Our school is imposing the rosary

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hansard said:
I have no problem with Catholic schools doing Catholic things: school Masses, retreats, daily prayer, occasional confession opportunities, a general focus on good living, compassion and generosity. We are good at those things, even though few students or staff are actually “Catholic” in the way they practise their faith.

What I have a problem with is forcing children to say a repetitive prayer (counted off on the beads, of course - we wouldn’t want to count incorrectly) when they could be offered the opportunity to make a more personal, meaningful prayer.

For example, when I am required to say a prayer at a meeting, I always ask people to offer quiet prayers of a personal nature. This is in keeping with Matthew 6:6 (“go to your room” etc).

Another concern: if prayers are forced, they can’t be genuine. Therefore, they will not “get through” at all.

If Marian Devotion is not required of the faithful (beyond the main dogmatic statements which are more recognition than devotion), and if praying the Rosary is not required, I won’t be inclined to enforce this.

Surely a carefully considered prayer is of more personal and spiritual value than a dull, repetitive, forced prayer.

(NOTE: I have nothing against those with a devotion to Mary. I admire and respect that. It’s not for me, that’s all.)
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What do you mean by “required”? If you only impose the bare minimum on kids or yourself, is that better or any more choice; and why would you if you believe the Apostolic faith?

We do and promote many things in many areas of life that aren’t just “required”. Especially for children, in this regard, it isn’t only an opportunity to pray the Rosary, it’s an educational experience.

In a analogous way: ask any of the teachers at the pre-school or kindergarten if it is “required” that their students learn how to write in cursive; why impose this writing style on children when block letters and typing are just as valid and more readable.
 
Hansard,

No—There is a need; just not the need to force, but talk to your priest. I am not qualified to speak for the Church as an expert.

Like I stated before, it took a miracle to get me to my devotion to Mary. I pray you will be blessed too.

**“If you ever feel distressed during your day — call upon our Lady — just say this simple prayer: ‘Mary, Mother of Jesus, please be a mother to me now.’ I must admit — this prayer has never failed me.”
–Blessed Mother Teresa **
 
Your Catholic school is teaching the Rosary, and the students learn by doing. It’s the same as reading, writing, and arithmetic. Do they make 'em go to Mass as well? I sure hope so.
 
Oh, I’m just a teacher at the school. I don’t want to make children take up rosary beads and count off prayers by rote. It seems meaningless to me. I suppose I have different and possibly unusual notions of what prayer should be.

Okay. One last time.

Those who disagree with me: What, exactly, is the purpose of praying the same prayer over and over again?
(I don’t want a throw-away answer like “it brings us closer to the virgin” or “it calms us in the stillness that is God”, or any other almost-meaningless platitudes).

I would like (if you would be so kind) a specific answer about why repetitive prayer is any better than personal prayer.
 
hansard said:
I have no problem with Catholic schools doing Catholic things: school Masses, retreats, daily prayer, occasional confession opportunities, a general focus on good living, compassion and generosity. We are good at those things, even though few students or staff are actually “Catholic” in the way they practise their faith.

What I have a problem with is forcing children to say a repetitive prayer (counted off on the beads, of course - we wouldn’t want to count incorrectly) when they could be offered the opportunity to make a more personal, meaningful prayer.

For example, when I am required to say a prayer at a meeting, I always ask people to offer quiet prayers of a personal nature. This is in keeping with Matthew 6:6 (“go to your room” etc).

Another concern: if prayers are forced, they can’t be genuine. Therefore, they will not “get through” at all.

If Marian Devotion is not required of the faithful (beyond the main dogmatic statements which are more recognition than devotion), and if praying the Rosary is not required, I won’t be inclined to enforce this.

Surely a carefully considered prayer is of more personal and spiritual value than a dull, repetitive, forced prayer.

(NOTE: I have nothing against those with a devotion to Mary. I admire and respect that. It’s not for me, that’s all.)
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The rosary is VERY profound. I was reading about an exorcist, I think from the Vatican, who was talking about exorcisms. He was talking about how, during an exorcism, the demon(s) would curse everybody present, the Pope, I think also Jesus but for some reason NOT the Virgin Mary, never, ever.

Well, it could be that the Blessed Virgin Mary has the honor of crushing Satan’s head. Her role is quite special. Demons HATE the Blessed Virgin Mary and the rosary, because it’s her tool.

She promised us that peace and basically anything can be obtained through praying the rosary. She said if we didn’t pray the rosary, that things would continue to deteriorate.
She gave us 15 promises to those who prayed, and promoted, it, and I believe them.

