The Rosary - a few thoughts - 1

This is another post without a lot of developed ideas, just a few thoughts and those kind of random. Here goes.

The Rosary is called the Mysteries of the Rosary. For most Protestants, the Rosary itself is a mystery. 

Why would Christians pray to and worship Mary?  When I was a Protestant, I thought that the Rosary was all about Mary and probably mariolatry - the worship of Mary as though she were a goddess. It was kind of creepy.

Well, now I know that it really isn’t all about Mary. It’s more like seeing the life of Jesus, Mary’s Son, through her eyes. It is also an appeal to Mary to pray for us. It is a very human form of devotion, to put oneself into the Gospel narrative and see it all through the eyes of the one who made the Incarnation possible from the human point of view. Mary’s “yes” to God made our “yes” to Him possible. 

Eve’s “no” to God’s will brought about the effects in our world that we call in theological terms "the Fall." Mary’s “yes” changed everything. If you think about the parallels between Eve and Mary you may begin to see why Mary is so highly favored, being called “blessed” all throughout the history of the Church.


So, the Rosary involves the contemplation of the key points of the life of Christ as seen through His mother’s eyes as well as an appeal to her for prayer. That kind of thing makes Protestants uncomfortable. I know, because I used to think that was strange. 

Why do Catholics pray to the dead?

Catholics and Orthodox used to tell me that Mary is not dead, but actually more alive now in God’s presence than she was during her earthly life. So, just as we would ask someone here on earth to pray for us, we can ask those who are in Heaven right now to pray for us. That is the kind of intercession we are talking about.

I used to argue against that idea. Scripture won the debate for me. I will throw this in, even though it doesn’t relate directly to the Rosary. One of the final blows to my carefully laid Protestant foundation was St. Thomas Aquinas.

Now, generally when someone says they are a Thomist, it means they are steeped in philosophy, natural law, and are just plain smarter than the average human being. That is true about many Thomists. 

However, I am one of those simple Thomists. I have never studied philosophy in any kind of serious way. The one course on philosophy that I took in college traumatized me. I hated it.

So, what is it that impressed me about Thomas?  Here it is. Thomas knew his Bible. He had it memorized. 

That meant a lot to a good, old fashioned and proud of it, Bible thumper. I love God’s Word. I listen to parts of it every day. I read it every day. I have large sections of it memorized, like any good Bible thumper has. Bible thumpers get a bad rap. We love God’s Word, and we love the God of the Word. That part has not changed at all. God bless the Bible thumpers! All of them who spoke the truth of the Bible into my life and my dull mind!

So, I read the first few pages of his Summa Theologica, and I was hooked. It is the most Biblical of all the theological “stuff” I had ever read. In fact, it is like the fountain of all other theological works, since it brings together all that had gone before him, and set the stage for all that followed. 

Many Protestants claim him, even. He indeed summarized all of Christian theology. His philosophy was his handmaiden, and his theology is about God Himself.  It is a very foolish Christian theologian who tosses Thomas aside. It is a very foolish Thomist as well who does not memorize Scripture and argue from that point of view. So, this is also an little advertisement for St. Thomas Aquinas. 


One key Scripture that I could not ignore and that helped in my conversion was this. 

Mark 12:27New Revised Standard Version Catholic Edition (NRSVCE)27 He is God not of the dead, but of the living; you are quite wrong.”

Read this verse in context. The words are very clear. 

Mark 12:26b‘I am the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob’? 

Here is the complete context. Notice this. 

Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob are said to be alive, not dead. So, you may not be ready to go the whole way and begin to ask  the saints to pray for you, but at least you may be able to see that Catholics and Orthodox do not pray to the dead. 

In fact, we do not “pray to” the saints in the same sense that we pray to God. We do not believe that they are little gods with supernatural powers of their own, coming from them. It is all about the grace of God operating in the lives of His saints. 

Remember the passage about the effectual, fervent prayer of a righteous man accomplishing much?  That passage is a key to understanding what Catholics and Orthodox do in asking the saints who are now in God’s presence to pray for us. (James 5:16)

The Question about the Resurrection18 Some Sadducees, who say there is no resurrection, came to him and asked him a question, saying, 19 “Teacher, Moses wrote for us that if a man’s brother dies, leaving a wife but no child, the man[b] shall marry the widow and raise up children for his brother. 20 There were seven brothers; the first married and, when he died, left no children; 21 and the second married the widow[c] and died, leaving no children; and the third likewise; 22 none of the seven left children. Last of all the woman herself died. 23 In the resurrection[d]whose wife will she be? For the seven had married her.”24 Jesus said to them, “Is not this the reason you are wrong, that you know neither the scriptures nor the power of God? 25 For when they rise from the dead, they neither marry nor are given in marriage, but are like angels in heaven. 26 And as for the dead being raised, have you not read in the book of Moses, in the story about the bush, how God said to him, ‘I am the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob’? 27 He is God not of the dead, but of the living; you are quite wrong.”

I will leave it there for now. Later I will probably post the sequence of the Rosary. It, like the Creeds, is a way of keeping the Gospel alive among the people of God. 

The world changes. This cosmos - the way that the world is manifested in a specific time frame - is constantly changing. So, the Creeds and the prayers of the Church are ways to keep Christians from following the cosmos. They are ways that Christians can keep from being conformed to this world, but rather being transformed by Christ. They are ways, along with Scripture itself of course, to renew our minds. 

See Romans 12:1,2

It is not obligatory to use the devotional prayers of the Rosary. The Creeds are obligatory. 

The Creeds - The Nicene and the Apostles’ - are incorporated into the Mass. Many of us pray the Creeds every day as well. That is another subject. It touches on the subject of the Rosary, though, because the first prayer is the Apostles’ Creed. 

Yes, I have been praying the Rosary almost every day, now, for about a year. True confessions of an ex Protestant. Yes, it surprises me, too.  It shocks me, even. I never would have believed it about myself!