Is the Rosary "more powerful" than a simple Our Father? Why?

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For me, The Our Father is a very powerful prayer simply because it is the prayer that Jesus taught us and it is included in The Mass - but it still requires the devotion and holiness, the attention, of the person who prays.
We also include prayer to the Blessed Mother at the Mass I attend. 🙂
 
It’s important not to diminish prayer, The Our Father or the Rosary or any prayer, to some sort of supersticious “quid pro quo”
I don’t think anyone has suggested that. But it is a spiritual aid…
During his homily for the Solemnity of the Assumption Pope Francis encouraged Catholics to pray the Holy Rosary saying that it’ ‘sustain us in the battle against the evil one and his accomplices.’ The Holy Father also reflected on the truth well known to Catholic who love Our Lady that she is continually with us; living with us the trials and challenges associated with the conflict between God and Satan.
 
I don’t think anyone has suggested that. But it is a spiritual aid…
Yes, such prayers and devotions are definately aids. 🙂

I just sometimes see people look at devotions and novenas, scapulars, medals etc etc and such as some sort of “fix this” solution.

They dont see it as it as strengthing their relationship with Jesus or Mary.
 
I’d like to share a quote from Blessed John Paul II’s letter on the Rosary:
"With the Rosary, the Christian people sits at the school of Mary and is led to
contemplate the beauty on the face of Christ and to experience
the depths of his love."


To me, that’s the powerful thing about prayer. No doubt there are other ways to contemplate the beauty of Christ and experience God’s love though. The Church has approved many devotions and prayers. If the Rosary isn’t right for you, there are other ways to do the last part of the above quote. I wonder though, have you read reliable sources on the meaning, purpose, and way of praying the Rosary? Blessed John Paul II’s letter Rosarium Virginis Mariae is a goldmine of tips and information on this way of prayer.

I also wonder, where is your heart and mind while praying it? Having the mechanics of it down is good, but if you’re not making yourself aware of being in the presence of God and His Mother, then yeah, it will definitely be tedious. So will just about any other prayer that takes time.
 
Yes - but I don’t think that is the point of the OP.
To me the point is whether a quick simple prayer is less effective than longer or repetitious prayer such as the rosary.

At least that is what I saw.

Peace
James
Yes, I can see that now. Than you for pointing it out to me. 👍
 
First of all, with what I have been blessed to, I would not compare the prayers. As others mentioned, prayer is truly like meditating about God or talking to God. It is time with God.

However, I was at a retreat once. One sister was giving a speech. What she said, 15 years before, still convinces me to the depths.

This is what the sister said. She was telling this with respect to people who have hard time accepting the fact that Rosary is a good prayer. Many still give Rosary the last priority or even do not like to pray it because of their reasons.

Regarding the first part of Hail Mary - “Hail Mary, Full of Grace, God is with Thee…”
Angels would not say anything of their own. They will just say what God wants them to say. So it is God who asked the Angel to greet Mother Mary like that.
So the sister asks a question - “Would you not wish to say what God wishes to say?”

One day the following occurred to my poor mind -
Hail Mary greetings is the first non-prophetic proclamation of the following messages:
  1. Messiah will be born to save the humankind including me
  2. From this, there established a (different and materializable) bridge between humankind and the Heaven
  3. God says: “I Love you all” (not from up there, but to get to us in a closest possible manner)
  4. A real Message that spawns our Salvation
    We can add so much to it. Our imagination in our faith is the limit. Because the Greeting by the Angel is kind of the beginning of all, which is the first solemn and visible realization of the long awaited prophesy.
Well, the second part is in the context of our catholic faith. We believe saints intercessions. So we ask our Beloved Mother Mary.

Besides all this, in Rosary, we meditate the mysteries.

Good wishes friend
 
One time I as a single woman had trouble opening a jar of spaghetti sauce, so I prayed to God, something like “You are the strongest in the universe and can help me.”

The jar wouldn’t open. It seemed I was receiving a response “Go ask your mother.” I prayed to God again, letting Him know I wanted to pray to Him since He was strongest.

"Go ask your mother … "

"Hail Mary, full of grace … "

The jar opened.

That said, prayer to God directly is of course effective! The question is, how does He want you to pray? An Our Father? A whole Rosary? Best to ask Him how He wants you to pray, IMHO.

…
Wow, that’s a beautiful story. I think there is wisdom in our willingness to be flexible and speak to our Father directly. He always knows what’s best for us, even when we don’t understand.
 
I don’t really allow myself to think of one prayer being more powerful than the other but it is hard not to realize the power of the Rosary and the Our Father.
 
Couple of things from the catechism (bolds are added)

2562 Where does prayer come from? Whether prayer is expressed in words or gestures, it is the whole man who prays. But in naming the source of prayer, Scripture speaks sometimes of the soul or the spirit, but most often of the heart (more than a thousand times). According to Scripture, it is the heart that prays.** If our heart is far from God, the words of prayer are in vain.**

2111 Superstition is the deviation of religious feeling and of the practices this feeling imposes. It can even affect the worship we offer the true God, e.g., when one attributes an importance in some way magical to certain practices otherwise lawful or necessary. To attribute the efficacy of prayers or of sacramental signs to their mere external performance, apart from the interior dispositions that they demand, is to fall into superstition.41
 
I would say if we were to pit prayers, in terms of their powerfulness,( which I’m not sure we should do)against each other I would have to say that the “Our Father,” would be, since it came directly from Our Savior.

However, I think prayer is the most important thing, not which prayers are used. You could even make up your own prayers.

Even though I say the “Hail, Mary” at least once a day as an intercessory prayer, I have never been good at saying the rosary. The rosary should be a contemplative devotional , where you say the decades of the “Hail Mary s”, and the “Our Father,” etc., while thinking about Jesus´, and or Mary´s, life. However, I am unable to do that because when say the “Hail, Mary” I am thinking about Mary, since it is she that I am talking to…I can’t then think of Jesus while I am talking to her. I know this is my problem and that most people who say the rosary, properly, are able to do it effectively. I can’t. So, if I do say a devotional it has been the Devine Mercy, or more recently I am trying to say the Patre Nostre, which is when you say 5 decades of the “Our Father” and the “Glory Be” in between. However, it is the praying that counts not the prayer.
 
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