A Thinking Reed

Can Protestants pray the Rosary?

Written by

Lee M.

in

For many Protestants the Rosary encapsulates everything that is wrong with Roman Catholicism – an excessive (and perhaps idolatrous) focus on Mary, rote mechanical prayers, and legalism. But is this a fair characterization? And might the Rosary have something to offer Protestants?

The “Praying to Mary” Objection: Since the Rosary consists largely of “Hail Mary”s many Protestants see this as one more instance of Catholic Mariolarty. But Catholics will tell you that these are not prayers to Mary in the sense that one would pray to God the Father or to Jesus, but are requests asking for Mary’s intercession. There seems to be no good argument that it’s wrong in principle to ask for the prayers of the Mother of God, if we allow, as we surely must, that it’s okay to ask for the prayers of other living Christians and that death doesn’t sever us from the Communion of the Saints (this is essentially Robert Jenson’s argument).

The “Vain Repetition” Objection: Do the Hail Mary’s and Our Father’s of the Rosary constitute “vain repetition” as condemned in the Bible? Well, most Protestants pray the Our Father (Lord’s Prayer) as well as other pre-written prayers (the Psalms, etc.) so the objection can’t be to written prayers per se. Moreover, it seems that what Jesus is condemning in, e.g. Matthew 6:7 is a kind of prayer that seeks to cajole the deity into doing what you want by means of repitition. By contrast, the Rosary is intended to be a prayer wherein one meditates on the Mysteries of Christ’s life. The movement of the fingers and the lips are supposed to help avoid distractions and allow the mind and spirit to enter into a deeper contemplative state. This isn’t to say that the Rosary can’t become a mechanical or self-centered prayer, but so can any other prayer, including the ones we come up with ourselves.

I’m not arguing that Protestants should pray the Rosary. I, for one, never have, and I admit to finding that devotions with a strong Marian element don’t come naturally to me. Nevertheless, it’s a form of prayer that’s nourished countless Christians for hundreds of years (and it predates the Reformation), so I don’t think it should be dismissed out of hand.

Any thoughts?

Comments

32 responses to “Can Protestants pray the Rosary?”

  1. Chris T.

    I think you’ve hit the nail on the head. 🙂

    Reply
  2. Eric Lee

    I don’t have much thoughts. I’ve studied very little Mariology, but I did grow up pretty anti-Catholic. I’m not anymore, but I just haven’t given this topic much thought. Maybe in a few months 😛

    Reply
  3. Anonymous

    there’s something TO the repetition. think of mantras and meditation and reaching a calmer place.
    i only pray hail marys when i’m really down and out, and usually i recite the prayer repeatedly.
    granted, i grew up catholic and spent 12 years in parochial school. but, i gotta be frank with you, we didn’t do a whole lot of rosaries. more often than not, we said the our father — just like all the protestants.

    Reply
  4. The young fogey

    I like the Rosary but prefer the office, for which the Rosary began as a substitute for the illiterate. Beads and repetitions are universal in religion and of course can be and are used well by Christians. ‘All can, some should, none must’ – this applies to Catholics!

    Never understood the Protestant objection to the Hail Mary as half of it is a quotation from Luke! And from ‘pray for us’ it’s clear she’s not a goddess.

    Reply
  5. Andy

    I like the rosary. It’s kind of a challenge to meditate on the mysteries while saying the prayers, but when you can pull it off it definitely takes you to a new mental state. In that regard, the Hail Mary’s seem to function as a timing mechanism as much as anything else.

    I’m not particularly comfortable with the mysteries that have a Marian element, but I’ve found that if I think of Mary as a representative of the Church it helps.

    I love the luminous mysteries.

    Reply
  6. Joshie

    I’m generally sympathetic to this sort of thing, but I am pretty uncomfortable with the rosary as it is often practiced.

    I know that any catholic theologian will tell you Mary is not on a level with the Father, Son and Spirit, but the way Marian devotions are often carried out seem to give Mary an equal (or even greater) amount of attention than the Trinity or any other saint who is probably close to her in importance in the life of the church, like St. Paul, for example.
    The practice, not the theology behind it, is what makes me uncomfortable.

