Posted on 12/22/2001 6:07:36 AM PST by Pharmboy
NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - The rhythmic chanting used when saying the rosary prayer or performing a yoga mantra seems to have a calming effect on the heart, study findings suggest.
``The rosary might be viewed as a health practice as well as a religious practice,'' according to study lead author Dr. Luciano Bernardi, of the University of Pavia in Italy and his colleagues.
To investigate, the researchers measured the breathing rates of 23 adults while they either prayed the rosary in the original Latin or recited a yoga mantra. The rosary is a repetition 50 times of the Ave Maria, or the Hail Mary prayer, with the whole 50 repeated three times. For comparison, the researchers also measured the study participants' respiration during free talking, and during spontaneous and controlled slow breathing exercises.
When the participants breathed spontaneously, their respiratory rate was about 14 breaths per minute, which slowed down to almost 8 breaths per minute when they engaged in regular conversation, the investigators report in the December 22/29th issue of the British Medical Journal. During recitation of the Ave Maria or the yoga mantra, however, their respiratory rate was about 6 breaths per minute.
A slow respiration rate of 6 breaths per minute ``has generally favourable effects on cardiovascular and respiratory function,'' the researchers note.
Furthermore, breathing rate was irregularly reduced during free talking, but was significantly more regular during recitation of the Ave Maria and the yoga mantra, similar to during the 6 minutes of controlled respiration, Bernardi's team reports. This indicates ``that these methods could stabilize the respiratory rate as effectively as precisely timed control,'' the authors write.
What's more, recitation of both the Ave Maria and the yoga mantra similarly synchronized all the heart rhythms, the investigators found.
The similar effects produced by the two seemingly different cultural practices may not be merely coincidental. In fact, Bernardi and colleagues suggest, the two practices may have similar origins.
It is known that the rosary is related to the Christian religion, but it was actually introduced by the crusaders ``who learnt a similar technique from the Arabs who in turn learned it from the Indian and Tibetan masters of yoga,'' Bernardi told Reuters Health.
``So it may be that recitation of Mantras, which originally was conceived as a health practice, and the Rosary, which is essentially a religious practice in Europe, could have the same background,'' he explained.
SOURCE: British Medical Journal 2001;323:1446-1449
I didn't know that...
Which is why dimocrats live so long:
"It's all about sex. It's all about sex. It's all about sex."
Theologians have traced the origin of the Rosary back to the Ninth century, and a form of prayer that evolved in the monasteries of the early Irish church. Prayer and labor filled the days of the Irish monks, and one of the most important forms of monastic prayer was the daily chanting of the 150 psalms of David. Lay people around the monastery would hear the psalms every day as they were sung or recited, and the beauty of this form of prayer intrigued them. They yearned to join in, but the psalms were too long to memorize, copies could not be found since printing was rare, and few knew how to read Latin anyway. The lay people were however, determined to adapt this prayer form for their own use.
Sometime around 800 AD, the people's desire to participate led to their reciting The Lord's Prayer in response to every psalm recited by the monks. As this form of devotion became popular, people began to carry leather pouches of 150 pebbles, in order that they might keep count of their daily prayers when they were not in hearing distance of the monastery. A thin rope with 150 knots became less of a burden and soon replaced the bag of stones. The Celtic infatuation with the number three, soon saw the prayer rope evolve into a rope of 50 knots to be said three times, and this became an accepted standard.
When the Irish missionary monks began to travel and evangelize Europe, this form of devotion was brought with them. In some areas, clergy and lay people began to recite the Angelic Salutation which makes up the first part of the Hail Mary in response to the psalms. St. Peter Damien, who died in 1072, was the first to mention this form of prayer, the popularity of which led to the daily recitation of 50 Angelic Salutations on a knotted or beaded prayer string.
During the 13th century, the recitation evolved into yet another form. Medieval theologians began to interpret the 150 psalms as veiled prophesies about the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus, and they composed a series of psalters, or praises, based on each interpretation. Soon 150 psalters in honor of Mary were also composed. In order to fit the existing prayer string, the psalters were divided into three "rosariums" or bouquets of 50 each. This was the form that St. Dominic knew, and promoted.
With the Church's emphasis on unity, it was inevitable that a planned combination of all the prayer forms was prescribed as a standard. The first step toward that standard took place about 1365 when Henry of Kalkar, Visitator of the Carthusian Order, divided the 150 salutations into decades of 10, with an Our Father preceding each. Around 1409, another Carthusian named Dominic the Prussian, wrote a book which attached a psalter of 50 thoughts, about the lives of Jesus and Mary, to a Rosarium of 50 Hail Marys. The division of the 50 Hail Marys into five groups of ten, or decades, with an Our Father before each, gave the modern Rosary its form, yet the evolution was not over.
