Bringing you the
"Good News" of Jesus Christ
and His Church While PROMOTING CATHOLIC
Apologetic Support groups loyal to the Holy Father and Church's
magisterium
I am the manager of a Protestant Christian Bookstore in Canada. We have always sold
Rosaries and have sold gifts for First Communion, Confirmation, and Baby Baptism, even
though none of us working here are Catholic.
Recently, an employee has questioned
our choice to sell these products. I promised I would do some research about them.
After reading some information on the internet about Rosaries, I do have an issue
with the Hail Mary prayer. I do not believe it is Scriptural to pray to, or even
try to speak to, the dead — even if they are technically alive in Christ. The Bible
prohibits consulting mediums to try to speak to the dead.
How is asking Mary to pray for us biblical?
Also, what are your thoughts on the [promises|benefits]
of the Rosary?
Most of it seems quite un-scriptural.
How does
praying the Rosary get you any extra blessings
from God, especially protection from Mary?
How can Mary
protect us?
God alone has the power to protect. Also, Mary
cannot grant forgiveness for sins.
I would appreciate your help in understanding
what Catholics really believe and in deciding
whether or not to continue selling Rosaries.
Taralyn
{
Can you answer some Marian questions so I can decide whether to continue carrying Rosaries? }
Mary Ann replied:
Hi Taralyn,
The Bible says we are not to summon spirits. We are not to summon them
to our presence for the purpose of having them manifest or speak to us.
That would be a violation of trust in God, and would leave us open to deception
and manipulation by evil spirits. Besides, God alone has power over the
dead.
When we pray to the saints who have gone ahead, we are not summoning them,
but we are commending to them our prayer intentions in the Lord, knowing that
the Lord is the grantor of all prayers. Now that Christ has established
the Communion of Saints, all are alive in His Body, whether on earth or
in Heaven. We can be in communion through Him — much as the blood carries
the life of the body to all parts.
No Catholic expects an answer from the
saint in the form of communication. We just know that God has enabled the
saints to continue praying for us, and God has let Himself be moved by
the prayers of men (and that is Biblical), especially the prayers of His
Mother (and that is Biblical).
We know that if there is ever a manifestation
of someone who has died, such as:
a grandmother seeming to come in a dream
a vision of a saint, or
even the appearance of a ghost (a soul in Purgatory
who needs prayers, or a damned soul)
it is by God's will or permission
alone.
You are right that Mary cannot forgive sins but she can, as a human being, forgive the wrong we did to her by our sins which caused the cruel death of her Son. Any human being can forgive
sins in that sense, as you forgive your enemy or I forgive the person who
cuts me off in traffic. We are not taking away their sin, but we are forgiving
it in a human sense.
Mary does that, and she has great power with God in
asking Him to forgive — however, anyone who repents to God is immediately
forgiven, because all God asks is repentance. So Mary's intercession would
come more in the nature of asking God to give the grace for repentance
to someone. Because all our good deeds, even our repentance, are the fruit
of grace.
As for the Rosary, the whole first part is made of quotations from Scripture.
(Luke
1:28, Luke 1:42) The second part is simply asking her to pray for us. Asking her to pray
for us sinners is not asking her for Divine forgiveness, but asking
her to pray for us, poor sinners as we are, that we persevere to the end.
One other thing I have never heard any Protestant bring up can be found in St. Paul's Epistles.
He is always saying that he prays for you and for everyone. Now
God's Word is living, and is addressed to us now.
Protestants usually take
the words of Scripture as living realities. That would mean that St. Paul, even now, is telling us he prays for us and for the Churches, and that
he is, as he often does in his letters, directing the course of benefits,
collections, articles, etc.
That said, try praying to St. Paul by claiming
the words of Scripture — I would venture that God will answer your prayer
as a way of showing you His generosity through the Communion of Saints.
St. Paul, pray for the churches!
Hope this helps,
Mary Ann
Eric replied:
Hi, Taralyn,
I would point out that all a Rosary is, is a set of beads for counting
prayers. Some people use Rosaries for counting Hail Mary's, some people
do not. It is not your responsibility what prayer purchasers use a Rosary
for. It's like a store selling a knife: it can be used to murder or injure
someone, but it can also be used for legitimate purposes. A knife is not
intrinsically evil, and neither is a Rosary. So even if you truly do not
approve of the prayer of St. Dominic known as the Rosary, that should not
prevent you from selling Rosary beads.
