“HAIL MARY, FULL GRACE…” IS THE ROSARY BIBLICAL?

One of the things Catholics are known for is our devotion to Mama Mary through praying the Rosary. This devotion is different from the adoration we give to God. 

Often, we see the Rosary hanging on the rearview mirrors or in the hands of people fingering each bead and with moving lips silently pray, also one can find it inside the pockets or bags. When I was a kid, our family prayed this together as 6:00 p.m. struck the clock.

The word rosary comes from the Latin word rosarium meaning “rose garden” or “garland of roses.” It embodies what Pope John Paul II said: “To recite the Rosary is nothing other than to contemplate with Mary the face of Christ.” The Rosary is a devotion to honor Mary, but Jesus is in the Rosary. It is very Christ-centered as we meditate His life on the mysteries.

Other denominations question the basis of this devotion. The Catholic Church has not or does not officially teach or proclaim this as dogma or doctrine that we have to practice, but she encourages the faithful to pray it as our private devotion, and many Catholics responded to this encouragement that this became a daily devotion for us. Now, does the Rosary have a biblical basis?

The Rosary is a combination of several prayers.

First is the Sign of the Cross, which is a very short prayer in itself. We bless ourselves in the Holy Trinity and call upon the Name of God. (http://iamacatholicbyheart.blogspot.com/2012/07/why-dowe-make-sign-of-cross.html)

Second is the Apostles’ Creed, which by its title doesn’t mean it was composed by the Apostles but it expresses their teachings. It’s original form was used in 125 A.D. and what we use now was from the 400s. It summarizes the faith that we profess. (http://iamacatholicbyheart.blogspot.com/2012/07/the-apostles-creed.html)

Third is the Our Father or Pater Noster, also known as the Lord’s Prayer since it was Jesus Himself who taught it to His disciples. The version we use is taken from Matthew 6:9-13.

Fourth is the Hail Mary. The first part of this prayer is “Hail Mary full of grace, the Lord is with you.” The basis of this is the greeting of angel Gabriel to Mary in Luke 1:28. Then we pray, “Blessed are you among women and blessed is the fruit of your womb, Jesus.” In Luke 1:42, this is what Elizabeth said to Mary. The names of Jesus and Mary are added to clearly state who is being referred to. 

The second part of this prayer is “Holy Mary, Mother of God, pray for us sinners, now and at the hour of our death. Amen” In the Bible, Christians were called saints (Philippians 1:1, Colossians 1:2). Saint means “holy one”. If Paul called the Christians then as saints and considered them holy, how much more is Mary. Surely, God will not choose her to carry Jesus in her womb if she is not holy. In Luke 1:43, Elizabeth said to Mary, “the mother of my Lord” which can be expressed as the “Mother of God.” In addition, Jesus is both divine and human in nature. Mary carried Him in her womb and gave birth to baby Jesus, not only with His human nature but also with His divine nature. That entitles Mary as being called the Mother of God. (http://iamacatholicbyheart.blogspot.com/2012/08/does-calling-mary-mother-of-god-make.html)

The latter part of this prayer is prayer of petition and asking Mary to pray for us. In 1 Timothy 2:1-4, Paul instructed the Christians to pray for each other and added that this was pleasing to God. In Revelation 5:8, it was mentioned that the elders fell down before the Lamb holding the prayers of the saints. These support our belief that we can ask Mary, the saints and others to pray for us.

The next prayer is the Glory Be. It is sometimes called the Gloria. It is a brief hymn of praise as angels do in heaven (Revelation 4:8).

The Salve Regina or Hail Holy Queen is the next to Hail Mary as a prayer of in honor of Mary. It was composed at the end of the 11^th century.

The Rosary has mysteries and in each one there are five decades which includes one Our Father, 10 Hail Mary and one Glory Be. The mysteries are as follows:

The Joyful Mysteries

1.  the Annunciation (Luke 1:26-38)
2. the Visitation (Luke 1:40-56)
3. the Nativity (Luke 2:6-20)
4. the Presentation of Jesus in the Temple (Luke 2:21-39)
5. the Finding of the child Jesus in the Temple (Luke 2:41-51)

The Sorrowful Mysteries

1.  the Agony in the Garden (Matthew 26:36-46)
2.  the Scourging (Matthew 27:26)
3.  the Crowning with Thorns (Matthew 27:29)
4.  the Carrying of the Cross (John 19:17)
5.  the Crucifixion (Luke 23:33-46)

