"But
when ye pray, use not vain repetitions, as the heathen do: for they
think that they shall be heard for their much speaking": Matt 6:7 (KJV).
The Rosary? God hates that! Go read
Matt 6:7 ! Where is it in the Bible? I'm sure everyone of us devout
Catholics reading this have encountered these sort of creatures who reek
deep hatred of anything about the Virgin Mary and Catholic ..both in
person or online especially in debate groups, but how can we reason to
them that in our Church tradition the Holy Rosary was given by Our Lady
to Saint Dominic? Where their mind set is, they don't believe in the
Virgin Mary and Saint Dominic in the first place? for them the Virgin
Mary is dead and she can't hear our prayers anymore..dead as a dead
dog..period..and the only acceptable answers for them must be verses in
their heavily mutilated 66 books Protestant Bible (Catholic Bible have
73 books)..BUT HOW CAN I REASONS WITH THE ANTI CATHOLICS? THEY SEEM TO
BE SO GOOD AND WELL ADEPT WITH BIBLE! lets check:
But when ye
pray, use not vain repetitions, as the heathen do: for they think that
they shall be heard for their much speaking (KJV).
And when
you are praying, speak not much, as the heathens. For they think that in
their much speaking they may be heard (Douay).
In praying,
don’t use vain repetitions, as the Gentiles do; for they think that they
will be heard for their much speaking (WEB).
In praying, do not babble like the pagans, who think that they will be heard because of their many words (NAB).
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 (NASB).
In your prayers do not babble as the gentiles
do, for they think that by using many words they will make themselves
heard (NJB).
In fairness, both the Revised Standard Version
and the New International Version avoid the word “repetition”; many
Catholics use a Catholic edition of RSV. In general, though, if it says
“vain/meaningless repetition”, it’s a Protestant Bible.
The
Greek word beneath this conflict is battalogeō, “to stammer”. Supposedly
derived from the name of a Cyrenean king who stuttered, or from the
name of a bad poet, battalogeō can indicate repetition. It can also
indicate babbling, the endless blathering of the crashing bore that’s
cornered you at a cocktail party or the presentation at work you just
can’t get out of except by faking major trauma.
Babbling and
repetition — not quite the same thing, even if described by the same
word. Fortunately, though, there’s another word in the verse that helps
us decide the issue: polylogia. Created from the stem polys (many) and
logos (word), it’s often translated as “much speaking”, a clumsily
imported construct; a better single word to capture the idea is
“verbosity”. In speaking of this verse, St. Augustine of Hippo wrote,
“And in reality, every kind of much speaking comes from the Gentiles,
who make it their endeavour to exercise the tongue rather than to
cleanse the heart” (On the Sermon on the Mount 2:3:12).
St.
John Chrysostom points us to the parable of the widow and the unjust
judge (Lk 18:1-8), which like the simile of the importunate friend (Lk
11:5-8) emphasizes the need for persistence in prayer (Homilies on
Matthew 19:5). We are not merely to ask, seek or knock, but to keep
asking, keep seeking and keep knocking (Mt 7:7; Lk 11:9). Common sense
should tell you that, if you’re to ask for something not just once but
continually, you’ll repeat yourself in essence even if you manage to say
your prayer a different way each time.
Moreover, Jesus
follows this injunction with the instruction, “Pray like this” … and
gives us the Our Father (Mt 6:9-13), not only for its own sake but also
as a model for other prayers. As a model, its unique feature is its
brevity, giving praise to God and asking for our needfuls in just over
fifty words. Not quite what we Catholics call an aspiration (a
traditional prayer that can be said in one breath), but definitely
stripped down to essentials.
Given the context and the rest of
Jesus’ teachings about prayer, babble translates battalogeō in this
verse much more effectively and reasonably, capturing the emptiness and
futility of the prophets of Baal crying to their god as they cut
themselves (1 Kgs 18:25-29). It also captures the annoying quality of
the Christian who makes a complete hash out of the simple act of saying
grace at a large gathering by gassing on about all the things the
assembled should be grateful for while the gravy congeals and the butter
melts.
JUST REMEMBER THESE (JESUS AND THE BIBLE ITSELF SUPPORT REPETITIOUS PRAYERS)
Jesus gave us the "Our Father" 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..."
That Christ Himself 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."
That 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."
That 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)
That the Psalms are
nothing but a collection of prayers and litanies which were prayed
formally in the pre-Christian synagogues and early Christian churches,
are still prayed in synagogues and Catholic churches today -- and were
even prayed by Christ from the Cross.
for example: the endless repetition of PRAISING THE LORD!
Psalm 136:1-26
Praise the LORD, who is so good;
God's love endures forever;
Praise the God of gods;
God's love endures forever;
. . . Praise the God of heaven,
God's love endures forever.
That 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? 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?
That hymns are prayers. Is it "vain" to sing "Amazing Grace" or "The Old Rugged Cross" more than once?
In addition, the earliest Christians (being Catholics) understood
Christ's words as do modern Catholics. The 1st century Didache (The
Teaching of the Twelve Apostles) says:
Do not pray like the hypocrites, but rather as the Lord commanded in His Gospel, like this:
Our Father who art in heaven, hallowed be Thy name. Thy kingdom come.