    Does she have a unique role in salvation history? yes. Is she the greatest of the saints? One could make that case pretty easily. But she remains a saint, important only for her position vis-a-vis Christ.

    Reply
  7. Lee

    Here’s an interesting pamphlet by an evangelical Anglican clergyman talking about his discovery of the Rosary:

    http://www.godspell.org.uk/writing/rosary.pdf

    I’m inclined to agree with you Joshie in that, even though I can accept the arguments for invoking Mary and the other Saints in prayer, the focus on Mary in particular can seem to me … excessive. On the other hand, I’ve known people who say that their own Marian devotion has greatly deepened their relationship with Christ – that even though in theory it looks like it would be a zero-sum game (i.e. that focusing on Mary would detract from Christ) in practice it doesn’t work that way.

    Reply
  8. Joshie

    There was a rather shocking article in the CC a couple years ago by Methodist Bishop Gonzalez (I forget his first name! Raul maybe?) who has been working in Central America for a while, blasting Catholic catechisis in Latin America for, in his view, preaching and teaching Mary to the exclusion of Christ, the Holy Trinity, the Bible or anything else. He didn’t quite call Mariology the “opiate of the masses” but he might as well have. I’ve only ever been to Mexico so I can’t speak for the situation in Latin America as a whole, but it was a quite surprising article. I wish I could find it!!

    Reply
  9. Lee

    Is this it?

    http://www.findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m1058/is_25_121/ai_n8702623

    Reply
  10. Lee

    That’s an interesting article and it does tend to confirm one’s suspicions that a theologically correct view of Mary can become something quite different in popular piety.

    Though, doesn’t this skirt perilously close to Nestorianism:

    “…Methodists and other mainstream denominations in Latin America tend to restrict the veneration of Mary. We recognize her as the special instrument that God chose to bring his Son among us, we recognize her as the mother of Jesus–but not as the mother of God.”

    I can understand that talking about the Mother of God might make Protestants nervous, but we’re talking the third ecumenical council here – it’s hard to see how we can accept Chalcedon (which came later) but not Ephesus!

    Reply
  11. Lynn Gazis-Sax

    We have a zillion rosaries around the house, since my lapsed Catholic husband kept getting them for me, and then my mother-in-law gave us his childhood rosary. I can’t make myself say all those Hail Marys (though I understand the RC theological principle about being able to ask the dead to pray for us, the same as the living), but I’ve done the Chaplet of Divine Mercy.

    The “vain repetition” objection makes no sense at all to me; there’s a huge difference between repetitive meditative prayer and the kind of repetition that was being criticized. I use repetitive prayers (mentally, of course, not spoken aloud) all the time during silent Quaker meeting for worship.

    Reply
  12. Lee

    I think there are at least some Protestants who think that repetitive prayers are either rote and mechanical (and thus not “genuine”)or, in the case of meditative prayers, they smack of Eastern mysticism and are thus bad. All of which of course implies a profound disregard for much of Christian history and practice!

    Reply
  13. Joshie

    That is the article, thanks! That statement does seem to cross into Nestorian territory (and I remember being troubled by it at the time), but without the bishop here to defend himself I don’t want to run too far with an isolated comment.

    The council of Ephesus has historically been viewed in orthodox (small o) circles as having gone much too far and having taken an extremist Alexandrine position that cheesed off almost everybody except the Alexandrian patriarch Dioscuros and his cronies (including the eastern emperor). Pope Leo the Great even called it a “robbers synod”, and it was seen as a sham from the start by many.

    Part of what Chalcedon intended to do was to correct Ephesus and bring the moderate Antiochenes back into the fold. So while Ephesus remains an authoratative ecumenical council, it is generally read in the light of the Chalcedonian “definition” and Leo’s letter to the council.

    Excellent point about the repititive prayer arguement Lee and Lynn! I grew up in a congregation that valued “spontaneous” worship, but when you raise you hands and sing the same four choruses every week, that can be just as much vain repitition as any rosary practice. Vanity comes when any spiritual practice is disengaged from the heart, mind and community.

    Reply
  14. Lee

    Josh, thanks for laying it down, history-wise. I remember reading about those debates in Jenson’s The Triune God, but he seems to think that they got it right the first time and that Leo’s letter, which put the “spin” on Chalcedon, was too timid.

