Quote Originally Posted by Christian View Post
he kneels down, crosses himself, closes his eyes, clasps his hands, bows his head and says prayers (an act of worship) to anyone OTHER THAN GOD HIMSELF?

If he is praying to baal?
If he is praying to donald duck?
If he is praying to mary?

IS THIS ACT OF DEVOUT WORSHIP something a CHRISTIAN would do? Or is it something a catholic would do instead?

Christian
First of all, the bowing to dignitaries is not worship. If I genuflect to show respect to the monarchy of England, it is no more worship as it was to do similar forms of expression to King David. Distinguishing between divine worship and respect to others is a matter of degrees of authority. All prayer that is answered is of God, not of Mary or any other saint. A Catholic who attributes answered prayer to Mary is simply wrong. Now, God answers prayers and he listens to pe***ions of others. So a Catholic may attribute the intercession of a saint as to be a partial factor in God answering prayer.
Secondly, the word "pray" is not necessarily an act solely attributed to God alone. The word in Elizabethan English is "to ask" as perhaps a play by Shakespeare might say "I pray thee to do such and such." Certainly you would not say of Elizabethan English usage that people were worshiping others in the mere asking or pe***ioning of a duty.
So what you are observing and what you are attributing are two separate things. Do Catholic genuflect toward the mention of Mary? Yes, I see it happen during the Nicene Creed when it mentions Jesus being born of a Virgin. Does that mean that Mary is a 4th person of the Trinity to be given divine worship? No. But what you suggest is that all forms of worship is divine worship; if I praise my son for a good ***, do I worship my son? If I bow to a king, does that mean I worship that king? If I were hungry and pleading with another for food clasping my hands in begging, does that mean I worship the person I am asking food from? The thing that really separates divine worship from giving another praise or from physical acts of respect is that God as the supreme authority is that God is given his rightful due.
Now, when I say rightful due, you might want to counter and say we should never give another respect in the manner you suggest; but even if I write in a forum or play a game of chess, does these acts conflict to giving God praise? All activities of some sort could potentially rob God his rightful due, but I don't think it practical to think that prayer on one's knees is a 24/7 is possible.