Why pray to Mary? But Catholics believe that the victory of Jesus consists in actually making us good - and able to share, through the power of His grace, in His divine work.

Why do we pray to Mary, asking her to pray for us and with us to God? Is it just because we love her, we believe that God hears her prayers, and we have experienced receiving help through her?

Personally, I pray to Mary for all these reasons. But I have noticed recently that, more often, I ask Mary to pray for me, and with me, at times when previously I would have gone to God all my myself. I began to wonder why.

The Incarnation: Catholic teaching

I believe it is because I have been thinking a lot recently about the Church's teaching on the Incarnation. The wording of that doctrine, as it was defined in the Councils of Nicea and Constantinople in 325 and 381 A.D., has moved me to seek the intercession of Mary more consciously than I did before.

At that time in the Church's history, some wanted to say that Jesus was made flesh in Mary but not of Mary. They didn't feel God would have "degraded" Himself by taking flesh from a member of the human race. Their theory was that the body of Jesus was prefabricated in heaven and placed in Mary's womb.

In answer, the Church defined as dogma that Jesus took flesh of Mary rather than in Mary. God became human in our flesh, real human flesh, taken from one of us. He was conceived, not just in Mary but of Mary.

Luther's version

Centuries later, it became a theme of the Protestant Reformation that human nature has no part to play in salvation. Martin Luther taught that we are saved "by the grace of God alone and the sole working of the Holy Spirit, without any human action" at all. This explains the Protestant difficulty with many Catholic things. To say that grace can be given through human actions in the Sacraments, for example, is to give human beings a role in redemption, which is contrary to Protestant belief.

Protestants also have trouble with the honour we Catholics give to the Saints, because they believe that the holiness of the Saints was all God's work. Thus, they feel that to give the Saints any credit at all is to rob God of glory. If Luther was right, then to give corrupt human nature any role in God's work is to take away from God the glory of being the only one in the universe who is good or can do anything good.

But Catholics believe that the victory of Jesus consists in actually making us good--and able to share, through the power of His grace, in His divine work.

Joining God in His choice

Catholic veneration of Mary is rooted in the fact that she became the Mother of God by freely consenting to give flesh to God. We believe that God is glorified by the fact that Jesus won! Through His death, the human race has actually been healed of sin and purified.

Through Jesus, the Father used the human nature He created to restore completely the human nature that had fallen. And God's choice to take flesh "from" Mary, with her free consent, was the beginning of it all.

Every time I ask Mary to pray for me, I feel I am joining God in His choice to let the human race have a part in redeeming the world. When I go to God, not directly, but through Mary, I am echoing God's choice to come into the world, not directly, but through a human being.

When I ask Mary to pray with me, it also reminds me that I have a part to play. Because God respects human beings, He wants us to have a part in healing the human race. As He used Mary, He also wants to use me. When I pray, "Lord, have mercy," I hear an echo, "Be My mercy made flesh!"

Fr. David M. Knight is pastor of Sacred Heart Church in Memphis, TN. He is the author of 29 books, including the parish spiritual growth program Respond.

"Why Pray to Mary?" by Fr. David Knight, copyright [c] 1995, appeared first in the magazine Marian Helpers, Stockbridge, MA 01263; all world rights reserved; reprinted with permission. Subheadings have been added.