As for the prayer of St. Dominic known as the Rosary, I understand that
as a Protestant you have a problem with prayers addressed to Mary. Let
me assure you that such prayers do not, in any way, constitute worship; in
Latin, the word for pray simply means to ask, and we ask
the saints in Heaven for prayers because:
the prayers of a righteous man
are powerful and effective (James 5:13-16) and the saints in Heaven are perfectly
righteous.
the saints are present around us and can hear us (Hebrews
12:1, 23); and
the saints carry our prayers to the throne room of God
(Revelation 5:8).
If you think about it, the concept is very simple.
Is it legitimate to
ask God to ask a saint to pray for us? <Sure it is!>
If you believe that
the saints are alive with Christ, surely you would have no objection to that.
From there we just say that praying to a saint is simply shorthand for
asking God to ask that saint to pray for us. That's all it really is.
How
can there be anything wrong with that?
Note that we aren't asking for a message back from the saint, so this
is not necromancy or mediumship which would be forbidden. Remember, these
are forms of fortune-telling, which depend on receiving a message from
the dead.
I don't hope to be able to convince you pray to the saints but perhaps
this will make you feel more comfortable with the idea of carrying Rosaries.
Hope this helps,
Eric
Mike replied:
Hi Taralyn,
Because of the importance of the Holy Rosary in Christian warfare against
the demonic,
I've posted the text of a handout on:
the Rosary
its history, and
common objections below.
I would especially note what our Blessed Mother said to St. Dominic in
1214 during the Albigensian heresy. If your employee is a Christian, I would think he would want to reached those
hardened souls, Our Lady referred to when talking to St. Dominic.
In her appearance to St. Dominic she refers to the Rosary as:
the Angelic
Psalter which is the foundation stone of the New Testament.
How can any
Christian disagree with that?
We have booklets and pamphlets abounding
that show the Scriptural basis for each mystery of the Rosary we meditate on inwardly.
Many times, people who don't understand the Rosary, view Catholics as participating in an unbiblical practice involving vain repetition. What they don't
see is the inward meditation that all Christians should focus on, least we do fall into the trap of vain repetition.
Instead of questioning why you are carrying the Rosary, I would question
why you are not carrying the Brown Scapular. The last visionary
of Fatima, Sr. Lucia said:
I just finished a MS
Word handout on the Brown Scapular. If you like this handout you are welcome to put
some copies in your store.
I believe as fellow Christians we should always be looking for ways and
paths where we can unite despite our differences. I believe this is one
of those uniting areas. I would hope your employee friend would agree with
me.
In My Own Wordswith aid from an original source article taken from Wikipedia.
What is the Rosary?
The Rosary is the Prayer of the Gospels, a meditation on (20) twenty primary events
in the Life of Our Blessed Lord Jesus and His Blessed Mother Mary from the Bible.
If you have something against the Rosary, you have something against the
Holy Bible! Like the Holy Scriptures, it is the Good News of Jesus! It's
a Scriptural prayer.
We:
pray as Our Lord Jesus tells us to in Matthew 6:9-13 and
meditate on God becoming truly man like us in all things except sin
for our salvation in Luke 1:28, Luke
1:42! The Church formalizes this
in the Hail Mary:
Hail Mary, Full of Grace, the Lord is with you. (Luke 1:28)
Blessed are you among woman and blessed is the fruit of thy womb, Jesus. (Luke
1:42)
Holy Mary, Mother of God, pray for us sinners, now and at the hour of
our death. Amen. (The Church)
From a secular source:
What's the history of the Rosary?
An Outgrowth of the 150 Psalms of David
Most historians trace the origin of the Rosary as we know it today back
to the so-called Dark Ages of ninth century Ireland. In those days, as
is still true today, the 150 Psalms of David were one of the most important
forms of monastic prayer. Monks recited or chanted the Psalms day-after-day
as a major source of inspiration.
The lay people who lived near the monasteries could see the beauty of
this devotion, but because very few people outside the monasteries knew
how to read in those days, and because the 150 psalms are too long to memorize,
the lay people were unable to adapt this prayer from for their own use.
So one day in about the year 800 A.D., one of the Irish monks suggested
to the neighboring lay people that they might like to pray a series of
150 Our Fathers in place of the 150 Psalms. Little did he know that his
simple suggestion was the first step in the development of what would one
day become the most popular non-liturgical prayer form of Christianity.