    Of course, Jenson’s theology is pretty idiosyncratic in other ways too.

    Reply
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  16. Kari

    Just a note to tell you I appreciated your thoughtful post. I was raised Catholic but I’m no longer a believer. I was sitting here at my computer thinking, “Do Protestants pray the rosary?” and–voila! The magic of the internet gave me my answer.

    I’ve never read the Bible & wasn’t aware of the vain rep. clause.

    Tx.

    Reply
  17. Skip Johnson

    Here’s by basic problem with praying the Catholic Rosary as a Biblical Theist: The Bible repeatedly teaches that the dead are dead, and do not know anything.

    “For the living know that they will die, but the dead know nothing; tey have no further reward, and even the memory of them is forgotten. Their love, their hate and their jealousy have long since vanished; never again will they have a part in anything that happens under the sun…Whtever your hand finds to do, do it with all your might, for in the grave, where you are going, there is neither working nor planning nor knowledge nor wisdom.” Ecclesiastes 9:5,6,10 NIV

    “But man dies and is laid low; he breaths his last and is no more. As water disappears from the sea or a riverbed becomes parched and dry, so man lies down and does not rise; till the heavens are no more, men will not awake or be roused from their sleep.” Job 14:10-12 NIV

    “No one remembers you when he is dea. Who praises you from the grave?” Psalm 6:5 NIV

    “For the grave cannot praise you, death cannot sing your praise; those who go down to the pit cannot hope for your faithfulness. The living, the living–they praise you, as I am doing today; fathers tell their children about your faithfulness.” Isaiah 38:18, 19 NIV

    “But at that time your people–everyone whose name is found written in the book–will be delivered. Multitudes who sleep in the dust of the earth will awake: some to everlasting life, others to shame and everlasting contempt…As for you (Daniel), go your way till the end. You will rest, and then at the end of the days you will rise to recieve your allotted inheritance.” Daniel 12:1,2,13 NIV

    “Brothers, we do not want you to be ignorant about those who fall asleep (in this context, death is likened to sleep, as it is over 50 times elsewhere in the Bible, as this is the thing we who are alive experience that most closely parallels what it is like to be dead), or to grieve like the rest of men, who have no hope: We believe that Jesus died and rose again (from the grave) and so we believe that GOd will bring with Jesus (from the grave) those who have fallen asleep (died) in him. According to the Lord’s own word, we tell you that we who are still alive, who are left till the coming of the Lord (a future event when Jesus Christ returns to planet earth in the clouds with all his holy angels), will certainly not precede those who have fallen asleep (who are believers, but who have died in past ages, as have the saints and Mary, the mother of Jesus). For the Lord himself will come down from heaven, with a loud command, with the voice of the archangel and with the trumpet call of God (this is a world wide event no one will miss), and the dead in Christ (including the saints and his mother, Mary) will rise first (rise from the grave, where they have been sleeping the sleep of death). After that, we wo are still alive and are left (believers who are alive when Jesus returns to raise the sleeping dead) will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air (which means the dead no more have access to God at present than we do, being in their graves asleep until the resurrection when they will go with us to meet the Lord in the air). Ans so we will be with the Lord forever. There fore encourage each other with these words.” I Thessalonians 4:13-18 NIV, with notes to show how this passage agrees with the Bible’s uniform teaching on this subject.

    As the Catholic rosary directs 10 of 11 prayers to a very good and noble woman, who is in absolutely no position to hear them, or pass them on to Jesus, God, or anybody else, being quite dead and unable to address God even on her own behalf, praying it cannot express by Biblically-based faith.

