The denial that Mary had God in her womb is a heresy known as Nestorianism which claims that Jesus was two persons, one divine and one human , which has been condemned since the early s and which the Reformers and Protestant Bible scholars have always rejected.
This is good, and pleasing to God our Savior. The last two names are taken from the opening words of the Latin version of the prayer, which in English reads:. As it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be, world without end.
It has been used since the fourth century though its present form is from the seventh and traditionally has been recited at the end of each Psalm in the Divine Office. It generally reads like this there are several variants :. To thee do we cry, poor banished children of Eve. To thee do we send up our sighs, mourning and weeping in this vale of tears. Turn, then, most gracious advocate, thine eyes of mercy toward us, and after this our exile show unto us the blessed fruit of thy womb, Jesus.
O clement, O loving, O sweet Virgin Mary. So those are the prayers of the rosary. Between the introductory prayers and the concluding prayer is the meat of the rosary: the decades. Each decade—there are fifteen in a full rosary which takes about forty-five minutes to say —is composed of ten Hail Marys.
Each decade is bracketed between an Our Father and a Glory Be, so each decade actually has twelve prayers. Each decade is devoted to a mystery regarding the life of Jesus or his mother. Here the word mystery refers to a truth of the faith, not to something incomprehensible. Do you have two and-a-half minutes in your day that you can give to God?
If I need a quick pause in my busy life—just a two-and-a-half-minute break—I can pull out my beads and pray a decade in order to regroup with the Lord and be nourished spiritually. I can do that easily, pausing for a moment in between emails, in the car, in my office, in between meetings, in between errands. In just two and-a-half minutes, I can offer a special gift to God—one decade of the rosary—for that particular intention. I might not always be able to completely unplug mentally from the concerns of the day.
I might be exhausted, too tired to pray well. I might be distracted and unable to reach the heights of contemplation. But still, the words themselves are biblical and holy. Offering God a decade or two in the midst of my daily life gives him something beautiful, even if I give it without my full, relaxed, undivided attention. But the rosary can take us deeper—a lot deeper.
It draws out the deepest desires in our souls, desires for God and God alone. The rhythm of the repetitious prayers can have a profound spiritual effect. In the same way, the repeated prayers in the rosary help us get more in touch with the deepest desires in our souls for God. We as human persons are made with infinite desires that only God can fulfill. As St. How might this happen in the rosary? We can gather all our desires into that one word, his beautiful, holy name.
Subscribe to Franciscan Spirit blog! Franciscan Spirit Blog. Why Pray the Rosary? Edward Sri. But does the average person experience the rosary this way? Going Deeper But the rosary can take us deeper—a lot deeper. As part of their prayer and meditation, the early monks practiced the Divine Office, during which they recite all Psalms throughout the course of the day. It is thought that the rosary was established as a similar meditation aide for the laity.
This repetitious devotion would have given the lay community something that they could easily learn and practice in the course of their daily lives. As many of the lay community at the time could not read and had no access to a personal bible, the devotion would have to be made up of short, well known prayers like the Our Father and Hail Mary. In fact, the first prayer to be commonly recited in this way in the private prayer lives of the laity was the Our Father.
The faithful would recite between 50 and Our Fathers or Paternosters using a set of prayer beads similar in concept to our modern day rosary beads. The use of beads in this form of meditation is ancient as well. It is thought that the shift in use of these beads to say Hail Marys or Ave Marias began in the 12th Century. Now we have this beautiful devotion to aide us in our prayer and meditation. It consists of a set number of specific prayers. The original form of the creed came into use around A.
It reads:. He descended into hell. The third day He arose again from the dead. He ascended into heaven and is seated at the right hand of the Father. From thence He shall come to judge the living and the dead. I believe in the Holy Spirit, the holy Catholic Church, the communion of saints, the forgiveness of sins, the resurrection of the body, and the life everlasting.
This prayer is even more acceptable to Protestants because Jesus Himself taught it to His disciples.
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