To say that the Crusaders introduced the Rosary to the Catholic faith appears to be inaccurate, though. I can't imagine why anyone would be interested in making such a claim, can you?
by Brian J. Kopp, DPM
12/4/98
As a physician, I must applaud any local efforts to prevent heart disease and strokes. Windber Hospital's participation in Dr. Dean Ornish's program to reverse heart disease and prevent surgery as well as the $2.5 million grant both sound promising. However, I find certain aspects of this story disturbing.
An integral part of the program is yoga and meditation. Webster's Dictionary defines yoga as a "system of Hindu philosophy; strict spiritual discipline practiced to gain control over forces of one's own being, to gain occult powers, but chiefly to attain union with the Deity or Universal Spirit." To meditate is, according to Webster's, "to consider thoughtfully; to intend; to ponder, esp. on religious matters." (Vegetarianism accompanies the religious aspects of yoga; one would not want to eat a reincarnation of a dead relative.)
Spending tax dollars on prevention of heart disease is a worthy pursuit. Spending tax dollars on a program that openly advances adherence to a religious practice/belief system seems a violation of the often sited "separation of Church and state." Where is the ACLU to bemoan such a violation of this separation?
Oh, I forgot. Today the only "Church" we're actively trying to "separate" from the state is one that maintains traditional judeo-Christian values. If I formulated a program to prevent heart disease based on daily mass and rosary, or daily bible readings and a personal relationship with Jesus, can anyone honestly say I could get a $2.5 million federal grant? But Eastern "New Age" religion, including Hinduism and yoga, is in vogue. Its politically correct and the vegetarianism it espouses is "earth friendly." Hinduism's Kama Sutra seems much more appropriate for our modern sensibilities than the strict moral code the Decalogue imposes on us.
The greatest "sin" today is to cause harm to the physical body or earth itself. Salvation would therefore seem to come not from those old "thou shalt nots" of western judeo-Christian heritage but the "thou shalt not eat hamburgers, harm the environment, or impugn the hedonistic pursuits" of Yoga, vegetarianism, and Eastern New Age religion. That will stop global warming, save $30,000 per person per year for the health insurance companies, and it feels good too! (If someone's HMO enrolls him in this program and subsequently catches him "sinning" by frequenting the 'burger joint and failing to master the yoga techniques, will they refuse him a heart bypass because of his "fall from grace?")
By all means, go to Windber and get your heart healthy. Hopefully you won't save your physical heart at the expense of losing your eternal soul.
Definitions from Webster's Encyclopedia of Dictionaries, copyright 1970.
Religious indifferentism, relativism, syncretism, a desire to denigrate all things Catholic (by implying Catholic prayer forms are not even Catholic, and originate in a religious tradition diametrically opposed to Christianity)???
I'm not sure either (although locally we have many faithful members), but I think I trust their explanation overall moreso than those writing the BMJ article.
But, on the other hand, don't psychos and lone nuts often have phrases that they repeat over and over again? I mean, if you sit on a bus next to some thuggish looking loser, and he (or she) is muttering over and over, "I'm gonna kill that sucka. I'm gonna kill that sucka. I'm gonna kill that sucka." You don't think, "Hmmm, they're calm and relaxed and at peace with the world..."
Mark W.
"But when ye pray, use not vain repetitions...." Matt. 6
"...in vain do they worship me, teaching as doctrines the precepts of men. You leave the commandment of God, and hold fast the tradition of men." Mark 7
I sincerely doubt we will agree on what constitutes "Vain."
Personally, I see more "vain repetition" in improvisational evangelical/charismatic prayer ("Jesus we just...", "Lord, we just...", "And the Lord told me...", repeat meaninglessly for about 15 minutes. No less vain than my Rosary, which is 80% scripture verse, which repetition I think we both would agree is not in vain.)."
Feeling a bit sensitive today or are you just in the mood to bash evangelicals?
You guys might both be right.
But behaviorists can make a good case that attempting to "look into" another person's mind and judge where things are "coming from" is presumptive at best. Taking the exact same behavior (lips moving, word forming, phrases repeating) and labeling it one way for one person and another way for another person is questionable.
I don't have strong thought on this and I'm not saying people who pray the Rosary are nuts. But I do _sometimes_ admire the behaviorist approach to trying to understand things and, in this case, the approach is interesting. To my eyes, it's something that's worth giving thought to.
Mark W.
P.S. Of course, there's always this, too:
Matthew 6:6-8--
"But you, when you pray, go into your room, and when you have shut your door, pray to your Father who is in the secret place; and your Father who sees in secret will reward you openly. And when you pray, do not use vain repetitions as the heathen do. For they think that they will be heard for their many words. Therefore do not be like them. ..."
Just more stuff worth thinking about.
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