In more than one apparition, which have been accepted by the Catholic Church, she told us to pray the rosary, daily. Now, this should be enough to encourage the faithful to comply, but the Church didn’t seem to want to force people, stopped just short of that.
However, it’s been strongly encouraged.

Saint after saint has prayed it and promoted it.

When I was younger, there were times I saw it as tedious and didn’t understand its value. However, many miracles have been attributed to it.

It does have a repetitive, meditative quality to it.

In my own family, the rosary has been prayed for generations, not sure exactly how many. However, my mother (who will turn 89 y.o.) said that when she was young, she and her family got down on their knees, nightly, as a family and prayed the rosary together.

In fact, they did it in 2 languages. It was started in English, and my grandparents responded in French. (I am of French Canadian descent). Now, it’s my understanding that was the pattern for the previous generation, as well.

In my generation, we did the rosary for a time, but it ended up getting lost. We said we didn’t have time, that it was too repetitive, that it wasn’t for modern times. So, we more or less did away with it.

Then, later on, I noticed my parents began to bring back that custom of the nightly rosary. They normally retired to the bedroom, prayed together, just my parents. If one of us visiting was Catholic and wanted to, we prayed together, all of us. My parents got on their knees, and myself, when we were able to.

I have noticed that in my life, when I distanced myself from my faith, weekly mass or the rosary, all hell broke loose. I find the rosary to be very powerful, that it brings so much goodness and peace.

I have seen evidence in my own life of the power of it, so nobody needs to convince me of it.

The older I get, the more appreciation I have for it. I see now about the mysteries…which, together, are a mini catechism lesson in and of themselves. Further, we repeat our beliefs in the creed, which act as a reminder so that we never forget our faith. In modern times, when we are forgetting ourselves and our faith, I think this is more helpful than ever.

I don’t think anybody knows more about how to get close to God than the saints, and the saints have given the rosary their endorsement.

The rosary won’t hurt anybody, quite to the contrary. It is an armor against hell. It works against heresies and more.

The rosary takes all of 15 min. to pray.

Here’s some info on the rosary from EWTN.

ewtn.com/Devotionals/prayers/rosary/

I wish we’d all pray the rosary. If we did, according to Our Lady, we would have peace.
 
Hi hansard,

Thanks for sharing your thoughts on the matter. I admire your bravery for posting a thread questioning repetitive prayer in the Traditional Catholicism section! 😃

If I may, I’d just like to share some of my own thoughts on the matter:

Repetitive prayer is a lot like going to the gym. I’m not always in the best of moods to go, but I know that over time, it will help. Likewise, I’m not always “feeling it” when I pray repetitive prayer, but the prayer helps me get there.

That’s not to say praying in your own words is bad, it’s just the combination of both that puts you on the right path.

I particularly enjoy the rosary, because it IS both. It’s both reciting repetitive prayer and contemplative / meditative. Most of the time, I find that people dislike the Rosary, because they don’t understand that second part. They just pray a bunch of Hail Marys and are none the wiser to the beautiful spiritual fruit they’re missing out on.

Allow me to share an experience I had with the rosary once:

I have a tendency to get frustrated with traffic in the area I live (who doesn’t, right?). One day, I was praying the rosary and I came to the mystery of Christ’s birth. One of the meditative practices I did was to “switch places” with St. Joseph. So I imagined myself taking St. Joseph’s place in the mystery experienced it from his perspective.

It was really eye opening. Taking care of a young pregnant wife on a difficult journey, struggling to find a place to stay, the feeling of failure and inadequacy, the shame at seeing your wife having to give birth in a stable, the frustration at not being able to provide even the most basic needs to your wife, etc. It’s like I began to experience all the temptations that St. Joseph had to face during that time. As I came to the end of the decade, I realized how much he dealt with and how gracefully he handled it. I realized how I had a long way to go, given that I couldn’t even keep my composure in traffic when I’m in the car.

I share that because I feel most people don’t understand that’s what the rosary experience is supposed to be like. They thing it’s just statically reciting Hail Mary’s and that’s it. It couldn’t be further from the truth.

In any case, hopefully that helps shed some light on the rosary and what it does. All the best!
 
St. Louis de Montfort warns us against both the ignorant and scholars who regard the Rosary as something of little importance…“the Rosary is a priceless treasure inspired by God.”
 
hansard said:
I would like (if you would be so kind) a specific answer about why repetitive prayer is any better than personal prayer.
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Why is there a “better/worse” categorizing going on here? There are different methods of praying, none are necessarily “better” than another, but praying as a community requires some structure. Praying with children, while teaching them, requires more structure.

