Defending the Rosary

[steveandersen]

Not the whole thread, per se. The OP 's inital question was, “that we aren’t putting Mary in a higher regard than God by doing ten Hail Marys for each Lord’s Prayer?”

The later joiners admittedly didn’t join the conversation until later, and didn’t bother to read what was posted already.

I am a later joiner but it does look like the OP was answered fairly early on with a resounding “No”

The exercise is a mediation on the mysteries of faith
It is not a contest to see whose name (or “whose” prayer) gets said more often.

Jesus and Mary aren’t in competition with each other and they aren’t keeping score

Besides I don’t think He’d mind if you said hello to His mom.

 

[mlchance]

How do you explain to someone that we aren’t putting Mary in a higher regard than God by doing ten Hail Marys for each Lord’s Prayer?

Tell them just that. If they doubt you, note that quantity doesn’t equal quality. If they still doubt you, offer to exchange 10 pennies for every 1 dollar that they have.

– Mark L. Chance.

 

[Mannyfit75]

That would like a boss saying:

'YOU CAN’T LISTEN TO THE RADIO AND WORK AT THE SAME TIME"

It just amazes me how people come up with this stuff !

Maybe Catholics invented MULTI-TASKING?

Now that’s funny.

 

[misslollipops]

Wrong.

Give it a try, I’m betting you can do it too.

“The first Glorious mystery: The Ressurection - The Reason for our Faith”.

Now while “meditating” on this mystery say the ten Hail Mary’s.

With your eyes closed, can you not picture our Lord Risen from the Tomb?

I think you will find the Hail Mary quickly becom a nice “montra” to which you can meditate very effectively on the mystery.

Chuck

I know the God I serve will have nothing worshiped before Him Ex 20:5.
When I worship God I worship Him alone
I don’t say prayers to Mary and THINK of Jesus.

 

[maurin]

I know the God I serve will have nothing worshiped before Him Ex 20:5.
When I worship God I worship Him alone
I don’t say prayers to Mary and THINK of Jesus.

Then don’t. It’s your choice whether you will embrace Our Lord’s Mother, as He asked of the beloved disciple, or reject her. That is between you and Him.

 

[misslollipops]

Then don’t. It’s your choice whether you will embrace Our Lord’s Mother, as He asked of the beloved disciple, or reject her. That is between you and Him.

I will call her Blessed. That is it. And it is ok with my God.

 

[mlchance]

I know the God I serve will have nothing worshiped before Him Ex 20:5.
When I worship God I worship Him alone
I don’t say prayers to Mary and THINK of Jesus.

You seem to be equating “prayer” with “worship.” The Church doesn’t use these terms in such a manner. Worship can be expressed through prayer, but not all prayer expresses worship.

We Catholics also worship nothing before God. Furthermore, we don’t worship anything after Him either.

– Mark L. Chance.

 

[maurin]

I will call her Blessed. That is it. And it is ok with my God.

What you call her is not how you treat her. Lip service has never been ok with God. “The lukewarm I shall spew from my mouth.”

And what’s up with this “my God?” Did you create Him, or did He create you? The sin of presumption.

misslollipops, this is never ok with God.

 

[Mannyfit75]

What you call her is not how you treat her. Lip service has never been ok with God. “The lukewarm I shall spew from my mouth.”

And what’s up with this “my God?” Did you create Him, or did He create you? The sin of presumption.

misslollipops, this is never ok with God.

What’s wrong with saying My God? In the many Catholics prayer, we also say that. “My God, in whom I trust.”

Or the Act of Contrition. “Oh, my God, I’m heartly sorry for having offended you.”

or “Oh, my Jesus, forgive us our sins.”

I don’t think misslollipops is wrong she/he address God as "My God… though I’m skeptical if she truly one of the generations who proclaimed Mary as “All generations will call me blessed.”

Catholics fullfill it because of the Hail Mary prayer.

I do have to say, in the Hail Mary prayer. We often addressed Mary, “Blessed are you among women and blessed is the fruit of your womb Jesus.”

