There is perhaps no more distinctively Catholic prayer than the Rosary. I have heard that other Christians pray it too, but these are few and far between. The vast majority of Protestants have major theological issues with praying to Mary, and while the Orthodox venerate her just like we do, they have their own distinct forms of Marian devotion. For the most part, we Catholics are the only ones who pray the Rosary.
Because of that, this devotion is often a bone of contention in Catholic-Protestant discussions. Not only do most Protestants think that praying to Mary is problematic, but many of them also have another issue with it, and this one is directly based on the words of Jesus in the Gospels:
“And in praying do not heap up empty phrases as the Gentiles do; for they think that they will be heard for their many words. Do not be like them, for your Father knows what you need before you ask him.” (Matthew 6:7-8)
Many evangelical Protestants contend that when we pray the Rosary, we essentially “heap up empty phrases” (or, in some translations, “vain repetitions”) and “think that [we] will be heard for [our] many words,” making it exactly the kind of prayer Jesus told us not to offer.
How can we respond to this charge? Is it really wrong to pray the Rosary or are we “babbling on like the pagans” when we do?
The Basic Objections
To answer those questions, let’s think about the logic behind this argument and see if it really holds up. There are three reasons why the Rosary might fall under Jesus’ condemnation in Matthew:
First, it could be because any pre-composed prayers are just “empty phrases,” and we should pray spontaneously instead. Second, it could be because the Rosary repeats the same prayers over and over again, seemingly making it a bunch of “vain repetitions.” And third, the problem could be its length. Maybe we should be succinct in our prayer and just say what we need to say rather than draw it out for fifteen or twenty minutes.
Those are all substantially different arguments, so in order to thoroughly defend the Rosary, we need to go through each one of them and show where they go wrong. Let’s start with the simplest one.
Some Protestants believe that any pre-composed prayers are tantamount to “empty phrases,” but that can’t be right. In the very next verse after the passage we are looking at, Jesus gives His disciples the Lord’s Prayer (Matthew 6:9), and those exact words have been a staple of Christian prayer for 2,000 years. Jesus composed a prayer for us to pray, so He could not have been condemning all pre-composed prayers.
Repetitive Prayers
Others suggest that the real problem with the Rosary is its repetitiveness. They say that Jesus doesn’t want us to repeat ourselves when we pray; instead, we should just say what we want to say and then be done with it.
That may sound convincing at first, but if we know the Old Testament, this argument is just as obviously erroneous as the first one. For example, take a look at these verses from Psalm 136:
“O give thanks to the Lord, for he is good,
for his steadfast love endures forever.
O give thanks to the God of gods,
for his steadfast love endures forever.
O give thanks to the Lord of lords,
for his steadfast love endures forever.” (Psalm 136:1-3)
In this psalm, every other line is exactly the same: “for his steadfast love endures forever.” I quoted only the first three verses, but the other twenty-three verses stick to this pattern without deviation. The second half of every verse in this entire psalm is exactly the same, so it is highly repetitive. It can’t be wrong for us to pray it.
The book of Psalms is a divinely inspired prayer book, and God’s people have been praying with psalms since before the time of Christ. The ancient Jews used it in their prayer (so Jesus Himself would have done so); the early Christians prayed the psalms; and the Church still draws from it today in the Mass and the Liturgy of the Hours.
The psalms are the Church’s prayer book par excellence, so, since it employs this kind of heavy repetition, Jesus couldn’t have condemned it. Consequently, this version of the argument is a dead end as well.
Long Prayers
Finally, some people opposed to the Rosary might say that the problem is actually its length. Since it is so long, we wrongly think that God will hear us because of our “many words.” So what can we say about this third line of reasoning?
Again, let’s turn to the psalms. Some of them are short, like Psalm 117 (it is only two verses!), but others are long. And when I say long, I mean it. The single longest chapter of the bible is Psalm 119, which contains 176 verses.
Again, Jesus could not have been condemning long prayers per se. If He did, He would have been condemning the divinely inspired prayer book that He Himself used. It’s certain that He would not have done that.
