Let the games begin.
ping
Praying the rosary began in 1916?
Praying is idolatry?
So, using a simple memory device to say certain prayers in a certain order is forbidden in the Bible?
God looks upon the heart, not upon the form of worship.
So what? The word Bible is not in the Bible either.
Nor is the “Prayer Circle” where a bunch of materialistic minded holier-than-thou Christians sit around asking for “things” instead of asking for God's help and mercy with their self-righteousness.
Righteous you are not, sir. Self-righteousness, THAT you ARE in honey bucketfuls.
To be honest, I spend the majority of my prayer time to the almighty asking him for things such as finding a good parking spot, finding my lost car keys, that my favorite sports team wins important games, and on occasion to help me when I get stuck on really hard places on video games.
Read about the Battle of Lepanto...
Any in depth study of the prayers of the Rosary reveals blasphemy.
I am Catholic, and I will concede, it appears no place in the Bible.
Three kids claimed to have seen this apparition and as far as I know, there were no other witnesses. So why do so many people believe that it really took place and was not a story that the kids made up?
This sounds like all of the UFO sightings. The flying saucers are always seen in a remote area by only one or a few witnesses. They never land in places like Times Square or the National Mall.
Talk to Him as you would have your children talk to you.
If you'd like your sons and daughters to say the same thing to you everyday, then by all means lavish repetition on Him as well.
Last I heard, heretical refers to those things which are a rejection of an essential truth of the faith. Nobody in the RCC claims the Rosary is essential... it is an extra (sacramental) that may or may not be done. Nobody thinks their personal salvation depends on it. Since it is not claimed to be essential, it cannot be heretical.
Any argument of whether or not it is in the Bible is irrelevant. It is a method of prayer, nothing more.
Nor is it idolatrous, since we are not depending on Mary to save us. It asks Mary to “pray for us”, which you should ask of everyone you know. Do you tell everyone you know “Don’t pray for me.. I will take care of it myself!”?
Much ado about nothing...
Another observation is the dates of the apparition. The apparition dates are significantly on the 13th of every month of that year. Even until, Roman Catholics believe that 13th is always associated with evil things like Friday the 13t h bad luck and not placing 13th floor on buildings. Not to mention all the horror movies that happens on Friday the 13th.
Is this belief an exclusively Catholic belief? I've noticed it among Protestants and others as well, probably even those without any significant Christian belief or observance.
(My "side discussion" below was here before I moved it.)
Is this belief an "officially" Catholic belief at all? I'm not Catholic, but if this were an Official Catholic Belief, I probably would've heard about the fact earlier. I've never heard of this belief as a doctrine of any entity that calls itself a Christian church or denomination. I've always seen this belief called a superstition (and I've almost always heard of "superstition" in a negative light). If some group identifying as Christian officially believed that 13 is unlucky, the group would be an easy target for ridicule. The tolerant atheists would have a wonderful time, and so would those loving Christians. A search of the Religion Forum would yield many long threads.
(Groups around the world use a standardized chapter-and-verse divisions in the Bible. Do people avoid chapters or verses numbered 13? Does any group produce an edition of the Bible with such chapters or verses renumbered "12A"? Note that references to "verse 12a" usually mean the first part of that verse 12, and such references are not an example of what I mention. Does any group produce its own numbering to avoid "13" altogether?)
-----[Begin side discussion]-----
The idea that 13 is unlucky seems to derive from a Christian observation about the Last Supper, but it's probably easy to transmit the superstition without reference to the Bible or Christian belief.
I do not pretend that my experience is necessarily representative, but I myself knew about the superstition for years and years without knowing its origin, and I was familiar enough with the Last Supper from an early age. For example, some sources say that some versions of the superstition derive from an idea that Judas was the 13th guest, but I would've known that Judas is nowhere identified biblically as such. I might even have been able to answer a trivia-style question about "how many guests were there at the Last Supper," and I might have been able to make a guess that since Judas is indeed mentioned last in every biblical list of the apostles at the time, he might have wound up 13th in a list of known diners.
All of what I just mentioned, though, was not part of the "13 is unlucky!" idea as I learned about it. Until I did some reading about folklore, I had no idea of the connection.
The idea was also not more intense among the Christians whom I knew, let alone most intense among the most "intense" Christians.
In contrast, certain things regarding "666" probably would've formed a different matter. For example, from 2013: "Kentucky cross-country runner refuses to race after being assigned number 666"--I can imagine similar reactions elsewhere.
While I can respect the sensibilities of this student and can see why a "666" label may scandalize some Christians, I would not have agreed with this student that wearing that number would in itself "risk [one's] relationship with God." In fact, even when I was the age of that student--that is, when I was younger and less-informed than I am now--I probably would've considered such reasoning poorly formed (in terms of what the Bible actually says--wearing "666" is not taking the Mark of the Beast or something), maybe even superstititious.
-----[End side discussion]-----
The main two prayers of the Rosary are the Our Father and the Hail Mary. I assume no one will dispute the Our Father as not being biblical. The first stanza of the Hail Mary is:”Hail Mary, full of grace the Lord is with thee.” See Luke 1:28, “Hail, O favored one, the Lord is with you.” The phrase “O favored one” was translated “full of grace” in the Douay Rheims translation. Ok, so that first stanza is biblically based.
The second stanza is, “Bless art thou among women and blessed is the fruit of thy womb, Jesus. See Luke 11:27, “Blessed is the womb that bore you and the breasts that you sucked. Here wew see that second stanza is also biblically based.
The last stanza, “Holy Mary, Mother of God,pray for us sinners now and at the hour of our death, Amen.” The term Mother of God comes from the Council of Chalcedon. This last stanza reflects the belief of Catholics and the Orthodox on the effectiveness of requesting intercessory prayers of the saints. See also 11 Maccabees. Obviously, you and I will disagree on that point.
My grandmother, bless her heart, never learned to drive. And whenever she and my grandfather ever drove any place together, she always sat in the backseat with her rosary beads in her hand....LOL!
Is the bible confusing? On the one hand it says not to pray with vain repetitions like heathens. On the other hand it says “Pray like this ‘Our Father who is in heaven, holy is Your name....’”.