'Pray without ceasing' (1 Thess. 5:17)

[Leao]

St Paul asks the Church to ‘pray without ceasing’ (1 Thess. 5:17).

As I understand it the Catholic tradition interprets St Paul as commending the recitation of repetitive prayers such as ‘The Jesus Prayer’ and the Rosary. Evangelical Protestants, on the other hand, understand St Paul to be urging Christians to generally petition God throughout the day rather than using ritualistic prayer.

What is the evidence that St Paul was referring to ‘repetitive prayer’ as well as presumably general recourse to God? What are the theological/Biblical arguments for so called ‘repetitive’ prayer that the evangelicals describe as 'pagan, mechanical, and babbling’? godsonlygospel.com/Rosary2.htm

peace, Leao

 

[Fidelis]

Leao:

St Paul asks the Church to ‘pray without ceasing’ (1 Thess. 5:17).

As I understand it the Catholic tradition interprets St Paul as commending the recitation of repetitive prayers such as ‘The Jesus Prayer’ and the Rosary. Evangelical Protestants, on the other hand, understand St Paul to be urging Christians to generally petition God throughout the day rather than using ritualistic prayer.

What is the evidence that St Paul was referring to ‘repetitive prayer’ as well as presumably general recourse to God? What are the theological/Biblical arguments for so called ‘repetitive’ prayer that the evangelicals describe as 'pagan, mechanical, and babbling’? godsonlygospel.com/Rosary2.htm

peace, Leao

First of all, Catholics are free to understand St. Paul’s admonition in 1 Thessalonians in the same way that other Christians do. There isn’t the “either/or” dichotomy that Fundamentalist anti-Catholics like to pigeonhole the beliefs of Catholics into.

Secondly, the Scriptures never condemned repetitive prayer, per se. Besides, what IS repetitive–more than once? Three times? How about when Jesus prayed the same prayer three times in the Garden before his Passion? What about Psalm 136, surely one of the most “repetitive” prayers in the Bible?

The verse that anti-Catholics are fond of quoting, Jesus only condemns vain repetition, i.e., piling prayers on top of one another in the pagan belief that the sheer number of prayers will move God to act, like the prophets of Baal who opposed Elijah. To ascribe this to prayers like the Rosary is to misunderstand the meaning and purpose of that prayer. I recommend you read the following article if you are really interested:

catholic.com/library/Rosary.asp

Thirdly, the fact that you would post such a crassly anti-Catholic link on your post would lead me to believe you are not acting in good faith and may be here only to bash. If this is not the case, the burden of proof is on you to indicate otherwise.

 

[Didi]

We can pray without ceasing by offering our whole day to God, as we do when we pray the Morning Offering Prayer:

Dear Jesus,
through the Immaculate Heart of Mary I offer You my day – my work, my rest, my prayers, my joys, my sufferings – for the intentions of Your Most Sacred Heart, in union with the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass throughout the world, in reparation for our sins, for the intentions of our friends and family and for Our Holy Father, Pope John Paul II.

This makes our whole day, all that we do and all that we say, an offering to God.

 

[Fidelis]

Fidelis:

Thirdly, the fact that you would post such a crassly anti-Catholic link on your post would lead me to believe you are not acting in good faith and may be here only to bash. If this is not the case, the burden of proof is on you to indicate otherwise.

Leao – On examining some of your earlier posts, I think that this paragraph from my post above probably doesn’t apply to you. Sorry for my hastiness to judge. However, I still don’t see the value of posting links to crude anti-Catholic websites, at least without some sort of warning or explanation.