-read those parts of the Bible to see that it is in fact found in the Bible, as are all Catholic teachings.

May the Lord bless you as you walk with Him, hopefully what i have written will not been seen as a rant, just as a way to clear any misconceptions people may have.