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To: ealgeone

“Beg to differ.
>>5. The soul which recommends itself to me by the recitation of the Rosary, shall not perish.<<”

Okay, let’s look at how we “worship Mary” by reciting the Rosary.

We begin by saying, “In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit,” while making the sign of the Cross on which our Savior died.

Then we proceed to the Apostle’s Creed. “... and in Jesus Christ, Our Lord, who was conceived by the power of the Holy Spirit, born of the Virgin Mary, passed under Pontius Pilate...” Not much worship there.

Then the Lord’s Prayer. No mention of Saint Mary there.

Now we have three Hail Marys. Surely this is worship of Mary, right?

This prayer begins by echoing the Scriptural description of events when the angel came to tell Mary she was to bear the Son of God. The angel first greeted her – “Hail, Mary.” In this case, the word translated as “hail” doesn’t mean something like the German “heil,” but is rather just a greeting.

Next, he tells her that she is filled with God’s Grace and that the Lord is with her—and he would know. Next, according to Scripture, he tells her that she is blessed among women, and her Son Jesus is also blessed.

Next, after granting her appropriate honor by calling her holy and noting that she bore God the son, we ask her to pray for us. A person would have to be egregiously tendentious to call that worship.

Following this, we pray the Gloria Patri: “Glory be to the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit, as it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be, for all eternity.”

Then many people pray the Fatima prayer: “O my Jesus, forgive us our sins, save us from the fires of hell; lead all souls to heaven, especially those who are in most need of Thy mercy.”

On the large bead, we announce the event in Jesus’ life that we will next contemplate. If it were Sunday, the first event we would be contemplating would be the Resurrection of our Lord from the dead. We then pray the Lord’s Prayer, and commence to contemplate the Resurrection.

And how long do we contemplate this? Well, since it’s the middle ages and none of us has access to a timepiece, we contemplate it for as long as it takes us to recite ten Hail Marys.

When we come to the next large bead, we again pray the Gloria Patri and the Fatima Prayer, announce the second event we intend to contemplate—in this case the Ascension of our Lord into Heaven—Pray the Lord’s Prayer, and contemplate the Ascension for the time it takes to say the Hail Mary ten times.

The remaining three events in Jesus’ life are the Descent of the Holy Spirit upon the apostles on Pentecost, the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary into Heaven, and the Coronation of the Virgin Mary.

I specifically chose to discuss the Glorious Mysteries because they contain the only two events in the Rosary specifically involving the Blessed Virgin, and I did not want to be accused of trying to hide them.

So, is it worshipping Mary to believe that her Son—Our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ—Loves Mary as his earthly mother? We know He loves her, because He loves us all. I believe, for a number of reasons, that He is fond of her above all women. I believe that what she asks Him for, she receives. Even though these two mysteries involve things that happened to Mary, the central fact is that they were done by God, through His authority and power. There is simply no worship of the Blessed Virgin to be found here.

When we have completed our contemplation of the five events in the life of Our Savior, we pray the Hail Holy Queen.

If you want to criticize the English translation of this prayer on aesthetic grounds, I have no rebuttal. To me, the English sounds as though it were written by an overly emotional teen-aged girl with a tin ear and a tiny vocabulary. I can only recite it comfortably in Latin.

For example, the name of the prayer is “Salve Regina.” There’s no “holy.” That’s just stuck in there gratuitously. The sense of the prayer, though, is that we ask her to help us get to Jesus.

Eia ergo, advocata nostra, illos tuos misericordes oculos ad nos converte. Et Jesum, benedictum fructum ventris tui, nobis post hoc exsilium ostende.
Therefore, our advocate, turn your merciful eyes upon us, and after our Earthly exile lead us to Jesus, the Blessed fruit of your womb.

Ora pro nobis, Sancta Dei Genetrix. Ut digni efficiamur promissionibus Christi.
Pray for us, Holy Mother of God, that we may become worthy of the promises of Christ.

Lastly, we have the Prayer After the Rosary which is, to the best of my knowledge, optional:
O God, whose only-begotton Son, by His life, death and resurrection, has purchased for us the rewards of eternal life; grant, we beseech Thee, that meditating upon these mysteries of the Most Holy Rosary of the Blessed Virgin Mary, we may imitate what they contain and obtain what they promise, through the same Christ our Lord. Amen.

There’s no “worship of Mary” in there anywhere.

If my explanation of the mechanics of the Rosary was confusing, I apologize. Certainly, better explanations are readily available. My intent was to show that nowhere in the Rosary do we offer Mary that which belongs exclusively to God.

And how can she guarantee that a soul shall not perish? Solely on the authority of her Son, obviously. I believe that it is not the recitation of the prayers that saves, but the closer walk with God that prayer brings.


52 posted on 04/16/2016 6:50:16 PM PDT by dsc (Any attempt to move a government to the left is a crime against humanity.)
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To: dsc
The mere fact it's called the Hail Mary should be the first clue.

I note you do not refute the claims of the apparition.

60 posted on 04/16/2016 8:14:31 PM PDT by ealgeone
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