Most Non-Catholic Christians rarely address Mary these days, or they rarely even preached about her except maybe Christmas. But I never heard any Protestant call her Blessed. Catholics have address Mary as Blessed Lady, Blessed Mother, Blessed Virgin Mary.

 

[maurin]

context, Manny. Context.

misslollipops used ‘my God’ in the sense that we worship different Gods. It was an unfortunate choice of words, I’m sure.

In the prayers that you cite, they are prayers for personal prayer time.

In the Mass we pray “We believe…”, “Our Father…”

subtle distinction in the way misslollipops chose to use the term.

 

[JoeyWarren]

She’s right manny. The context of the statement is at issue here along with misslollipoops implication that we worship someone other than God.

 

[Jaypeeto4]

People,
we Catholics, and open minded Eastern Orthodox and
open minded protestants KNOW that the Rosary is
a beautiful and enriching form of meditative prayer and contemplation and that Mary is not at all being “Worshiped”
in the Rosary.

Ignore the ignorant loudmouths like misslollipops and
get out your rosary and pray it. And pray for misslollipops
that God will help her not to be such an anticatholic bigot.

God bless,
Jaypeeto4
+JMJ+

 

[maurin]

She’s right manny. The context of the statement is at issue here along with misslollipoops implication that we worship someone other than God.

(‘He’s right…’ maurin is male).

 

[JoeyWarren]

(‘He’s right…’ maurin is male).

oops!

 

[Eileen_T]

Prayer_Warrior:

misslollipops:

I know I’ve said thousands of hail Marys in my day.
It became rote.
It was so bad that I could be planning my next days breakfast while praying the rosary. My mind would just wander because I didn’t have to even think about what I was saying.
Sure I would count off the beads. But my mind would be elsewhere.

Sorry to be so blunt, but you were doing it wrong. If you weren’t meditating on the mysteries, you were indeed babbling like a pagan. That is not what the Rosary is. This is not entirely your fault, you should have been instructed by your parents/godparents in this matter.

By the way, do you know the historical context behind what Jesus said in Matthew 6:7?

I have to say that EVERY time I pray the Rosary, I receive at least one new insight or new perspective on the Mysteries. I think all of us are guilty of letting our minds wander occasionally, however, we need to rebuke the distraction and guide our mind back to the Mysteries… not plan breakfast.

Me too. Of course, when I was a bit lazy and just “rattled it off” I didn’t learn anything.

misslollipops
You keep making statements and stating opinions that other posters go into detail to correct. Then, after changing tack for a while you suddenly repeat things that have already been addressed. Do you have short term memory loss perhaps?

Your experience of Catholicism does not make you an expert on Catholic Teaching. Just because you were not taught correctly and did not make the effort to educate yourself does not make your rejection of the Catholic Faith right.

It seems as though you are only here to attempt to justify to yourself your reasons for leaving the Church in the first place. 20 years ago? And now you have come here and in 2 short weeks have made over 400 posts.

That’s a lot of time spent arguing with us. Never mind, now we have you on our radar we will all pray for you, that you will come to know the Truth and return to the Church.

 

[misslollipops]

Me too. Of course, when I was a bit lazy and just “rattled it off” I didn’t learn anything.

misslollipops
You keep making statements and stating opinions that other posters go into detail to correct. Then, after changing tack for a while you suddenly repeat things that have already been addressed. Do you have short term memory loss perhaps?

Your experience of Catholicism does not make you an expert on Catholic Teaching. Just because you were not taught correctly and did not make the effort to educate yourself does not make your rejection of the Catholic Faith right.

It seems as though you are only here to attempt to justify to yourself your reasons for leaving the Church in the first place. 20 years ago? And now you have come here and in 2 short weeks have made over 400 posts.

That’s a lot of time spent arguing with us. Never mind, now we have you on our radar we will all pray for you, that you will come to know the Truth and return to the Church.

