[LadyDoc]

The Mass is not trivia. But there is an essence necessary in the Mass, and then there is the triva around it. I've been to Mass under a tree in Africa said in Karanga, with a half dozen people in rags sitting on the ground, and in St. Peter's in Rome where Mass was in Latin and celebrated with choirs and pagentry.

But the rosary IS trivia. It's not in the Bible. It is a pious devotion that sprang up in the days when people couldn't read or write, so they too could pray at home. You see how this works in mission fields, where families pray it every evening in African huts and in Filippino villages. You see it in South America where people wear the rosary around their necks. It is the prayer of the pious and meek.

Your main problem is that you love the church of pre vatican II. Well, there were many good things about it. However, I too remember thinking I'd go to hell because I forgot and ate meat on Friday, or drank before communion. To this day, I can recite the rules about fasting, marriage, etc.

But despite all the piety, there were problems. You should read Catherine Doherty's writings about when she tried to find Catholic colleges for her students to study (she worked with the poor in Harlem). Piety yes, integration, no. They preferred the customs of THAT time over justice for Catholics of a different colour.

You want to correct the Pope? Fine. Read Catherine of Sienna's letters blasting the Pope.

But remember: Only one person outranks the Pope. And that is a saint.

Don't you believe that the Holy Spirit is working in the church? Remember the promise that the gates of hell will not prevail against it?

Get real, man. A suggestion that people pray in a slightly different way from the previous custom is merely that: a suggestion, not a dismatling of Christianity.

We just finished a century where millions were martyred. I myself personally know missionaries who died for their faith. They weren't asked if they used three decades or four.

Similarly, we won't be judged on whether we use three decades or four. We will be judged on if we feed the hungry, gave drink to the thirsty, care for the homeless and sick, and place God's will before our own.

[ultima ratio]

I am not making a fetish of the rosary, but I AM rejecting the wholesale breakdown of Catholic devotion and culture. The rosary is only a small part of the whole. What makes the modernists who run the Vatican so superior to their predecessors that they must undo EVERYTHING that has been handed-down to them? Are they so superior in wisdom, intelligence or sanctity? No. In fact, quite the opposite. The conciliar Church has experienced one disaster after another. But still the changes keep coming, supported by the blindly obedient like you.

[ultima ratio]

You have a mistaken notion about the rosary, about which much has been written by popes and theologians. The essence of the rosary is contemplative prayer, a much higher form of prayer than verbal recitation.|

[ultima ratio]

"You love the Church of pre-Vatican II." This is a telling comment by you. You are acknowledging the conciliar Church is something different. It is a new religion. I have been saying this all along. I DO love the pre-conciliar Church, miraculously preserved by a remnant of traditionalists, because it is Catholic and Apostolic. This new religion pushed by Rome is neither.

[tiki]

Very good reply.