Why not pray, meditate, and love the Gospels?
Well, first off, not all of the gospels are appropriate to be thoughts for prayer. Second, it’s not the words, but the concepts themselves that are important. Third, I do better to absorb and understand the concept, and then put the thoughts into my own words. It helps me to more fully grasp the meaning of scripture.
The answer is a ratio of about Ten Hail Mary’s to one Our Father.
I personally have a problem any time more attention and time is given to a created being over God.
Let’s be more basic. When Jesus talked about praying, he gave us the Lord’s Prayer (aka the “Our Father”). He said, “pray like this”. Either he meant “like” as in “this is a pattern, or an idea, off which to base your prayers” or, “this is a specific set of words to use”. I think the former to be more likely. However, even assuming the latter (assuming Jesus wanted a ritualized prayer), he
never said, “pray like this” and then started saying “Hail Mary, full of grace…”.
So, clearly, if we’re going to be ritualizing something, we should follow the intentions of the Creator of the Universe, who said to pray in a certain way.
If you counted every reference to a created being and every reference to God in Luke 1:1-80, and found that more time and attention was paid to created beings, would you personally have a problem with it?
Go read the first few verses of Luke, and you’ll see the overall focus of the work is Jesus’ ministry and the faith established by it.
What is wrong with saying aloud bible verses 50-53 times? Is that a vain repetition?
Yes.
The point of reading scripture should be (though for many it is not) to learn the truth contained therein. Read it once or twice…or perhaps a few more times and compare translations if I truly don’t get what it’s saying…sure. But after that, why keep reading it over and over? No, instead it’s better to focus on the meaning and how it fits into God’s overall plan.
Oh, and by the way, “Holy Mary, mother of God, pray for us sinners now and at the hour of our death.” is
not from scripture. Clearly you’re praying to Mary – petitioning her for prayers to God. Assuming Mary’s in heaven and can hear your prayers (a point which I do not agree with), do you think she’s so incompetent as to not hear your prayer the first time? Does she need to hear it again and again? Is she going to forget to pray for you every day? If you compare to me (someone far less holy and righteous than Mary supposedly was) – I’m not going to forget, and I certainly wouldn’t need to hear you saying it 40+ times every day. For that matter, I don’t think I’d have
time to do all the praying necessary.
And what is wrong with asking Mary to pray for us to his Son?
Assuming for the moment that we agree the dead “saints” can hear and pray for you (which I don’t agree with, but is best reserved for another topic I think), there’s no problem. It’s no different than my friend asking me to pray for him. He says, “Hey PCM, I’m having trouble in my life right now. Will you please pray for me?” I say, “Sure, my friend. I’d be happy to.”
A few days later, I talk to him and find that the thing he asked me to pray about is still a problem, so I continue praying. Perhaps he asks now and then.
Now, let’s pretend I’m treated by him as Mary is treated by so many. He comes up to me and says, 10 times in a row, “PCM, pray for me.” I say “What the heck? I heard you the first time.” He then says some other stuff (scriptural stuff), and then repeats the decade. I get dismayed, and tell him, “I already know to be praying for you. Spend your time studying scripture, or meditating on God’s grace and how you can trust him to help you through this.”
Do you see the difference? Can you at least
try to understand the Protestant viewpoint?
Jesus made Mary our Mother (John 19:27). We can whine and beg like children
Disagreed, but even if that were the case – don’t mothers get annoyed when children whine and beg repeatedly?
But then, when you pray the Rosary, do you sincerely feel and “really mean” every prayer you pray? I doubt it – you’re trying to pray, and remember what words you
have to pray, and at the same time, you’re supposed to be meditating (that requires active focused thinking to be successful, by the way) on the “mysteries”. Now you tell me – how is all that, at the same time, truly beneficial. Even if you
can manage to do it all together, you’re certainly not putting your full focus and intent onto any one of those activities – instead your focus is split.
Continued…
