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To: ctdonath2
“Issue 6 - The Catholic Church advocates and employs meaningless repetitious prayers.”

Well, it does. Repeating a stanza over and over, on the order of hours, with little if any other context, is exactly that. Nowhere did Christ or the followers do or advocate such behavior, but instead condemned it.


When Jesus taught the disciples how to pray, he said, "When you pray....", and proceeded to give them "The Lord's Prayer" (the "Our Father"). How many times would you have to repeat that prayer Jesus taught before Jesus would condemn it? And, what would you base your answer on?

Also, have you ever noticed how repetitive the Psalms (song-prayers) are? (See, for example, Psalms 103/104, and Psalms 118.) We also know that Jesus liked to quote the Psalms, even from the cross (Psalms 22). Would Jesus condemn the Psalms because of their repetitive nature, or call them "meaningless repetition"?
172 posted on 03/11/2012 8:04:30 PM PDT by Heart-Rest ("The Church is the pillar and bulwark of the truth." (1 Timothy 3:15))
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To: Heart-Rest

Christ gave us a template example, with no sense of “these words with little/no variation”. He also condemned wanton repetition.

There are 150 Psalms. We are not directed to stick to a half dozen of the more repetitive ones, and certainly not to repeat one on the order of hours.


179 posted on 03/11/2012 8:11:55 PM PDT by ctdonath2 ($1 meals: http://abuckaplate.blogspot.com/)
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To: Heart-Rest
I like how you quote Matthew 6, but omit "do not use vain repititions as the heathen do" The Our Father Prayer is not a prayer that we have to say. Christ said when you pray, pray like this... Christ meant that in prayer we are to give glory to God, seek God's will, ask for our daily needs, and seek forgivness.

If you repeate a Psalm over and over thinking God will like you better because you said it 50 times instead of once, then yes that is a vain repitition.

180 posted on 03/11/2012 8:12:13 PM PDT by LukeL (Barack Obama: Jimmy Carter 2 Electric Boogaloo)
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