Have you ever heard of the word “mantra”? The Rosary or most any prayer can be used as a mantra. Why is repetition involved? So you don’t find yourself searching for words or thinking about what to say next.

Have you ever attended a prayer gathering where the leader asks someone to ad-lib prayers out loud out of the blue, or one is pressured to by the group - this can be discouraging to a child who doesn’t know what to say or do - the Rosary, the Jesus Prayer, or another rote prayer frees one to pray in community, and also removes the pressure some people may feel. Why do you think monasteries and convents have been doing this for 2000+ years?
 
I can only thank you all for the diligence in your replies and admire your dedication to the Rosary.
The fact that I see little value in it is a personal issue and I would never reveal that to my students. Never.

I’ll exit the discussion now, as I don’t think I can add anything to it.
 
hansard said:
I have no problem with Catholic schools doing Catholic things: school Masses, retreats, daily prayer, occasional confession opportunities, a general focus on good living, compassion and generosity. We are good at those things, even though few students or staff are actually “Catholic” in the way they practise their faith.

What I have a problem with is forcing children to say a repetitive prayer (counted off on the beads, of course - we wouldn’t want to count incorrectly) when they could be offered the opportunity to make a more personal, meaningful prayer.

For example, when I am required to say a prayer at a meeting, I always ask people to offer quiet prayers of a personal nature. This is in keeping with Matthew 6:6 (“go to your room” etc).

Another concern: if prayers are forced, they can’t be genuine. Therefore, they will not “get through” at all.

If Marian Devotion is not required of the faithful (beyond the main dogmatic statements which are more recognition than devotion), and if praying the Rosary is not required, I won’t be inclined to enforce this.

Surely a carefully considered prayer is of more personal and spiritual value than a dull, repetitive, forced prayer.

(NOTE: I have nothing against those with a devotion to Mary. I admire and respect that. It’s not for me, that’s all.)
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It’s a Catholic school. At a Catholic school children
learn Carhilic things. If parents want their children
to learn your Protestant view they put them in a
Baptist or Methodist or Lutheran school.
Parents choice all the way.
 
hansard said:
I can only thank you all for the diligence in your replies and admire your dedication to the Rosary.
The fact that I see little value in it is a personal issue and I would never reveal that to my students. Never.

I’ll exit the discussion now, as I don’t think I can add anything to it.
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Okay, but I would like to suggest praying the Rosary once with your heart and see if you feel the same afterwards. 🙂

God Bless
 
I like the unity and solidarity of this prayer, that an entire community or parish can pray, as one.

With individual prayer, as good as it can be. The rosary lends itself to individual and group prayer.
 
hansard said:
Oh, I’m just a teacher at the school. I don’t want to make children take up rosary beads and count off prayers by rote. It seems meaningless to me. I suppose I have different and possibly unusual notions of what prayer should be.

Okay. One last time.

Those who disagree with me: What, exactly, is the purpose of praying the same prayer over and over again?
(I don’t want a throw-away answer like “it brings us closer to the virgin” or “it calms us in the stillness that is God”, or any other almost-meaningless platitudes).

I would like (if you would be so kind) a specific answer about why repetitive prayer is any better than personal prayer.
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It is not about praying one way is somehow “better” than praying another way. It is about learning different ways to pray. Prayers we recite often are prayers that easily lend themselves to communal prayer. Silent prayer is wonderful. So is spontaneous heartfelt prayer. So is praying those prayers we learned by rote because someone “made us learn them.”

Contained within the mysteries of the Rosary is an entire catechism and declaration of the Catholic faith.

The familiarity of the words and rhythm of the repeated prayer allow you to meditate on the mysteries of the Life of Jesus - another of the purposes of praying the Rosary.

To get to the point where you can achieve this takes first learning the prayers, and then practicing them until they become second nature. It is similar to learning to play a musical instrument in a marching band. You learn the basics of music and playing the instrument, then through practice you become proficient at the instrument and are able to add in the marching.
 
hansard said:
Oh, I’m just a teacher at the school. I don’t want to make children take up rosary beads and count off prayers by rote. It seems meaningless to me. I suppose I have different and possibly unusual notions of what prayer should be.

Okay. One last time.

