The Holy Rosary is it scriptural?

People have been arguing about this for centuries. Protestants regard it as paganistic idolatry. The Catholic point of view is that it is not vain, meaningless repetition, it is a serious meditation. The prayers themselves are from the Bible. No the Rosary itself is not in the Bible. The Bible was written 2000 years ago, yes it is still as relevant as always, we can't throw any of it out, however can't our faith still be developing and practices evolving (provided they are not in contradiction with the Scriptures)? Why do they need to remain static? Jesus said that he is with us always, giving us guidance with the Holy Spirit. I don't understand why people still have to do things exactly the same way as prescribed 2000 years ago. That seems to me incredibly closed minded and stunting growth of the Church.

But it all comes down to what you basically believe.

Do you know the difference of repetition and vain repetition? Jesus taught us the Lord's prayer, does that mean He taught us wrong? No! Jesus said that we shouldn't pray in vain (repeating a prayer without meaning it is a sin). But praying from the heart isn't a sin, even if its a memorized prayer.

Have you ever read what the Rosary is about?

"The Rosary", says the Roman Breviary, "is a certain form of prayer wherein we say fifteen decades or tens of Hail Marys with an Our Father between each ten, while at each of these fifteen decades we recall successively in pious meditation one of the mysteries of our Redemption."

We are NOTprotestant, the new age preachers. Our Jesus ways were handed down by the apostles to our ancient fathers from generations to generations. Such that, at times, it is a challenge to impart the 2,000 yrs old teachings to the people. Thus it is important for us catholics to listen to the sermons of our priests. Also, we do not interpret the bible on our own... private interpretation is a nono.

Holy Rosary is the most powerful prayers of all time. It is the bible pers se, as it reflect on life, death and resurrection of Jesus. It started as substitute prayers of the 150 Psalms of prayers and hymns of the Holy Bible. http://www.veritasbible.com/commentary/haydock

Vain repetition is not acceptable to the Catholics as it is of being vain and proud. Jesus prayed 3x in the garden of Gethsemane. St Paul said to pray unceasingly. St Elias prayed 7x in Mt Carmel. And off course, it is NOT vain. The OT israelites repeatedly ask Moses to pray in their behalf. Guys, straigthen up your understanding of 'vain'...otherwise all your efforts will truly be in vain. LOL

Matthew 6:7-8 does not apply to these situation.

Work hard on understanding the catholic faith by studying the cathecism.

Hello,

Yep

1) There is the Our Father, scriptural

2) "Hail Mary, full of grace, the Lord is with thee." This is nothing other than the greeting the angel Gabriel gave Mary in Luke 1:28

3) "Blessed art thou among women, and blessed is the fruit of thy womb, Jesus." This was exactly what Mary’s cousin Elizabeth said to her in Luke 1:42.

4) Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit. As it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be, world without end. Amen." The Gloria is a brief hymn of praise in which all Christians can join. It has been used since the fourth century (though its present form is from the seventh) and traditionally has been recited at the end of each Psalm in the Divine Office.

5) Each decade is devoted to a mystery regarding the life of Jesus and his mother which is scriptural. Here the word mystery refers to a truth of the faith, not to something incomprehensible, as in the line, "It’s a mystery to me!" The fifteen mysteries are divided into three groups of five: the Joyful, the Sorrowful, the Glorious.

Also Jesus says not to stand in front of street corners and synogouges professing your faith and belief to others a hypocrities do. Some non Catholic denominations do that. Taking that literally, how can one therefore go forth and spread the gospel? There is where you start!

Cheers,

Michael Kelly

Catholic Christianity includes a rich tradition of both informal (in our own words) and formal prayer just like our Jewish forefathers.

The Church teaches "the memorization of basic prayers offers an essential support to the life of prayer, but it is important to help learners savor their meaning." In other words, the Church emphasizes that formal prayer should not be mindless lip moving but instead a formal expression of clearly understood and heartfelt sentiments.

The verse in question reads, in the King James Version, "But when ye pray, use not vain repetitions, as the heathen do: for they think that they shall be heard for their much speaking."