    In the event that someone may think what I have presented here is a stray observation not born out by the Bible’s teachings, I’ll mention two things:

    First, I have handcopied the entire Bible over the course of ten years, as well as studied it daily for over three decades. I know what it teaches on this subject from cover to cover, and what I present in the selected passages above is representative of its testimony. If you have a question on this matter, be sure you have 60-70 passages in hand from Scripture’s pages before you accept the twisting of one or two taken out of their entire-Bible-context. The dead are truly dead, for now. They will be until the heavens are no more, at which point they will be awakened. Until then, they’re not the place to go to get somebody to talk to God for you, as they cannot do this even for themselves. This being the case, all prayers directed to those who are now dead cannot be answered by the parties they are addressed to. If contact with the supernatural is achieved by recourse of worship directed to, or through, the dead, it is not a supernatural with which believers should be courting. Indeed, the Bible explicitly forbids us to make any attempt to contact the dead, as this is a realm within which shape-shifting demonic spirits can gain influence over those who tamper here. (See I Samuel 28 and I Chronicles 10:13,14 and II Corinthians 14:15, with Deuteronomy 18:10-12.)

    Second, I am by no means the first person who has noted the fact that the dead are, in fact, dead, and know nothing, and can provide no aid in mediation on behalf of the living, at least until they are bodily resurrected and taken to heaven. That is something we would surely have heard about in the pages of Scripture, as John, into whose keeping Jesus placed Mary at the point of His death, was alive a long time after she would have either died, or been taken to heaven. He surely would have made some mention of it in his gospels, his three letters, or the book of Revelation, all of which he penned after Mary would have been taken to heaven, if indeed this occurred. As he makes absolutely no mention of what became a Catholic teaching some 1,500 years later, we can be assured Mary is sleeping with the other multitudes in the dust of the ground waiting for the return of her Lord and ours to call her to himself.

    What I have stated here is precisely what Justin Martyr and Tatian, two of the early church father, wrote on the matter. It agrees with the teaching of Williman Tyndale, the first translator of the Bible into the English language, and also the beliefs of John Milton, the greatest of the sacred poets of the church era. It is also in agreement with “The Conditionalist”, the first ever Christian newspaper, which was launched to point these things out to the Christian world at large. It is also the beleif that continually is rediscovered at whatever point people set aside their traditions and what has been handed to them as so religiously, and simply go back to the Bible directly to see what it teaches on these matters.

    Now while I cannot conscientiously subscribe to the use of any rosary that addresses prayers, worship and devotion to a deceased Mary or deceased saints who are sleeping in their graves because of the reasons cited above, I do like the idea of a tactile religious aid to assist in prayers and worship. That’s why, after having been instructed in the common use of the rosary by a Catholic friend, I invented what I call “The Bible in Beads”, or “The Protestant Rosary”. It is a devotional and memory aid to helping those of a Bible-anchored form of Christian worship to remember prayerfully: 1) the Ten Commandments 2) the 66 books of the Protestant Bible in order by their groupings in the library we call “the Bible” 3) the names of the 12 apostles. I’ve used everything from fruit loops and cheerios to beads and semi-precious stones in helping groups of children through adults learn about God’s Law, His Word, and the Apostles for many years now in classrooms and in my congregations. Some who have learned of the Bible by this means didn’t even know what the word “Bible” meant when they stepped into my classrooms.

    “The Bible in Beads” or “The Protestant Roary” is a Biblical alternative to the traditional Catholic Rosary, and points people to God’s Law, to His Word, and to the 12 apostles who were the foundation of His Church. The first portion of it, the beads representing the Ten Commandment Law of God, can be used as a prayer guide in examining one’s own life and need for confession and change, as Martin Luther employed the Ten Commandments in his own prayers, and taught the same to his barber on one occasion. The rest of the beads allow a person to see if they can recall the basic content of the 66 books of the Bible that make up the Old and New Testaments. My hope is that this worship and memory aid will be the means of directing the attention and devotion of many to the Bible, God’s holy Word, and to our Savior, Jesus Christ, who is, indeed, the son of Mary, as well as the Son of God.