The Luminous Mysteries

1.  the Baptism of Jesus (Matthew 3:13-17, Mark 1:9-11)
2.  the Miracle at Cana (John 2:1-11)
3.  the Proclamation of the Kingdom of God (Matthew 4:13-17, 23-25)
4.  the Transfiguration (Luke 9:28-35, Matthew 17:1-8)
5.  the Institution of the Eucharist (Luke 22:14-20, Matthew 26:26-28)

The Glorious Mysteries

1.  the Resurrection (Luke 24:1-12)
2.  the Ascension (Luke 24:50-51)
3.  the Descent of the Holy Spirit (Acts 2:1-4)
4.  the Assumption of Mary into heaven (Revelation 12)
5.  Coronation of Mary as Queen of Heaven and Earth (Revelation 12:1)

All the mysteries are fully and clearly expressed scripturally except for the last two mysteries about Mary, but keep in mind that they are not contrary to the Scripture. In his book, “Catholic Soul,” Edgardo de Vera wrote that when we pray the Rosary, “we invoke God 55 times; the Father, 15 times, Son 9, Holy Spirit 10, Jesus 60, Christ once, and Lord 54 times. A complete Rosary comprising all four mysteries…quadruples our invocations of these most sacred names.”

We must remember that the staying power of the Rosary lies in meditating on it as we pray. We meditate on each mystery, contemplatively focusing on Jesus and recalling the Gospel’s from the fiat of Mary to Jesus’ life until Mary’s communion with the saints and angels in heaven and man on earth as she was crowned Queen of heaven and earth.

Sources: 

- Catholic Soul, Concise Essays in Catholic Apologetics by Edgardo C. de Vera

- Wikipedia  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rosary

- Catholic Biblical Apologetics  http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-religion/2513278/posts

- Catholic Answers  http://www.catholic.com/tracts/the-rosary
- The Word Exposed with Archbishop Antonio Luis Tagle 
- Catechism of the Catholic Church 187 (Creed)  http://www.scborromeo.org/ccc/p1s2.htm
- Catechism of the Catholic Church 2675 - 2677 (Hail Mary)  http://www.scborromeo.org/ccc/p4s1c2a2.htm
- Catechism of the Catholic Church 971, 2678, 2708 (The Rosary)   http://www.scborromeo.org/ccc/ccc_toc2.htm

Know How to Pray the Rosary:   http://www.rosary-center.org/howto.htm 

Related Topic:
Repetitious Prayer   http://iamacatholicbyheart.blogspot.com/2012/08/why-do-catholics-pray-repetitious.html

"BLAH! BLAH! BLAH!"....WHY DO CATHOLICS PRAY REPETITIOUS PRAYERS WHEN JESUS SAID DO NOT USE MEANINGLESS REPETITION WHEN PRAYING (Matthew 6:7 NASB)?

When we go to churches, we can see people, especially the elderly, holding novena booklets or rosaries. They are kneeling and with moving lips, eyes on the altar, they utter their repetitious prayers. Catholics pray novenas, the Rosary and other prayers having repetitious words or phrases in them. But in the following passage, Jesus was mentioning about repetition:

Matthew 6:7 (NASB)  “And when you are praying, do not use meaningless repetition as the Gentiles do, for they suppose that they will be heard for their many words.”

But the question here should be: What was in Jesus’ mind when He said this? Clearly, He was not referring to repetition itself but to “meaningless” repetition of prayer. Meaningless or vain prayers are empty, simply repeating words, no faith in it.

Notice also that He mentioned praying “as the Gentiles”. In those times, these people were pagans who had false religious rituals and practices. This meant that Jesus was referring to a deeper and interior piety involved in praying.

Jesus strongly opposed vain worship or devotion as seen in

Matthew 15:7-9 (NASB)   You hypocrites, rightly did Isaiah prophesy of you: “This people honors Me with their lips, but their heart is far away from Me. ’But in vain do they worship Me, teaching as doctrines the precepts of men.’”

Jesus Himself prayed repetitious prayer when He was in the Garden of Gethsemane.

Matthew 26:44 (NASB)   And He left them again, and went away and prayed a third time, saying the same thing once more.

There were also other passages in the Bible that prove the repetition of the same prayer like in Psalm 136 where the phrase “for His steadfast love endures forever” is repeated in the whole Psalm, for twenty-six times.

 

Revelation 4:8 (NASB)   And the four living creatures, each one of them having six wings, are full of eyes around and within; and day and night they do not cease to say, “Holy, holy, holy is the Lord God, the Almighty, who was and who is and who is to come.” 