Thanks

 

[Zooey]

I get the feeling, Misslollipops, that you never understood the rosary from the very start. You seem to have imagined that it was just a lot of rote prayers strung together that demanded nothing from you.
Its not like that. It requires great love & attention…
I make rosaries.I can turn them out, watching TV, with the cat in my lap…It is a joy & a privilege to be able to make something that will lead others to prayer, but the making part is very simple. I could teach a fairly well-coordinated child how to do it.
But the praying of the rosary…There’s a different kettle of fish! That requires that my mind & my heart be fully engaged. It requires me to make things peaceful, & to take the time out of my day, to “come apart & be ye separate”, so that I can spend time with Our Lord…In the peace of meditation.

I could just rattle off prayers off the top of my head, too. But they always come out the same…I grew up in a church congregation with a “Holiness” pastor, and I learned as a little child that those dear holiness folk do surely love the Lord, & they surely don’t think we should ever pray “set” prayers, and they pray the very same words every single week at prayer meeting, year after year, after year.
Sr Y prays for “the missionaries on the faroff foreign field”; Br D begins with “Eternal Father we come before you after this another week”, and Mrs P always says, “Lord, unworthy as we are, we bow before your throne of grace this evening to thank you for your many blessings”.
So, don’t even start with the “repetitious” & “a form of godliness”, cause the truth is, that you simply don’t know what you’re talking about…

Now I’m a Methodist myself, so it might be said, that “I don’t have a dog in this fight”, so I really don’t worry whether you are Catholic, or Pentecostal, or Holiness, or whatever.
But I worry about the anger, & the bitterness that I see, when ever the Blessed Mother of Jesus is mentioned, and I have to tell you, you have a big problem that we’re not, probably, going to be able to solve here, just posting back & forth. There’s a reason for that, & until you search your heart & find out what it is, and repent of it, you are always going to be obsessed with it…even when you aren’t quite sure what name to put on it.
I speak as an old lady, who has been there, done that, & come back to where I started from.
And the only part of the journey that I have never managed to fluff completely, was the part that I travelled with my rosary in my hands, & a prayer in my heart.

God bless all here.

 

[Jaypeeto4]

I know I’ve said thousands of hail Marys in my day.
It became rote.
It was so bad that I could be planning my next days breakfast while praying the rosary. My mind would just wander because I didn’t have to even think about what I was saying.
Sure I would count off the beads. But my mind would be elsewhere.

You’re mind would be elsewhere? WHOSE fault is that?
Your MIND is supposed to be focused on the mystery in the life of Jesus that you are meditating on in the particular decade.
If you’re “planning your next days breakfast,” you are PLANNING something else, you are NOT mediating on the mystery of the life of Jesus. Hence, you are NOT praying the Rosary.

Jaypeeto4
+JMJ+

 

[misslollipops]

I know I’ve said thousands of hail Marys in my day.
It became rote.
It was so bad that I could be planning my next days breakfast while praying the rosary. My mind would just wander because I didn’t have to even think about what I was saying.
Sure I would count off the beads. But my mind would be elsewhere.

You’re mind would be elsewhere? WHOSE fault is that?
Your MIND is supposed to be focused on the mystery in the life of Jesus that you are meditating on in the particular decade.
If you’re “planning your next days breakfast,” you are PLANNING something else, you are NOT mediating on the mystery of the life of Jesus. Hence, you are NOT praying the Rosary.

Jaypeeto4
+JMJ+

And I’m sure your mind never wanders when saying the rosary.
It must be just me then.

 

[Prayer_Warrior]

And I’m sure your mind never wanders when saying the rosary.
It must be just me then.

As I said, we all get distractions. The difference is whether we rebuke the distraction and get back to the meditation or we allow the distraction to take over and then proceed to “babble like a pagan” while we think of something else. Jaypeeto4 is correct, if one are not meditating on the mysteries, one is not praying the Rosary. They are babbling prayers, not praying the prayers.

You could apply the same principle (of not just babbling) to all prayer, in a way. Jesus taught us to pray the “Our Father”. That prayer should be said with love and reverence. Imagine if I mindlessly rattle off the words of the Our Father while thinking about my afternoon errands! We both know that is not what Jesus had in mind.

One sad part of all the non denom evangelical type churches in the last century is that there seems to be no appreciation for ancient prayer practices. Contemplative prayer, meditations, etc, seem to have been set aside. That is too bad, because those practices really help us fulfill the command to “pray ceaselessly”.