Last week we looked at the history and purpose of the Rosary. This week, we’ll look at how Catholics use it to pray.
In his book, Let’s Pray (Not Just Say) the Rosary, Richard Rooney, SJ writes: “The traditional rosary consists of a cross, five beads (two large and three small), a medal, and five ‘decades’ (groups containing ten beads each). Each decade is separated from the others by a single bead; these are usually larger or more decorative than others.” (Rooney, Richard. Let’s Pray (Not Just Say) the Rosary. Kindle, Liguori Publications, 2007.)
Praying the Rosary follows a pattern of basic steps. (Definitions of words in bold will follow.)
Many people could identify this picture as a Rosary (even if they didn’t know the word). Rosaries are sometimes worn as fashion accessories (necklaces or bracelets), hung from rear-view mirrors, or displayed as home décor. All Rosaries follow a common pattern but are fashioned from diverse materials. They may be as ornate as precious gemstones or as simple as a knotted rope. Nowadays, there are even Rosary apps for smartphones.
Simply speaking, a Rosary is a
string of prayer beads. Meditative
prayers are recited and counted along the string of beads. The word rosary comes from the Latin rosarium (“rose garden”) because the
prayers were originally viewed as a bouquet of spiritual roses given to Mary in
Heaven.
Both Catholics and Protestants agree the Rosary is not directly taught in Scripture. The history of the Rosary may have roots that reach back as far as the Old Testament, when Jews would use knotted ropes and prayer shawls to help guide their prayers and recitations of Scripture. The traditional Rosary used today is traced back to the year 1206. It is said a vision of the Virgin Mary appeared to St. Dominic and taught him to use the Rosary as a witnessing tool. Throughout the years since, various priests, saints, and popes promoted using the rosary as a tool of contemplative prayer (meditation on specific Scripture). Some histories even teach the rosary was used as a substitute for Catholics who couldn’t go to Mass (especially in places where Catholicism was forbidden).
Billy
Graham once said something like: Some day you will read or hear that Billy
Graham is dead. Don’t believe it. I shall be more alive than I am now.
Most
would agree Billy Graham could carry some clout in Heaven, so why don’t
Protestants ask him to intercede? Looking
through a Protestant-lens, some
reasons include:
La Conquistadora Brought to Santa Fe, NM in 1625 Cathedral Basilica St. Francis of Assisi
Praying to Saints: Part 2
Viewed through a Catholic Lens, it is accurate to say Catholics don’t “pray to dead people.” Some of the prayers are what Protestants call “intercessory,” because someone is standing in the gap for another. When the prayers slide from intercession to supplication, the lens becomes blurry. Asking a saint or angel to provide something may seem like God is excluded and His divine attributes transferred to created beings.
In
hope of clarifying these issues, my future-son-in-law wrote the following
analysis of The Hail Mary Prayer:
Hail Mary, full of grace,
the Lord is with you.
Blessed are you among
women,
and blessed is the fruit of
your womb, Jesus.
Holy Mary, mother of God,
pray for us sinners, now,
and at the hour of our
death, amen.
“Hail
Mary, full of grace, the Lord is with you.This is the greeting of
Gabriel to Mary in Luke’s Gospel, so simply quoting Scripture (Luke 1:28). The Greek word for ‘full
of grace’ is often translated by Protestants as ‘highly favored,’ but at that
point it’s a matter of tradition. Many of the early writers of the Church
(within the first 300 years of Christ) translated it as ‘full of grace,’ and it
is their early witness that Catholics look to.
Catholics pray to dead
people. Looking through a Protestant
lens, that is a logical deduction. Why?
Catholics:
Those who adhere to the teachings of the Catholic Church
Pray to: Converse
with an unseen “higher power,” specifically to ask for something one cannot
attain in their own power.
Dead People:
Humans who lived a natural, earthly life with a beginning and end.
Prayingto is different than reciting a prayer of. Catholic Prayers fall into both categories and it may be helpful to separate them. For example, “Christ with me, Christ before me, Christ behind me, Christ in me….” is a common quote attributed to St. Patrick. It is a small portion of a long text known as The Prayer of St. Patrick (or The Breastplate of St. Patrick). When prayed, the words are directedto God, though originally the words of another. This would, in a way, be similar to a Protestant reciting The Lord’s Prayer, The Nicene Creed, or memorized meal time prayers. Reciting a “prayer of” may also be used as a guide similar to the Protestant “ACTS of Prayer”: Adoration, Confession, Thanksgiving, Supplication.