At first, in order to count their 150 Our Fathers, people carried around
leather pouches which held 150 pebbles. Soon they advanced to ropes with
150 or 50 knots; and eventually they began to use strings with 50 pieces
of wood.
Shortly afterwards the clergy and lay people in other parts of Europe
began to recite, as a repetitive prayer, the Angelic Salutation, which
makes up most of the first part of our Hail Mary. St. Peter Damian, who
died in 1072, was the first to mention this prayer form. Soon many people
were praying the fifty Angelic Salutations while others favored the fifty
Our Fathers.
1214 and the Albigensian heresy. (Origin of the Mysteries)
It was in the year 1214 that the Church received the Rosary in its present
form and according to the method we use today. It was given to the Church
by St. Dominic, who had received it from the Blessed Virgin as a means
of converting the Albigensians and other sinners. Saint Dominic, seeing
that the gravity of people's sins was hindering the conversion of the Albigensians,
withdrew into a forest near Toulouse, where he prayed continuously for
three days and three nights. During this time he did nothing but weep and
did harsh penances in order to appease the anger of God. At this point
our Lady appeared to him, accompanied by three angels, and she said,
"Dear Dominic, do you know which weapon the Blessed Trinity wants
to use to reform the world?"
"Oh, my Lady," answered Saint Dominic, "you know far
better than I do, because next to your Son Jesus Christ you have always
been the chief instrument of our salvation."
Then Our Lady replied,
"I want you to know that, in this kind of
warfare, the principal weapon has always been the Angelic Psalter, which
is the foundation-stone of the New Testament. Therefore, if you want to
reach these hardened souls and win them over to God, preach my Psalter."
So he arose, comforted, and burning with zeal for the conversion of the
people in that district, he made straight for the cathedral. At once unseen
angels rang the bells to gather the people together, and Saint Dominic
began to preach.
1917 and Our Lady of Fatima.
Between May and October of 1917, three shepherd children, Lúcia
dos Santos and her cousins Jacinta and Francisco Marto reported visions
of the Virgin Mary in the Cova da Iria fields outside the hamlet of Aljustrel,
very close to Fatima, Portugal. They had this experience on the 13th day
of each month at approximately the same hour. Lúcia described seeing
Mary as "brighter than the sun, shedding rays of light clearer and
stronger than a crystal glass filled with the most sparkling water and
pierced by the burning rays of the sun."
A photo static copy of a page from Ilustração Portugueza,
October 29, 1917, showing the crowd looking at the miracle of the sun during
the Fatima apparitions (attributed to the Virgin Mary) According to Lúcia's
account, Mary confided to the children three secrets, known as the Three
Secrets of Fatima. She exhorted the children to do penance and to make
sacrifices to save sinners. The children wore tight cords around their
waists to cause pain, abstained from drinking water on hot days, and performed
other works of penance. Most important, Lúcia said Mary
asked them to say the Rosary every day, reiterating many times that the
Rosary was the key to personal and world peace. Many young Portuguese
men, including relatives of the visionaries, were then fighting in World
War I.
Thousands of people flocked to Fatima and Aljustrel in the ensuing months,
drawn by reports of visions and miracles. On August 13, 1917, the provincial
administrator Artur Santos (no relation), believing that the events were
politically disruptive, intercepted and jailed the children before they
could reach the Cova da Iria that day. Prisoners held with them in the
provincial jail later testified that the children, while upset, were consoled
by the inmates, and then led the inmates in saying the Rosary. Administrator
Santos interrogated the children primarily about the alleged secrets, but
was unsuccessful in his attempt to discover what those secrets were. Santos
went so far as to feign the preparation of a pot of boiling oil, and then
removed the children one by one from his interrogation room, claiming that
each removed child had been boiled to death in the oil, and urging the
remaining child to divulge the secret so as to avoid a similar fate. That
month, instead of the usual apparition in the Cova da Iria on the 13th
of the month, the children reported that they saw Mary on August 19 at
nearby Valinhos.