Jesus is not talking of the repetitious prayer of the Jews in which Jesus would have participated in and who He would not call heathen.

The important Greek word here for "vain repetitions" is battalogeo, or babbling. The heathens had a magical perception of prayer and thought the more they babbled to their gods, the more that that god would respond. I Kings 18:26 is an example of this:

"And they took the bullock which was given them, and they dressed it, and called on the name of Baal from morning even until noon, saying, O Baal, hear us. But there was no voice, nor any that answered."

Then, two verses after the warning in Matthew against "vain repetitions," Jesus gave us the "Lord's" prayer, which most Protestant Christians pray with no qualms about praying "in vain."

The same command in Luke 11:2 reads: "And he said unto them, When ye pray, say, Our Father..." -- "when you pray, say..."

In addition, Christ prayed in repetitions:

+ Matthew 26:44: "And he left them, and went away again, and prayed the third time, saying the same words."

+ Mark 14:39 reads: "And again he went away, and prayed, and spake the same words."

The angels pray repetitiously:

+ Revelation 4:8: "...and they rest not day and night, saying, Holy, holy, holy, Lord God Almighty, which was, and is, and is to come."

God commanded Moses to tell the Israelites:

"Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God is one LORD: And thou shalt love the LORD thy God with all thine heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy might. And these words, which I command thee this day, shall be in thine heart: And thou shalt teach them diligently unto thy children, and shalt talk of them when thou sittest in thine house, and when thou walkest by the way, and when thou liest down, and when thou risest up." (Deuteronomy 6:4-7)

The Psalms are a collection of prayers and litanies, which were prayed formally in the Jewish synagogues and early Christian churches, are still prayed in synagogues and Catholic churches today -- and were even prayed by Christ from the Cross.

The liturgy of the synagogue was (and is) filled with repetition and formalized prayer. Christ said "use not vain repetitions, as the heathens do.” Were the Jews heathens? Jesus also prayed in the synagogue in this way.

They prayed (and still pray) the sh'ma twice a day and, in their liturgy, the Shemoneh Esrei, the Kaddish, the morning blessings, the Aleinu, etc. Check out a Jewish siddur (missal) sometime; does it look more typically Protestant or Catholic?

Hymns are prayers. Is it "vain" to sing "Amazing Grace" more than once?

Catholics do not babble but pray from the heart in formal and informal prayer.

For more information, see the Catechism of the Catholic Church, part four: http://www.usccb.org/catechism/text/pt4sect1.shtml

With love in Christ.

Jesus did not say that. He said empty phrases. Remember that angels repeat holly, holly, holly day and night. And Jesus used the same words in ghetsemanni

No.

The rosary is a myth made up by the catholics. No where in the Bible does The Holy Spirit teaches us to pray like the pagans do. Its the pagans who recite prayers over and over again.

i think it depend on HOW you think.....

do you think that YOU are the judge oh how some prays? thinking you know their heart and if their words are vain or not.

do you think that praying the our father is not scriptural. that praying the hail mary - which if you read the bible comes mostly from the gospel of Luke. that meditating on Christ's life is not scriptural?

if you actually read up on the bible and the mysteries it allows us to meditate upon in prayer.... you might think differently, unless you are jaded by hate.

I think that out of your prejudice against the Catholic Church that you missed the whole point of this biblical teaching. The Bible is teaching against vanity when one prays and not at all against repetitions. Try reading it again without a prejudicial preconception. Jesus prayed repetitiously. Are you saying that He violated this teaching? God bless!

In Christ

Fr. Joseph

No it is not Scriptural. Catholicism is not Scriptural either. The verses you quoted are correct. We are to pray to God from the heart, not in repetition. Also we don't need to go through a priest. Jesus is our Mediatior. We can go straight to Him. If you don't know Jesus as your Saviour I am leaving you with some verses that tell you how to be saved simply by trusting in Jesus free gift of salvation.

“For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God;” Romans 3:23

“For the wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.” Romans 6:23

“But God commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.” Romans 5:8

“For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.” John 3:16

“That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved.” Romans 10:9

“For whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.” Romans 10:13