Thy will be done on earth, as it is in heaven. Give us today our daily
bread, and forgive us our debt as we also forgive our debtors. And bring
us not into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one; for Thine is
the power and the glory for ever..
Pray this three times each day.
THE HAIL MARY WHERE IS THAT IN THE BIBLE?
Hail Mary, full of grace, the Lord is with you.
Luke 1:28 "And coming to her, he said, "Hail, full of grace, the Lord is with you."
The Greek kecharitomene means favored by grace, graced. Its tense
suggests a permanent state of being "highly favored," thus full of
grace. Charity, the divine love within us, comes from the same root. God
is infinite Goodness, infinite Love. Mary is perfect created goodness,
filled to the limit of her finite being with grace or charity.
Blessed art thou among women
Luke 1:41-42a "When Elizabeth heard Mary's greeting, the infant leaped
in her womb, and Elizabeth, filled with the holy Spirit, cried out in a
loud voice and said, "Most blessed are you among women..."
Luke 1:48 "For he has looked upon his handmaid's lowliness; behold, from now on will all ages call me blessed."
Among all women is a way to say the highest/greatest etc. of a group
in Semitic languages (these words would likely have been spoken in
Aramaic). Mary is being called the greatest of all women, greater than
Ruth, greater than Sarah, greater than EVE! Since Eve was created
immaculate (without original sin), Mary must have been conceived
immaculate. And, although Eve fell into sin by her own free will, Mary
must have corresponded to God's grace and remained sinless. She could
not otherwise be greater than Eve. Thus, as the Fathers of the Church
unanimously assert, Mary is the New Eve who restores womanhood to God's
original intention and cooperates with the New Adam, her Son, for the
Redemption of the world.
Blessed is the fruit of your womb, Jesus
Luke 1:42b "and blessed is the fruit of your womb."
Jesus is Mary's fruit. Good fruit does not come from anything but a
good tree (Mt. 7:17-18)! The all-holy Son of God could not be the fruit
of any other tree than the Immaculate Virgin.
Holy Mary, Mother of God
Luke 1:43 "And how does this happen to me, that the mother of my Lord should come to me?
Kyrios is the Greek word used by the Jews in the Septuagint Bible
(Greek translation) for Yhwh, the Divine Name of God. In her greeting of
Mary, Elizabeth is saying: "How is it that the mother of my God should
come to me." Against the heresies of the 4th and 5th centuries which
tried to split the Person of Jesus into two, divine and human, denying
one or the other, the Council of Ephesus in 431 AD proclaimed Mary
Theotokos (God-bearer, i.e. mother of God). Jesus is a single Person, a
Divine Person, the 2nd Person of the Most Holy Trinity. To be mother of
the Person Jesus is to be mother of a Person who is God. Mary's title
protects this truth against errors which emphasize or deny, either the
divinity or humanity of the Lord.
Pray for us sinners, now and at the hour of our death. Amen.
Luke 2:35 "...and you yourself a sword will pierce so that the thoughts of many hearts may be revealed."
John 2:5 "His mother said to the servers, "Do whatever he tells you."
Mary sees a need and appeals to Her Son to satisfy it. He does. We
turn to Mary to ask her to intercede with her Son in our daily spiritual
and material needs, but especially at the hour of our death. At that
moment our salvation hangs in the balance as the devil makes his final
foray to deter us from the path to God (Rev. 2:10). It is not
surprising, therefore, that both the Hail Mary and the Our Father
conclude with an appeal to be delivered from the evil one.
THE HOLY ROSARY AS A POWERFUL INTERCESSORY PRAYER
The Power of Intercessory Prayer in the Bible:
Intercessory prayer proceeds from faith in God that holy men and women
who have died are as alive today as they were on earth (Luke 20:38). If
the prayer of the just man avails much, how much more the prayer of the
one made perfect (Rev. 21:27) and living with God in heaven (the
patriarchs, apostles and other holy men and women).
James 5:16b "the fervent prayer of a righteous man is very powerful."
Rev. 5:8 "When he took it, the four living creatures and the
twenty-four elders fell down before the Lamb. Each of the elders held a
harp and gold bowls filled with incense, which are the prayers of the
holy ones.
The angels, too, mediate our prayers. This is
taught explicitly in the Jewish book of Tobit (Tob. 12:12), accepted by
Christians as inspired until Luther on his own authority rejected it. It
remains part of the Catholic Bible.
Tobit 12:12 I can now
tell you that when you, Tobit, and Sarah prayed, it was I who presented
and read the record of your prayer before the Glory of the Lord; and I
did the same thing when you used to bury the dead.
Rev. 8:3
"Another angel came and stood at the altar, holding a gold censer. He
was given a great quantity of incense to offer, along with the prayers
of all the holy ones, on the gold altar that was before the throne."
source:tonylane/kingjamesonline.org/fisheaters.com/EWTN Library
Photo:Virgin of the Rosary of Guápulo, Peruvian (Cuzco), ca. 1680
WR