On October 13, 1917, the final in the series of the apparitions of 1917,
a crowd believed to be approximately 70,000 in number, including newspaper
reporters and photographers, gathered at the Cova da Iria in response to
reports of the children's prior claims that on that day a miracle would
occur "so that all may believe". It rained heavily that day,
yet, countless observers reported that the clouds broke, revealing the
sun as an opaque disk spinning in the sky and radiating various colors
of light upon the surroundings, then appearing to detach itself from the
sky and plunge itself towards the earth in a zigzag pattern, finally returning
to its normal place, and leaving the people's once wet clothing now completely
dry. The event is known as the "Miracle of the Sun".
Columnist Avelino de Almeida of O Século (Portugal's most influential
newspaper, which was pro-government in policy and avowedly anti-clerical),
reported the following "Before the astonished eyes of the crowd, whose
aspect was biblical as they stood bare-headed, eagerly searching the sky,
the sun trembled, made sudden incredible movements outside all cosmic laws-the
sun 'danced' according to the typical expression of the people." Eye
specialist Dr. Domingos Pinto Coelho, writing for the newspaper Ordem reported, "The
sun, at one moment surrounded with scarlet flame, at another aureoled in
yellow and deep purple, seemed to be in an exceeding fast and whirling
movement, at times appearing to be loosened from the sky and to be approaching
the earth, strongly radiating heat". The special reporter for the
October 17, 1917 edition of the Lisbon daily, O Dia, reported the following, "...the
silver sun, enveloped in the same gauzy grey light, was seen to whirl and
turn in the circle of broken clouds. The light turned a beautiful blue,
as if it had come through the stained-glass windows of a cathedral, and
spread itself over the people who knelt with outstretched hands. People
wept and prayed with uncovered heads, in the presence of a miracle they
had awaited. The seconds seemed like hours, so vivid were they."
Depiction of the three children receiving the vision. This tilework is
from Ironbound, a Portuguese neighborhood in Newark, New Jersey. No movement
or other phenomenon of the sun was registered by scientists at the time.
According to contemporary reports from poet Afonso Lopes Vieira and schoolteacher
Delfina Lopes with her students and other witnesses in the town of Alburita,
the solar phenomena were visible from up to forty kilometers away. The
three shepherd children, in addition to reporting seeing the actions of
the sun that day, also reported seeing a panorama of visions, including
those of Jesus, the Blessed Virgin Mary, and of Saint Joseph blessing the
people. The Benedictine historian of science, Fr. Stanley Jaki, has suggested
that the apparent movement of the sun was a hallucination caused by an
atmospheric inversion, but that the children's foreknowledge of the apparent
sign was miraculous.
Source: Originally taken from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Questions about the Rosary
Question:
I thought there were only fifteen (15) mysteries of the Rosary. Where did you
get the other five (5) Luminous mysteries from?
The Answer:
Our late Holy Father Pope John Paul II gave them to the Church in his
encyclical: Rosarium Virginis Mariae, the Rosary of the Blessed Virgin
Mary. In it his said:
Consequently, for the Rosary to become more fully a compendium
of the Gospel, it is fitting to add:
following reflection on the
Incarnation and the hidden life of Christ (the Joyful mysteries) and
before focusing on the sufferings of his Passion (the Sorrowful mysteries) and
the triumph of his Resurrection (the Glorious mysteries)
a meditation
on certain particularly significant moments in his public ministry (the
mysteries of Light). This addition of these new mysteries, without prejudice
to any essential aspect of the prayer's traditional format, is meant
to give it fresh life and to enkindle renewed interest in the Rosary's
place within Christian spirituality as a true doorway to the depths of
the Heart of Christ, ocean of joy and of light, of suffering and of glory.
Addressing biases and untruths
Objection:
At an evening devotion in a Catholic Church, I heard many prayers like
these to Mary. I cannot find in Scripture where Mary is to be worshipped
in the same way as Christ.
The Answer:
I am not surprised, for such a doctrine is nowhere taught in Scripture.
Moreover, if any Catholic dared to worship Mary in the same way as he
worships Christ, he would be guilty of a most serious sin, and no Catholic
Priest could give him absolution unless he promised never to do it again.
But that does not mean that one must deprive Mary of all honor.
Objection:
Why pray to Mary at all?
The Answer:
Because God wills that we should do so, and because such prayers to
her are of the utmost value. God often will to give certain favors only
on condition that we go to some secondary agent.
Sodom was to be spared
through the intercession of Abraham;
Naaman, the leper, was to be cured
only through the waters of the Jordan.