 

Praying with repetitious words was not prohibited by Jesus. Sr. Ines in her book mentioned that the more a person repeats saying words or doing a kind of thing, the more it becomes a part of his system. She said that she had a patient who was 98 years old. When she was young she was always praying the Rosary. Even when she was in her second childhood, she still prays the Rosary. 

 

If we pray in all sincerity and faith, with pure heart and good intention, then there is nothing wrong with that. If we pray each word, as if it is our own, and put much love for God in it, then our prayer may be repetitious, but it is not in vain. 

 

“Repeated prayers are not necessarily mechanical. A pianist like Paderewski may play the same concerto over and over again and always play it with a perfect interpretation; an actor like Forbes Robertson may play the part of Hamlet night after night for months, and always reveal some new meaning in his lines.” – Bertrand L. Conway

Sources:

- Catholic Apologetics  http://www.catholicbasictraining.com/apologetics/coursetexts/1x.htm

- The One-Minute Apologist by Dave Armstrong 

- Going by the Bible and History by Sr. Ines Atendido Tan, FMM

- Biblical Evidence for Catholicism by Dave Armstrong  http://socrates58.blogspot.com/2010/07/jesus-by-his-own-example-teaching.html
- Catechism of the Catholic Church 2708  http://www.scborromeo.org/ccc/p4s1c3a1.htm

For Additional Insights visit:

- Catholic Answers  http://www.catholic.com/quickquestions/is-the-power-of-your-prayers-lost-or-diminished-if-your-mind-wanders-while-praying

- Catholic Answers  http://www.catholic.com/quickquestions/does-prayer-change-gods-mind

 

IS THERE POWER IN THE SIGN OF THE CROSS?

We often make the Sign of the Cross as we begin and end our prayers, when we celebrate the Holy Mass, for others when they leave their homes or before driving their cars, or even when passing by a church. There are those who even do it mechanically and in a hurry. Making the Sign of the Cross has been a part of our lives.

Actually, the Sign of the Cross is in itself a very short prayer. With it, we appeal to God to make our prayers worthwhile and, at the same time, we profess two truths: the first is the deepest mysteries of the Christian faith which is the Holy Trinity - the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. When we say "In the name of," we profess that we believe that there is one God. We don't say "In the names of" stating it in singular and not plural.  When we say, "the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit," we state that we believe that in one God there are three Divine Persons. The second truth that we profess is the saving work of Christ on the Cross. This is shown as we trace the cross from our forehead to our breast and from our shoulder to shoulder. This short prayer of words and action is not just a statement of our belief, but it is a vow to defend that belief, even if it means taking our own cross to follow Jesus, our Lord and Savior.

In the Catholic Church there are three Signs of the Cross. All of them represent the Cross where Jesus died:

1. The gesture which Catholic faithful cross themselves. The symbolism of this gesture is as mentioned above.
2. The one that the priest uses to bless the Congregation done in large gesture in the air done during the Mass and other rituals of the church
3. The small ones which the priest or deacon will inscribe on the book of the Gospel using his thumb before it is opened and read, after which he repeats the gesture on his forehead, lips, and breast together with the Catholic congregation immediately before the reading of the Gospel in the Holy Mass. This is to pray the Word of God to be read may be instilled in the mind and the heart and be spoken by the mouth

Christ's death transformed the Cross from an instrument of disgrace and death to a symbol of victory and life. When we make the Sign of the Cross, we do not only pray, but we also profess the message of the two truths mentioned above.

In 1 Corinthians 1:18 (NABRE), it states: ^"The message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God.”

 
Yes, there is power in the Sign of the Cross because it carries with it the message of God and in this message is God’s power.

By the way, just a loving reminder: the first of the ten (10) Commandments states not to put the Name of God in vain. This demands respect and honor be given to the Name of God. So, the next time we say, "In the Name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, Amen," together with the gesture of the Sign of the Cross, let us do it with reverence and let us keep in mind that we are professing our belief in the Holy Trinity and the salvation that Jesus gave us, and that we are making a vow to defend this belief.

SOURCES:

- About.com: Catholicism  http://catholicism.about.com/b/2008/08/29/reader-question-why-do-catholics-make-the-sign-of-the-cross.htm

-   Catholic Soul - Concise Essays in Catholic Apologetics by Edgardo C. de Vera
-   The Faith Explained by Leo Trese
-  Catechism of the Catholic Church (CCC) 232 - 237   http://www.scborromeo.org/ccc/p1s2c1p2.htm#I