Jesus’ Real Message
In the face of all this, we might be tempted to conclude that Jesus’ condemnation of empty prayer doesn’t include the Rosary and then pat ourselves on the back for successfully defending the Catholic faith, but we should not be so quick to declare victory. Refuting incorrect interpretations of Jesus’ words is only half the battle. The other half involves explaining what those words really mean, and when we do that, we find an important lesson for our spiritual lives.
Jesus’ real point in this passage is that we need to pay attention to what and how we pray and truly mean it. Merely saying words, whether it be the Rosary, one of the psalms, or anything else, isn’t praying. That is simply “heap[ing] up empty phrases as the Gentiles do,” and that is what Jesus condemned.
To truly pray, we have to say words and genuinely mean them. If we do that, then whatever we choose to pray, we are doing it the way Jesus desires.
40 thoughts on “The Rosary Is Not Vain Repetition”
Please stop your fine point attacks on each other. We are supposedly after all on the same side. We need to be together in this titanic spiritual battle that mankind is involved. Don’t allow the enemy to divide and conquer us. J.P. thank you for correcting me about the Immaculate Conception. I am not perfect but I do try based on the limited knowledge that I have. I am not a theologian nor do I want to be one. Look up for your redemption draws near. The day and the hour of the coming of the Son of Man only God the Father knows. Brothers and Sisters in Christ PRAY! PRAY! PRAY!
Robert the act of Consecration by the Holy Father and all his Bishops was requested by Mother Mary herself to the 3 shepherd children of Fatima Lucia Dos Santos, Francisco and Jacinta Marto. I went on a pilgrimage to Fatima, Portugal in 2017, to celebrate the 100th Anniversary of the visit from Heaven of the Mother of the Son of God. Fatima was amazing. I stayed at the Consolata Hotel which is run by the Consolata Missionaries. Lisbon is my favorite City in all of Europe. God Bless You Robert.
Thank you for your good wishes.
May God bless you, too.
Interesting article
https://www.churchmilitant.com/news/article/memo-alerts-cardinals-to-papal-catastrophe
J.P. Nunez a wonderful article about the prayer our lady taught us. Right now I say about 30-60 decades of the Rosary every day. As of this time 4:22PM on March 18, 2022 I have said exactly 45 decades of the Rosary today alone. The Rosary is very powerful and I encourage families to say it daily. The Rosary Priest Father William Peyton repeatedly told us that “a family that prays together stays together.” It is a most powerful prayer to ward off attacks from the devil and demons. The devil is totally frightened by Mother Mary. In his pathetic little mind he considers her just an ordinary human being. But we all know she more than that. I used to think that the Feast Day of the Immaculate Conception was about the birth of Jesus. It is about her birth. Mother Mary is the Immaculate Conception which means she was born without stain of sin. How else could she have given birth to Jesus who too was born without sin. Jesus is the Son of God who is in fact God come to earth as God Man. Our Lady of the Holy Rosary pray for us and for world peace and for the consecration of Russia to the Immaculate Heart of Mary. PRAY! PRAY! PRAY!
How can the Roman Catholic pope, and his bishops, consecrate Russia to the Immaculate Heart of Mary, since less than .1% of the Russian people are Roman Catholics? Or how about the Ukraine, where less than 1% of the people are Roman Catholics?
Further, why consecrate anything to Mary, when Jesus is Our Savior? He will be returning to establish the kingdom of God on earth according to the Bible.
Read the Book of Revelation for starters.
Thanks for the kind words Francisco! I would just make two little corrections to what you said, though. First, the Immaculate Conception is about Mary’s conception, not her birth. Secondly, Mary’s Immaculate Conception wasn’t necessary for Jesus to be conceived without original sin. If that were the case, then Mary’s parents must also have been immaculately conceived, but they obviously weren’t. So Mary’s Immaculate Conception is fitting, but it’s not necessary.
Robert: The pope and the bishops can consecrate an entire country to Mary even though the majority of people aren’t Catholic because the bishops don’t just care for Catholics. Sure, they have a direct responsibility to Catholics that they don’t have to non-Catholics, but that doesn’t mean they have nothing to do with the rest of the world. Because we believe that the Catholic Church is the true Church of Jesus Christ, we also believe that everybody should belong to the Catholic Church. Every human being is ordered towards the Catholic Church, so the magisterium still has a pastoral responsibility towards those outside its “walls,” so to speak.
