Posted on 02/25/2010 6:10:16 AM PST by marshmallow
Oprah Winfrey was surprised after her recent show featuring the Dominican Sisters of Mary when the sisters in the studio said they had a present for her. "No one ever gives me a present," the television star said. Then, as Sr. Teresa Benedicta related in a talk before a packed gathering at The Bean of Ave Maria Tuesday night, "the sisters gave Oprah a rosary, and taught her how to pray it. She seemed really interested."
The Dominican Sisters of Mary, Mother of the Eucharist, is one of the fastest-growing orders of women religious in the United States. Founded 12 years ago, it now has 98 women and has run out of space at its mother house in Michigan, Sr. Teresa Benedicta said.
The sisters' appearance on national television earlier in February (click here for previous Ave Herald story) may attract even more women to the order, whose average age is 26. "We had 70 interested women signed up to attend a retreat," Sr. Teresa Benedicta said, "and after the broadcast we now have 135."
Sr. Teresa Benedicta teaches at the Donahue Academy in Ave Maria and is the host of the EWTN television program Truth in the Heart. The Dominican Sisters of Mary, Mother of the Eucharist, also teach at schools in Michigan, California, Texas, Arizona and South Carolina.
The order is looking to establish another "foundation" house, probably in Texas or California, Sr. Theresa Benedicta said.
(Excerpt) Read more at aveherald.com ...
I think this is wonderful news. Much good comes from learning to pray.
Don't be too distressed.
He just following their tradition of quoting from Boettner's "Roman Catholicism", the bible of anti-Catholicism, and he probably doesn't even know it.
I can't understand why our Protestant brothers keep on quoting Boettner, since it's been shown to be so inaccurate as to be silly.
Psalm 136 = “Vain Repetition”
“For His mercy endureth forever” 26 times.
They're a useful tool.
I have no definition of it.
I didn't ask for a definition. I asked you to state, in your own words, what you think praying the Rosary entails. You're free to refuse that request. If you wish to engage in any sort of mutually enlightening or edifying dialog, however, I suggest for your consideration that hiding your own state of mind on the topic is counterproductive.
Please help keep this thread out of the gutter.
“I asked you to state, in your own words, what you think praying the Rosary entails.”
I don’t know....prayer? People do learn by asking questions. Thank you for being as helpful as you appear to be capable of.
Amen.
Just helpful to keep track of where one is in the prayer. Kind of like Ranger beads.
THE ROSARY DISSECTED
By T.L. FRAZIER
This Rock
Volume 5, Number 9
September 1994
PERHAPS the most emblematic sacramental in Catholicism is the rosary, that string of beads with a crucifix attached. Televangelist Jimmy Swaggart pictured one on the dust jacket of his anti-Catholic book, Catholicism and Christianity. [Jimmy Swaggart, Catholicism and Christianity (Baton Rouge: Jimmy Swaggart Ministries, 1986)]. Swaggart wrote, “The rosary (or prayer beads) was introduced by Peter the Hermit in A.D. 1090. This was copied from the Hindus and Muhammadans [sic]. The counting of prayers is a pagan practice and is expressly condemned by Christ (Matt. 6:5-7).” [Ibid., 160-161].
Aside from the fact that the rosary consists of prayer beads, Swaggart got nothing right. This is regrettable since such crude misrepresentations frighten away uninformed Christians from a powerful aid to prayer and contemplation.
Tradition links the rosary not to Peter the Hermit but to St. Dominic (1170-1221), who is said to have received it from the Virgin Mary to combat the Albigensian heresy. This legend seems to be derived from the writings of Alan de la Roche (1428-1475), that indefatigable Dominican preacher of the rosary. Modern critical scholarship from Dominicans and others reveals a far more complicated history, though one having nothing to do with Hindus and Muslims.
Medieval monks had a practice of daily praying the 150 psalms. Since lay brothers of the orders were illiterate and couldn’t read the psalms, among them arose the practice of reciting the Our Father 150 times. Beads were used to keep track of the prayers. (The word “bede” in Middle English, from which we derive the word “bead,” originally meant “prayer.”) This practice spread among the laity, and other easily-remembered prayers were added. During the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries the rosary settled into its present form. It now consists of the Apostles’ Creed, the Our Father, the Hail Mary, and the Gloria.