Now Mary is, and must ever remain
the mother of the Christ. She still has a mother's rights and privileges,
and is able to obtain for us many graces. But let us view things reasonably.
If I desire to pray, I can certainly pray to God directly, yet would
you blame me if, at times, I were to ask my own earthly mother to pray
for me also?
Such a request is really a prayer to her that she may intercede
for me with God. Certainly if I met the mother of Christ on earth, I
would ask her to pray for me, and she would do so. In her more perfect
state with Christ in heaven she is not less able to help me.
Objection:
Between each Our Father to God, you throw in ten prayers to Mary!
The Answer:
You've got it the wrong way. Between each ten Hail Mary's an Our Father
is said. The Rosary is essentially a devotion to Mary, Jesus' mother,
honoring her whom God Himself so honored. And it honors her particularly
in her relationship to Christ, whose life is the subject of the meditations.
The Our Father abstracts from the incarnation of Christ; the Hail Mary
is full of reverence to Our Lord's birth into this world for us. (Luke 1:28, Luke
1:42)
Objection:
Would not the Rosary be just as efficient if said with one Our Father,
one Hail Mary, and one Gloria?
The Answer:
It would not be the Rosary then, but some other type of devotion. Nor
would such a devotion be as efficient for inner meditation on each mystery
due to the brevity of the prayers. While saying those 10 Hail Mary's
aloud, our inner meditation ponders on the various mysteries themselves.
In the same way man is made with a viewable body and unviewable soul;
so the Rosary has an outward part, the vocal prayer, and an inner part,
the inner meditation on the various mysteries. Your trouble seems to
be based on the mere question of numbers. That is quite immaterial.
Objection:
Some Protestants object to saying “Holy Mary” because they
claim Mary was a sinner like the rest of us.
The Answer:
Mary was a Christian (the first Christian, actually, the first to accept
Jesus as her personal Lord and Savior (Luke 1:45). The Bible also describes
Christians in general as holy. In fact, they are called saints, which
mean holy ones (See Ephesian 1:1, Philippians 1:1 and Colossians 1:2). Furthermore,
as the mother of Jesus Christ, the Incarnate Second Person of the Blessed
Trinity, Mary was certainly a very holy woman.
Objection:
Some Protestants object to the title, Mother of God.
The Answer:
The title, Mother of God, does not mean Mary is older than God; it means
the person who was born of her was a divine person, not a human person.
Jesus is one person, the divine person, who has two natures, one divine and
one human.
It is incorrect to say Jesus is a human person.
15 Promises for those who pray the Rosary
from Our Blessed Mother
Whosoever shall faithfully serve me by the recitation of the Rosary shall receive signal graces.
I promise my special protection and the greatest graces to all those who shall recite the Rosary.
The Rosary shall be a powerful armor against hell, it will destroy vice, decrease sin and defeat heresies.
It will cause good works to flourish; it will obtain for souls the abundant mercy of God; it will withdraw the hearts of men from the love of the world and its vanities, and will lift them to the desire for Eternal Things. Oh, that souls would sanctify themselves by this means.
The soul which recommends itself to me by the recitation of the Rosary shall not perish.
Whosoever shall recite the Rosary devoutly, applying himself to the consideration of its Sacred Mysteries shall never be conquered by misfortune. God will not chastise him in His justice, he shall not perish by an unprovided death; if he be just he shall remain in the grace of God, and become worthy of Eternal Life.
Whoever shall have a true devotion for the Rosary shall not die without the Sacraments of the Church.
Those who are faithful to recite the Rosary shall have during their life and at their death the Light of God and the plenitude of His Graces; at the moment of death they shall participate in the Merits of the Saints in Paradise.
I shall deliver from purgatory those who have been devoted to the Rosary.
The faithful children of the Rosary shall merit a high degree of Glory in Heaven.
You shall obtain all you ask of me by recitation of the Rosary.
All those who propagate the Holy Rosary shall be aided by me in their necessities.
I have obtained from my Divine Son that all the advocates of the Rosary shall have for intercessors the entire Celestial Court during their life and at the hour of death.
All who recite the Rosary are my Sons, and brothers of my Only Son Jesus Christ.
Devotion to my Rosary is a great sign of predestination.
Hope this helps,
Mike
Please report any and all typos or grammatical errors.
Suggestions for this web page and the web site can be sent to Mike Humphrey