Mary Wants to Exalt God, Catholics End Up Exalting Mary Above God

I find it so ironic that Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI in his book An Invitation to Faith would say that Mary's greatness consists of the fact that she wants to magnify God over herself. However, Roman Catholics unknowingly exalt Mary above God. Although their doctrine doesn't describe Mary as such or that they reject the "Mary is God heresy" - they do still end up exalting Mary above God. This is a serious issue as devotion to Mary itself is a very subtle deception.

How do Roman Catholics end up unknowingly lifting or exalting Mary above God? From Litany of the Blessed Virgin and Litany of Loretto - we read the following names are attributed to Mary:

  • Mother of God
  • Conceived without sin (please check on 2 Corinthians 5:21)
  • Our intercessor (please check on 1 Timothy 2:5, Hebrews 7:21-25)
  • The ark of the covenant
  • Gate of Heaven (please check John 10:1)
  • Our life, our hope, our salvation (Romans 8:24-30)
  • Queen of Heaven (please check Jeremiah 44)
  • Glory of Israel (please check 1 Samuel 5:29)
  • Morning star (please check Revelation 22:16)
  • Our Help (please check Hebrews 13:6)
  • The way, the truth and the life (please check John 14:6)
  • Author and finisher of our faith (please check Hebrews 12:2) 
I decided to put verses there which can be checked from any Roman Catholic translation. The one I usually use here is the Good News Translation (GNT) while others use the New American Standard Bible (NASB). Roman Catholics are giving titles to Mary that are due to God and God alone. Instead of going to Jesus directly - they are going to Mary. Did they forget that Mary said in John 2:5 to do whatever Jesus tells them to? Did Jesus even tell them to go to Mary? Did Jesus invite people to Mary to Himself for salvation? After Acts, the last thing Mary did was praying with the apostles and not being prayed to by the apostles. Mary soon silently left the pages of Scripture. Nothing is known about her before God called her home.


How is Mary already exalted more than God? I remembered going to the confessional and praying the Rosary. You can take a look at the diagram above and see how may Our Fathers are said in contrast to the Hail Mary. You can see that first, you start with the Apostle's Creed then you end up with Hail Marys. It's really a prayer of dead repetition and idolatry. Did Mary even instruct people to pray to her ten times after every Our Father? When Jesus taught the Our Father - it was a pattern of how to pray and not what to pray. Unfortunately, Roman Catholics have turned the Our Father int dead repetition. Worse, they have turned a salutation for Mary (which is found in Scripture) into a dead repetition and adding words not found in Scripture with, "Holy Mary, mother of God, pray for us sinners, now at the our of our death. Amen." It really makes a person into a tape recorder. There was even the joke that a certain person ended up saying "the same" to shortcut every repeated prayer. The Rosary is more focused on Mary than Jesus. 

The rationale with devotion to Mary is that it brings them closer to Jesus or does it? Sadly, the devotion to Mary doesn't bring anyone closer to Jesus. Instead, the whole Marian devotion has kept people away from Jesus. Benedict XVI's words of Mary's greatness actually condemn the whole idea of Marian devotion. Mary would never want anyone praying to her or asking them to intercede for them with her Son. Again, Mary said, "Do whatever He (Jesus) tells you to do." not "Do whatever I tell you." Mary was gently rebuked by Jesus and was called "woman" instead of "mother". Mary is a wonderful Christian woman. However. Mary can't hear the prayers of anyone like any dead saint in Heaven. However, the excessive exaltation of Mary has resulted in her getting more exalted than God. 

They may say that they're not praying to Semiramis or Ishtar. I agree but the Bible says pray to God alone. They may say that Jesus would be happy if He saw people respecting His mother. However, respect and worship are two different things. Worship is respect due to God and God alone. Praying to Mary is already an act of worship. Alphonsus of Liguori even admits that he worships Mary in his prayer "Hail Holy Queen". This is all but heresy because nowhere in Scriptures did Mary invite people to herself for salvation. Mary never did. Instead, Mary pointed people to Jesus. Mary was there at the cross as an obedient disciple. Mary fully understood that Jesus is the Creator and she was but a sinner in need for salvation. Paul and Silas both protested against any reverence done to them. Peter never accepted any homage from anyone, unlike the Pope. It's sad of how extrabiblical teachings have given Mary and other people exaltation due to God and God alone.