Those who disagree with me: What, exactly, is the purpose of praying the same prayer over and over again?
(I don’t want a throw-away answer like “it brings us closer to the virgin” or “it calms us in the stillness that is God”, or any other almost-meaningless platitudes).

I would like (if you would be so kind) a specific answer about why repetitive prayer is any better than personal prayer.
Click to expand...
First it sounds like YOU are the one who has a problem with praying the rosary.

The rosary is meant to be a contemplative prayer. It is not better or worse than “personal” prayer but it was given to us by Our Lady Herself, and therefore vicariously by Her Son, so that in itself should make EVERY Catholic want to have a devotion to the Rosary.

If one prays the Rosary as a contemplative prayer it is not repetitive and mundane. The Rosary tells the story of the Incarnation, Passion and Resurrection of our Lord and the events of Our Lady’s life such as Her Fiat, Assumption, and Coronation. One can contemplate these events or contemplate on the graces to be obtained by saying each decade, such as mortification of the flesh when saying the decade on the scourging, etc…
 
Every day after lunch we were “forced” to say less than a “more personal, meaningful prayer.” We turned out just fine. Being well catechised, there was no problem in offering a rosary a day while focusing on both the mysteries and our intentions.

Check out my slideshows in my sig line and please tell me rye Rosary is neither scriptural nor relatable in a personal way.
 
The rosary, to me, is very deep, has layer upon layer upon layer.

Well, if you look at the mysteries, alone, it teaches one about the major events of our faith in summary form.

Then, it also points out many virtues. In the Annunciation…humility…in the Visitation…charity, etc. If we grow up in a family/world that is lacking in virtue, it shows us what virtuous lives are like, reliving the lives of Jesus and Mary. It models virtue for all to see, by example.

When I have problems, I pray the rosary, am reminded of how Jesus and Mary had much greater problems and of how they had such faith and trust in God, how they persevered through it all.

Then, the creed recalls our faith. Every time we pray it, we are remembering who we are, reinforcing it. So, when times of persecution and doubt set it, we will have our beliefs deeply ingrained in ourselves, written on our hearts.

When we pray the rosary, we need to do it in the same spirit as we would personal prayer.

A lot of times, I’d like to pray an individual personal prayer but don’t have the words. This gives me the words when I run out.
 
The rosary is rooted in history. We originally had the repetition of the Psalms. Then, we had the rosary which put this not only for religious folks but your everyday people who wanted to get closer to God.
 
hansard said:
Oh, I’m just a teacher at the school. I don’t want to make children take up rosary beads and count off prayers by rote. It seems meaningless to me. I suppose I have different and possibly unusual notions of what prayer should be.

Okay. One last time.

Those who disagree with me: What, exactly, is the purpose of praying the same prayer over and over again?
(I don’t want a throw-away answer like “it brings us closer to the virgin” or “it calms us in the stillness that is God”, or any other almost-meaningless platitudes).

I would like (if you would be so kind) a specific answer about why repetitive prayer is any better than personal prayer.
Click to expand...
Sounds like you have confusion over what are the different types of prayer. We can divide types or purpose of prayer into 4 categories that can be remembered by using the word ACTS:
Adore
Contrition
Thanksgiving
Suplication

We also have types of methods (or ways) of prayer
vocal
mental/meditative
contemplative

The Rosary falls into the category of a vocal prayer because it has a set formula and prayers, just like the mass, the Our Father, Glory Be, etc. It doesn’t have to do with it being said out loud, but to do with the fact that it is a set prayer with a set. The use of the words in the prayer are important in the prayer.

In mental or meditative prayer the mind and heart are working. The will is being formed to God. This is when one reads the Gospel and then reflects upon the words and meanings. We see a crucifix and are drawn into the passion. With the Rosary, we are exercising mental prayer as well when we mediate on the mysteries and the words to the prayers.

In contemplative prayer our hearts and mind are raised to God. Mental/meditative prayer usually leads one to contemplative prayer. This is where one can sit before the tabernacle or cross or nothing (!) and simply gaze with love! Think of parents of a new baby and how they simply gaze with love. This is the best description of contemplative prayer I can give. Praying the Rosary can lead us, with Grace from Our Lord, to contemplative prayer.

As a Catholic school teacher I do urge you to educate yourself on the types and purposes of prayer. I begin to teach these ideas to my second graders as they prepare for the sacrament of confession and the Holy Eucharist. I then re-enforce it regularly with the older kids.

So, as you may see, it is not about being repetitive, but an exercise to draw us closer to Our Lord. HTH
 
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