    If you are interested in knowing more, feel free to email me:

    Reply
    1. Rick Aubol

      it is good that you wish to promote attention to and study of God’s beautiful word, but you’ve overlooked some things.
      if the dead are all asleep in the sense that they are not conscious of anything and have no knowledge of anything, how could Jesus have preached to them after His death? (1 Peter 3:19 and 4: 6) Even before His death he talked with people who had died, AND THEY WITH HIM, at his transfiguration with witnesses present; so if he did it and showed it happening, it can’t be a bad or worthless thing to do since we are to imitate Christ.
      speaking of imitating Jesus this is exactly what Mary does, bringing Christ to others and us to Christ is the purpose of her entire life. she would never get in the way of Christ’s mission but only leads us closer “do whatever she tells you” she says to the wedding servants and to us.
      she like solomon’s mother, highly honored as his queen, takes our prayer requests before her son the King (1 Kings 2:18-20), and besides her, the saints in His court likewise offer our prayers (Rev. 5:8). they cry out in a loud voice in praise of God (Rev 7:10), serve him day and night (Rev 7: 15) and say, BEFORE the end of the world and everyone has died and been judged, ‘how long will it be holy and true master before you sit in judgment and avenge our blood on the earth?’ (Rev 6: 10), “they surround us as a great cloud of witnesses (Heb 12: 1), not tombstones. they are living heroes to us, more alive than we are because they are with God; for St. Paul, death is gain and life is Christ and he longs to depart AND BE WITH Christ. (Phil 1:21-23).
      besides all this there are the angels, ever before God and acting to praise and serve him. they are pure spirits and never sleep. we as humans have both body and soul. our bodies can be destroyed and all die, but our souls can never be destroyed because we are made in the image and likeness of God who is eternal. whats more, we like him are personal beings, which means we know and love. limbo is not a state God has created for us. God is the God of the living, see Matthew 22: 29-32.
      Heaven is union wish God, the reward of the holy, why would God keep them in suspense? He loved them enough to create them, He would not waste any time to bring them to him. He died even for people who hated him, there’s no way he would hesitate to let his children come to him. and we know Mary is there, Revelation 12: 1-6. she is the mother of Jesus, who is God and therefore the mother of God. keeping in mind that God, God almighty, infinite God who needs nothing for he has all and certainly did not need to make us much less redeem us, chose to be born of a woman, it would be unthinkable that he would deny her heavenly life with himself for even a minute much less to the end of time and judgment day.

      Reply
    2. ciarán

      If you really read the bible you’d find that mary did not die of bodily decay like everybody else, which is of original sin, of which mary is totally exempt as she is sinless, she was taken up in body and soul into heaven by jesus whose overwhelming love could not let his earthly mother die as sinners, the divine trinity of the father son and the holy spirit crowned her queen of heaven and earth, now she does not have ” equal importnace ” to the trinity of course and that is core to catholic, and simply gods teaching, but you see god is not vain or hateful, asking mary to pray for sinners ( as she has a special relationship with god ) does not offend god, and in the hail mary, she is not worshiped, she is requested to pray with us to god for all of our salvation, as “the lord is with thee” , “blessed is the fruit of thy womb” the fruit of the sacred heart’s womb is our lord and savior jesus christ, of which for birth she did not commit sin, as our lord was conceived by the holy spirit.

      Reply
      1. Larry Charles Paulus

        Mary confessed that she was a sinner: Luke 1:47 My spirit hath rejoiced in God my Saviour. And Romans 3:23 says All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. Mary is included in the “all” and she knew it.

  18. Skip Johnson

    If you’d like to contact me concerning the note above, do it here. The site didn’t include my email address.

    Skip Johnson

    Reply
  19. Brian

    I am a Baptist. I enjoy praying the Rosary. Rarely does a day go by when I do not pray the Rosary. Also, I pray the Chaplet of Divine Mercy.

    These practices enhance my walk with Christ.

    Reply
  20. Denis

    I am a Catholic, but I’m very confused about the Rosary. There is an 8 year girl who visited Heaven, her name is Jannet Balderas Canela. Part of her story is she saw Mary crying. Mary said, “Why are you worshiping me? Why, if I do not have any power! Why are you worshiping me? I do not do anything! Do not worship me! Do not bow before me! For I cannot save you! The only one that can save, the only one that can redeem you is Jesus, who died for all mankind! Many people say that I have power, that I can perform miracles, but that is a lie! I do not do anything! Almighty God was satisfied with me and He used my womb so that Jesus could be born and save everyone, but I don’t have any power. I cannot do anything! Do not bow before me! Do not worship me! For I am not worthy of worship. The only one that is worthy, the only one that you bow before and adore is Jesus! He is the only one that heals and saves!”

