Rosary question

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Alex246

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I understand the refutation to the common Protestant argument that the Rosary is repetitious prayer, that it is a meditation, not simply a recitation. However, in every explanation of praying the rosary I’ve found, there is no explanation of the introduction part. The three Hail Marys just seem like flat out repetition. Could someone help me with this?
 
I understand it as thus…the rosary is a meditation. However, meditation is not something you can usually turn on and off like a light-switch. (not for me anyways). The opening prayers are kind of like an intro, to get my mind settled and in the zone. If they are prayed with true intention, it is not vain repetition.

Also, if I say with meaning, “Mary, pray for us, pray for us…please pray for us.” This repetition is not in vain. It is an expression of my heart felt desires.

Well, I am far from a rosary expert, but that’s what I think. 🙂
 
The three Hail Mary’s at the beginning are for faith, hope, and love, respectively. They are not flat repetition. I can understand the misconception, though–I personally didn’t know what they were intended for until fairly recently.
 
Alex246 said:
I understand the refutation to the common Protestant argument that the Rosary is repetitious prayer, that it is a meditation, not simply a recitation. However, in every explanation of praying the rosary I’ve found, there is no explanation of the introduction part. The three Hail Marys just seem like flat out repetition. Could someone help me with this?
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You need to understand what repetitious prayer means. Its the vain repeated babbling of pagans to stone idols they thought were gods.

catholic.com/thisrock/2006/0603fea2.asp
 
Thre rosary contains formal prayers that others gave us. The Lords prayer,The Hail Mary, Creed ,Glory be ,Fatima Prayers. We learn how to speak lovingly and trustingly to God. The rosary also contains prayers of meditation as we focus on the Mysteries of our Lords life.
From reflecting on these fundamental forms of prayer, namely formal prayer, meditation and effective prayer, we can see why the rosary is considered the best instrument for teaching catholics how to pray.
Try reading Pope John Paul II, in his beautiful Apostolic letter, (The Rosary of the Virgin Mary). The above info was taken from the Spiritual Guide Published by The World Apostolate Of Fatima.
St Padre Pio called the Rosary his weapon in his fight against the devil.
We call on God to grant us a increase in the Three Theological Virtues of faith, hope and charity in the beginning prayers of the Rosary.
 
it’s unfortunate that the word repetition is understood by so many as the evil being taught in regards to prayer. You would think that the word vain would easily be recognized as the defining word. Anything done in vain lacks good right?

btw the rosary is repetitive prayer, it repeats the heartbeat of a loving mother. That’s not vain.
 
Ask your fundamentalist friend to go back and count the number of times he exclaims “Amen” or “Hallelujah” to his preacher during his sermon. Then ask him if this is a Protestant’s idea of intercessory and excessive repetitive prayer or just emotionalism and joyous rooting for his own team. 😃

James
 
Alex246 said:
I understand the refutation to the common Protestant argument that the Rosary is repetitious prayer, that it is a meditation, not simply a recitation. However, in every explanation of praying the rosary I’ve found, there is no explanation of the introduction part. The three Hail Marys just seem like flat out repetition. Could someone help me with this?
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I have always understood the three Hail Mary’s at the beginning of the rosary to be a petition to Mary for faith, hope, and love. 🙂
 
Thank you so much for your answers! That really clears up a lot. I love praying the rosary, and I’m glad understand it more deeply now.🙂
 
Alex246 said:
I understand the refutation to the common Protestant argument that the Rosary is repetitious prayer, that it is a meditation, not simply a recitation. However, in every explanation of praying the rosary I’ve found, there is no explanation of the introduction part. The three Hail Marys just seem like flat out repetition. Could someone help me with this?
Click to expand...
the scripture injunction agains repetitiouus prayer is incomplete of they don’t inclued the rest of it “as the pagans do”. the pagans were reciting nonsense syllables to non-existent gods. We recite scriptural prayers inspired by the Holy Spirit offered to God through the saints especially Mary, meaning we pray together, even when we pray alone.

The first Our Father is often said for the intentions of the Holy Father, and on the first 3 hail Mary’s we often ask for strengthening of the theological virtues of faith, hope and love.
 
We can say the same prayer 100 times and that is perfectly fine if we are paying attention to what we are saying, and saying it from our heart.
 
I’d say vain repetition is a poor choice of words. What we are warned against doing is babbling incoherently like the pagan prayers (slyly points to those who pray in “tongues”).

The rosary, however, is not vain repitition. In fact, it’s often easy to prayer repetitive and meaningful short prayers to clear the mind and reach out with our heart towards God. I often pray repeatedly “vene Iesu Christi, et Dona mihi pacem” (no idea if that’s grammatically correct or not, but it works for me)
 
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