The Apostles’ Creed appeared first as a second-century Roman baptismal creed, and it took its present form in the 400s. Although this creed wasn’t written by the apostles, it’s generally agreed it could very well have been of apostolic origin.
The Our Father is prayed on the solitary beads that separate the groups of ten beads (the “decades”). Every Christian is familiar with this prayer, which is found in Matthew 6:9-13. Significantly, it is given in the same passage of Scripture in which Jesus says, “But when you pray, do not use vain repetitions as the heathen do. For they think that they will be heard for their many words” (Matt. 6:7). This is the verse Jimmy Swaggart says condemns the “pagan practice” of “counting prayers.” Though Jesus himself gave us the Our Father, some Fundamentalists try to discourage Christians from using it as anything other than a model prayer because they feel that actually praying it would constitute a “vain repetition.”
But let’s look at the context of the “vain repetitions” verse. Matthew 6:5-6 deal with the prayer practices of the Jews themselves; Jesus derides these as hypocritical. He doesn’t condemn repetitive Jewish prayers, of which there were a countless number. For example, the book of Psalms is a collection of hymns and prayers repeatedly used in Jewish celebrations in which Jesus himself participated. The Passover, celebrated by Jesus before his Crucifixion, had fixed prayers that were repeated annually. Following the Last Supper, Jesus went to the Garden of Gethsemane and prayed the same prayer three times in a row (Matt. 26:39-44)—he engaged in repetitive prayer...
More here:
http://www.catholic.com/thisrock/1994/9409fea3.asp
i happened to see this Oprah episode with the nuns... it was a repeat late at night... it was really interesting... a Geisha was also on this episode... i was most taken in by the stories of the nuns...
Using beads to pray began when people used them to keep track of the Psalms (150). The Rosary evolved from that.
The beads help keep track of where you are. The large beads are for the “Our Father” and the small beads for the “Hail Mary.” As you say the prayers, you think about the mystery for that decade (set of 10). For example, the first five mysteries are the Joyful, and the first of the five is the Annunciation (Christ’s Incarnation). The second is the Visitation (when Mary went to see Elizabeth), the third is the Nativity, the fourth is the Presentation in the Temple, and the fifth is the finding of Jesus in the Temple (when he was 12 years old). Each set of Mysteries has a different theme: Joyful, Sorrowful (the Passion), Glorious (the Resurrection, etc.), and the Luminous (Jesus’ ministry). Usually the Mysteries are said on different days: Sunday - Glorious, Monday - Joyful, Tuesday - Sorrowful, Wednesday - Glorious, Thursday - Luminous, Friday - Sorrowful, Saturday - Joyful. In this way, you think about some aspect of Christ’s life and/or Mary’s example of faithfulness everyday.
Hope this helps.
OK. I see two ways to look at the Rosary.
1) External form. The external form of the Rosary is to recite a set of standardized texts (adapted from the Scriptures) a prescribed number of times in a prescribed order. The string of beads is a useful tool for keeping count, although it is not necessary. If one is simply reciting the words (nothing more), well ... I can think of better ways to spend one's time. I can also think of worse. One who is simply reciting the words is missing the point.
2) Internal state of mind. Actually praying the Rosary entails meditation on a set of twenty events in the life of Christ, 18 of which appear directly and explicitly in the Gospels. The repetitive recitation helps one to drown out the distractions of the world ... the purpose of praying the Rosary is to deepen one's personal relationship with Our Lord Jesus Christ.
You mean like when Jesus said the same prayer three times in the garden?
Thank you.
Nice!!!
great explanation, by the way - really nailed its nature.
Lest anyone reading this thread be confused, I'll just make the point that it is from the second POV (meditation on the life of Christ) that I hope praying the Rosary might prove helpful to Ms. Winfrey.
I wish they had given her the gospel cause right now I fear new age / universalist Oprah is headed to hell with those beads in her hands.
In addition to coming back to the Church, the rosary has transformed my life in a most wonderful way. I will never give it up now that I know its power.
pearls-before-swine alert.
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