    I could see how that young lady was in such tremendous pain, full of anguish and crying. She said, “No! No! Do not worship me! Why do you bow before me? I don’t do anything!” You see dear brothers, it was a tremendous thing to look at this young lady, how she was crying with such pain and sadness.
    Now what do I do. Did this really happen? Did Mary really say that? I still say the Rosary but my heart is not in it. After I say the Rosary, I recite the Our Father and The Divine Mercy prayer that Jesus gave to Sister Faustina to even things out, just in case. I can’t find the answer to this. Sure, there’s a lot of sites that say the Rosary should be said and there are millions of people who say the Rosary, but, what if, and it’s a big what if. What if everyone is wrong and this is a trick from the devil? I’m going in circles when it comes to this. There is nothing in the Bible that says we should pray to Mary, only to Jesus.

    Reply
    1. Naomi

      I agree that it would be a terrible thing for Mary if there some people were to worship her as a goddess, and that may sometimes happen if culturally practicing Catholics are not well taught. After all, everything about Mary that is blessed and “full of grace” is because of God’s amazing work of grace in her, and because He chose and qualified her to be the Mother of His Son, and also, in a very tangible sense, His Bride (God doesn’t have one-night stands! Here, she acts as a living icon of the Church.)

      But there’s definitely a Scriptural foundation for asking Mary to pray for us. For example, at the Wedding Feast at Cana, Mary intercedes for the married couple who had run out of wine, and it is because of her intercession that Jesus did the miracle of turning water into wine for that married couple (his first miracle!) God, of course, must have had it planned that way, and it must have been His ultimate will that the miracle take place, but the way He wanted that to take place was by allowing Mary to participate in fulfilling His plan of salvation in that way.

      I hope this reassures you about the moral legitimacy of praying the rosary! It is really such a gift, and I personally have found it to be a very mothering experience, a way to learn more and more how to love Jesus like Mary loves Him (what human being could naturally love Him better than His own mother?)

      Reply
      1. Harold Stassen

        But at the weddiing she was alive; had she come back from the dead or been seen in a dream, this might be a good example.
        Why make life more complicated? The Catholic and Orthodox practices of prayers with and through the dead sounds pointless; why run twice as fast if you don’t need to? Heaven becomes as corrupt as modern Greece or Italy-you have “to know somebody” to get anything done.

  21. david oman

    In saying the rosary i replace the hail mary with the Jesus prayer: “Lord Jesus Christ, have mercy on me a sinners” (this is what many protestants do)
    also I often meditate on five truths from a chapter of scripture instead of the mysteries (although i love the mysteries as well, at least once the last two glorious mysteries are replaced/re-understood)

    Reply
  22. Rick Ritchie

    I’m in a different spot with this than those who would forbid or encourage the use of the Rosary. Especially on the first question. I’ll take the claim that they prayers are requests for petitions at face value. And I’ll add that I’m not certain that Mary couldn’t hear the petitions and respond to them. But since I don’t know she can, this is a matter of doubt. To go back to the analogy of asking other Christians to pray for me, this might be like a case where you dial a friend and are not sure they’re on the other end of the phone. You can’t hear them. They may be there, they may not. I’m not inclined to a long conversation in that case.

    Everyone is free to handle such a situation in their own way. I would just say the practice as it stands seems to imply more certainty about how this works than I think we have.

    I did attend a Rosary service once, and found the whole thing foreign. Foreign to a degree a Catholic Mass isn’t to me. This was many years ago, though. I’m not sure if my longer time in a liturgical setting might have changed that.

    Reply
  23. Lee

    It’s funny that this post continues to garner comments–must be a popular Google search.

    I’ve prayed the Rosary off and on for a few years now, and to me the chief benefit is that it truly does (at least in my case) facilitate meditation on the episodes from Christ’s life that constitute the mysteries. As for the focus on Mary–I see it more in terms of Mary as the prototype of the church in her response to God’s grace. We are looking at Christ through “Marian” eyes when we pray the Rosary, in other words. I rarely if ever find myself invoking the intercession of Mary or the other Saints outside of the context of praying the Rosary.

