Hail Mary's

[Pepsi Man]

What is with the catholic religion. I don't get it. Father I sinned.. I did this and this. Ok say 20 hail Mary's... How does saying a prayer clean you of your sin. I was raised that if your are truly sorry for your sin then u pray but not to Mary but to gos and ask for forgiveness..I don't get this who hail Mary thing. Never really have actually.

Then you have them saying stuff about the saints watching over them..It clearly says in the bible that angels and not saints watch over people. Not sure to what extent on this. Either way I've never read or heard anything about a dead person being able to watch over someone.

[Paolo]

its a lot better than the Hail Mario prayer some other religions believe in

[frail]

I am Catholic. For the sake of not delving too deeply into Catholic theology I will keep this simple: Saying a prayer after confession is called penance. The penance itself does not clean you of your sin, but rather when the priest gives you absolution (the purpose of which is to remove the guilt and remits the eternal punishment of mortal sins and restores your soul into the state of grace). The purpose of penance is to remit the temporal punishment (purgatory) for the sins. Penance can take many forms, but the most common is prayer. For more info you can read the following: http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/11618c.htm (it's pretty lengthy).

Regarding saints, I think it would be best to refer you to the following for a good explanation: http://www.catholic.com/library/Praying_to_the_Saints.asp