It's a long read, but if you wish to hear the answers, read it carefully with an open mind; they're here:
Hmmm . . . praying is quite obviously recommended in the Bible. And the prayers of the Rosary are direct quotations on the Bible. To pray a Hail Mary is to reflect on the Incarnation of Christ. The Incarnation is, along with the Trinity, the central doctrine of Christianity.
And why is the focus of my faith not firmly, 100%, always on the One who the whole book is about?
If you think that the Rosary is not focused on Jesus, then you're not familiar with the Rosary as it was taught to me.
And where dows it say anything about Mary being sinless?
Luke 1:28.
Or not dying?
The Catholic Church does not hold as an article of faith that Mary did not die. Please cite a reference for this assertion.
Or having ANYTHING to do with my fate?
She's the mother of your Savior. I'd say she is inextricably entwined in your eternal salvation.
And why if anything were we not asked to pray to Christ 50 times?
The Church asks us to pray to Christ every day. The Church asks us to call upon His Name every time we are tempted - unless you live in a padded cell, that must be hundreds of times each day for a normal person. The Church asks us to read the Gospels every day. The Church asks us to imitate Him every day. Apparently you've never read any Catholic catechism ever in your entire life, or you'd know that pretty well. I find it hard to believe you've ever been to a Mass.
Some of the same reasons I am no longer a Catholic - I can read the Bible for myself, and belong to a church that meets and governs by the rules I can also read and understand for myself.
Why do you take the Bible as your only source of religious authority? If you can understand the rules so plainly, why does every Protestant denomination interpret the rules differently? Where did you learn to read Hebrew and Greek so well that you are able to so authoritatively read the Bible for yourself, instead of taking some human being's translation for granted?
Five Mysteries of Light that deal with the life of Jesus Christ.
The Mysteries of Light
21. Moving on from the infancy and the hidden life in Nazareth to the public life of Jesus, our contemplation brings us to those mysteries which may be called in a special way "mysteries of light". Certainly the whole mystery of Christ is a mystery of light. He is the "light of the world" (Jn 8:12). Yet this truth emerges in a special way during the years of his public life, when he proclaims the Gospel of the Kingdom. In proposing to the Christian community five significant moments – "luminous" mysteries – during this phase of Christ's life, I think that the following can be fittingly singled out:
(1) his Baptism in the Jordan,
(2) his self-manifestation at the wedding of Cana,
(3) his proclamation of the Kingdom of God, with his call to conversion,
(4) his Transfiguration, and finally,
(5) his institution of the Eucharist, as the sacramental expression of the Paschal Mystery.
He also suggests that because Saturday is already a day associated with Marian devotion, moving the Joyful mysteries to Saturday would be fitting, freeing up Thursday for the Mysteries of Light. That would make the Rosary "calendar" as follows:
Sunday: Glorious
Monday: Joyful
Tuesday: Sorrowful
Wednesday: Glorius
Thursday: Luminous
Friday: Sorrowful
Saturday: Joyful
"According to current practice, Monday and Thursday are dedicated to the "joyful mysteries", Tuesday and Thursday (sic - Friday) to the "sorrowful mysteries", and Wednesday, Saturday and Sunday to the "glorious mysteries". Where might the "mysteries of light" be inserted? If we consider that the "glorious mysteries" are said on both Saturday and Sunday, and that Saturday has always had a special Marian flavour, the second weekly meditation on the "joyful mysteries", mysteries in which Mary's presence is especially pronounced, could be moved to Saturday. Thursday would then be free for meditating on the "mysteries of light".
37 posted on 10/16/02 4:33 PM Pacific by Gophack
BTW, you are always welcome to come home to the Catholic Church.
Who says everything having to do with our Faith must be found in the pages of the Bible? The Catholic Church sanctioned the Canon of Athanasius some 400 years after the death of our Lord...how did those people justify anything they thought, said or did without the Bible to instruct them?
And as to the mysteries themselves...they are all scriptural with the exception of the Assumption and the Coronation of the BVM as Queen of Heaven. Those events are deeply held and ancient traditions of the Church which predate the Bible by hundreds of years.
Now as for your question about why we're not saying 50 prayers to Christ...I can only tell you that we are. As Peggy says in her article the Rosary is a very Christocentric. All of the mysteries center on Our Lord and we only praise Mary because she was the mother of Our Lord, and by praising her we praise Our Lord. Her great Fiat at the Annunciation allowed the Incarnation to occur. her Fiat was voluntary and of her own free will, she said "Yes, Let it be done unto me as the Lord wills" and in doing so provided the perfect model of a Christian.
Dominus Vobiscum