Rosary

[tuttle]

Jesus said in the Sermon on the Mount, “When ye pray, use not vain repetitions, as the heathen do: for they think that they shall be heard for their much speaking” (Matthew 6:7, KJV). The word vain means “empty” or “useless”; so Jesus is warning us that repeating worthless phrases in our prayers will not help them be heard by God. Our Heavenly Father is not concerned with word count, flowery expressions, or mantras; He desires “truth in the inward being” (Psalm 51:6, ESV).

The pagans were "casting spells." Incantations. They repeated the words that had worked before, for calling down rain or victory in battle.

Hopefully, that's not what we are doing as we enter into our favorite memorized prayers. For a Christian, we can repeat the Hail Mary, the Our Father, the Jesus prayer, or sing our favorite choruses as many times as the song leader asks -- and we should let it be fresh and new as the first time we learned it. Just deeper in some way.

All of our favorite memorized prayers are scriptural. It's okay to meditate on key verses from scripture, even for years.

The bit about singing choruses resonates with me as an adequate answer to the warning Christ gave about vain repetitions. Also note the motive Christ gives for all that repeating: they think they're heard for their much speaking. It's a warning we should all take seriously regardless of how we approach prayer (or singing for that matter, which is often prayer as well).

[FredS]

So Mr. tuttle..... what exactly do you want to do with those rosary beads?

Do you want to pray as Catholics do, remembering scripture and the events of Jesus' life with Mary to guide you?

Or do you have something else in mind? There are "Evangelical rosary" versions available, inviting meditation without having to mark time by reciting the Scriptures that focus on Mary.

Very personal question, I know. But I find that it is most edifying to learn how others pray. (Pretty much everyone prays better than I do.)

Another alternative would be the Orthodox practice- repeat "O Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me the sinner" paying careful attention to each word as you say it. No meditating on Scripture (that's for other contexts) or the events of the Lord's life and avoiding mental imagery as much as possible (during noetic prayer we can be quite the iconoclasts). Just spend a little time, just you and Jesus, in the quiet of your heart, with no agenda for the conversation.

Actually my (protestant) friend with whom I've had these discussions with, recommended the same prayer.

I have a prayer rope (paracord) that I use sometimes. I say essentially that same prayer. "Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me, a sinner."

Now, this will sound weird, but a few years ago I had root canal procedure. The doc gave me 3 or 4 shots but I could still feel it. He wouldn't give me more, but said he could put me completely out. I hadn't arranged for a ride home and I didn't want to wait a few hours in his office to recover, so I told him to just get on with it as-is. I closed my eyes, clenched, and prayed this prayer until we were done. More like a meditation to focus on Him rather than the pain. It helped. I've never told anyone about that until now.

[mcommini]

I'm fairly certain that what our Lord meant when He said "vain repetitions" and "many words" is what I like to call the "Wejus Prayer":

"Father God, we just want to praise you
we just want to lift you up
we just want to give you glory.
Father God, we just want to offer up ourselves
we just want to say that without you we can do nothing...."
(Prayer continues in the same vein for several minutes, there is much checking of the watches)
"We just want to thank you for all that you have given us.
In Jesus' Name, Amen"

That and the modern definition of "speaking in tongues" - the Greek "vain repetitions" is "βατταλογήσητε", literally "stuttering speech". If you've ever seen a Pentecostal "speak in tongues" that pretty much fits the definition. There are a lot of repeated phonemes, resulting in a Porky Pig like dialect without the clarity!

Meanwhile for the Lord's Prayer He doesn't say "pray in this manner" in Matthew as many translations have it. He simply says "Therefore pray you 'Our Father..." ("Οὕτως οὖν προσεύχεσθε ὑμεῖς Πάτερ ἡμῶν"). In Luke He simply says "When you pray, say:'" (Ὅταν προσεύχησθε λέγετε). This is a prayer that was meant to be repeated verbatim.

And, lets not forget, after the prayer in the Garden where we are given a beautiful example of extemporaneous prayer, while He was on the Cross suffering one of the worst agonies that mankind has invented, our Lord went to His prayer book- the Psalter- His only recorded words being from Psalm 21 (22 for those of you following Masoretic Text translations) and 30 (31).