    That said, I can understand why people are made uneasy by the Marian focus of the Rosary. There is a little book out there called the Jesus Prayer Rosary which provides a form of the Rosary substituting the Jesus Prayer for the Hail Mary. Anglican theologian Austen Farrer, in his book Lord I Believe, also provides some alternate prayers and mysteries. (He refers to the Rosary as a “heaven-sent aid” for meditation.)

    Reply
  24. Denise

    I became Catholic after my marriage to a non-practicing Catholic (who still does not go to Church, but believes in God, Jesus and some of the Catholic teachings – which Protestant teachings are also based on). While going through RCIA (Rite of Christian Initiation of Adults – or basically Adult Catechism), the priest said that when asking Mary or another saint to pray for us was no different than when you find yourself “talking” to a loved one that has passed, or asking living people to pray for you or for something. The Rosery is a way to help you talk to Mary and Jesus, and meditate on His life. While I do not “pray” the Rosary often, just having it reminds me to pray – as we are not called sheep for nothing. We need to give ourselves reminders, as like sheep, many of us tend to fall way from from the flock. If even just having the Rosary gives you that reminder to pray, than it is not a bad thing, for any Christian.

    The Hail Mary is not a prayer to Mary, but a set of words asking her to pray for us. “Hail Mary full of Grace, the Lord is with you. Blessed are though amoung women and blessed is the fruit of thy womb Jesus. Holy Mary, Mother of God (meaning Jesus, not God the Father), pray for us sinners now, and at the hour of our death.” If you are a Christian (thus Catholic or Protestant), you believe all of what is said in the prayer. Mary is full of grace, she is blessed amoung women, she is holy, she is the mother of God (meaning Jesus). The last part is where we ask her to pray for us sinners. No one on Earth or that has ever been on Earth is truly without sin, save Jesus. We are human and as such we are not perfect.

    A very dear friend became religious over a year ago. He is Anglican (or Catholic lite as he puts it). He has a set of Protestant Rosary Beads and always has them on him and prays them every day, often more than once. He said that they help remind him to pray, and praying comforts him.

    No matter what prayers you use, which Rosary, Catholic or Anglican, if they are used in the right frame of mind, to worship God, ask for His guidence, or just ask for strength to get through a trying time, and to follow His plan for you, then there is nothing wrong with that, whether you are Catholic or Protestant.

    And lastly, Catholics do not believe that Mary performs miracles (at least those that are properly instructed, and if they are not properly instructed that is the fault of the priest in charge of teaching his parish, not the Catholic Church as a whole). Mary is sometimes the vessle through which miracles are performed, but all miracles come from the Holy Trinity. Only God, whether it be the Father, the Son or the Holy Spirit, can perform the miracle.

    All things good come from God.

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  25. Spiritual Spring Break « howtodiehl

    […] And, I say faithful, not Catholic, for a reason.  Not all of my mom’s friends are Catholic, which is great.  We had some women there that prayed the rosary with us, that were accepting of it just because it was a form of praying, and in the words of Michon Ekvall, “Prayer is prayer!” and I couldn’t agree more.  I found a really cool blog that addresses this subject and I tend to agree with most of the points it brings up: https://thinkingreed.wordpress.com/2006/02/15/can-protestants-pray-the-rosary/ […]

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  26. Steve Kraut

    In the words of Fr. Francis Martin, Bible Scholar, Theologian, and world-wide leader in the Charassmatic Renewal; “Anyone having a personal and intimate relationship with Jesus Christ will never confuse our Lord’s mother’s person and role with that of her Son who is the Son of God.” After all, He did give her to be our mother as well (See John 19:26-27)

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  27. Lutz von Peter

    There is nothing wrong in asking Mary for her intercession with god, speaking for us, but you might as well ask your brother or your grandmother.
    According to protestant katechism, you should address your prayers directly to Jesus Christ for them to be heard by God, the son.
    But instead of praying a catholic rosary, there is a protestant version which is not very widely known. It is called the Christus-Rosenkranz (German for “Christ Rosary”) and was developped in the 1960s by the Michaelsbruderschaft. I don’t know if any translations into other languages than German do exist. It follows rather closely the structure of the traditional rosary but adresses the prayers to Jesus, not Mary.

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