Robert: Also, I forgot to say that the point of consecration to Mary is that we’re asking Mary to lead us to Christ. It’s like if we ask someone on earth to teach us about a particular subject to or guide us in holiness. Sure, if God wanted to teach us directly, He would do a much better job at it than any human being ever could, but He wants us to learn from one another. And it’s the same with consecration to Mary. God gave us Mary to be our mother, so He wants her to guide us to Him rather than simply doing it all Himself.
JP Nunez: But does the authority to interpret the deposit of faith reside only in the hierarchy, or does it reside in all who have the Spirit of Truth? The ability to understand Scripture is not confined only to those in the hierarchy. You don’t need to be a Protestant to recognize this.
There’s a difference between the “ability” to interpret the deposit of faith and the “authority” to do so. Sure, anybody has the “ability” to interpret it, but we don’t have any divine assurance that our own personal interpretations are correct. Only the magisterium has the “authority” to interpret the deposit of faith, which means that God has officially appointed the magisterium for that very task, so He guides the magisterium and gives it the assistance it needs to interpret the deposit of faith correctly. That’s why when we interpret Scripture and the Tradition, we need to do so in accordance with what the magisterium teaches.
That’s kind of the whole point of Catholicism. We’re not just lone rangers interpreting Scripture on our own. Rather, we have a central authority who can authoritatively declare what is and is not the faith in order to settle any disputes that arise and to let us know when our own personal interpretations are and aren’t in line with the faith.
JP Nunez: Hebrews 4:14-16 explains it: “Seeing then that we have a great high priest, that is passed into the heavens, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold fast our profession. For we have not an high priest which cannot be touched with the feeling of our infirmities; but was in all points tempted like as we are, yet without sin. Let us therefore come boldly unto the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy, and find grace to help in time of need.”
Jesus is not a remote God who is not easily accessible. He is the throne of grace. He is the only High Priest in heaven, in the same way that there was only one high priest in Jerusalem who could enter the Holy of Holies in the Tabernacle as the top intercessor for the people’s sins. Jesus is the only human who is able to connect us to the Father.
I’m still not sure what you’re getting at. How is this relevant to the discussion?
Revelation 5:8 does not mention saints, but angels and 24 elders, holding vessels containing prayers from God’s holy people.
Revelation 8:3-4 mentions an angel delivering the prayers of all God’s holy ones.
Revelation 7:15 is a future event; the huge crowd from every nation, tongue, and race are those who survived the great period of trial, known as the great tribulation.
Not intercessors or mediators between us and God.
Revelation 5:8 and 8:3-4 show our prayers going to God through the angels and the elders. If that’s not intercession, then I don’t know what is.
You correctly point out that those passages don’t explicitly mention the souls of the saints in heaven, but there are two points to keep in mind:
1) If angels can intercede for us, it stands to reason that the souls of the saints in heaven can as well.
2)The elders most likely represent the saints. For starters, the mere fact that they’re called elders implies that. The word most naturally applies to human beings, and that’s the way the New Testament consistently uses it elsewhere. Plus, in Revelation 4:4, they’re said to be “clad in white garments, with golden crowns upon their heads,” and that’s very telling. Elsewhere in Revelation, Jesus promises white garments (for example, Revelation 3:4-5, 18) and crowns (for example, Revelation 2:10, 3:11) to Christians who remain faithful to death. So when we see “elders” wearing exactly those two things, it again stands to reason that they’re human beings who’ve made it to their eternal reward. Last but not least, the number 24 is significant. It’s 12X2, and as I’m sure you know, 12 is an important number in Scripture. And when Scripture doubles important numbers, that’s also significant. It most likely symbolizes the fullness of the people of God, from both the Old and New Testaments. It represents the 12 tribes of Israel plus the 12 Apostles.
Does any scripture tell us to pray to Mary or any of the church-declared “saints” to be our intercessor or mediator with God?
We know that saints will be “before the throne of God, and serve him day and night in his temple” (Revelation 7:15). Is it their job to intercede for us if we ask them? We may be assuming that they have a function that they do not have. We do know that saints and angels bring the prayers of the saints up to The Lamb and God (see Revelation 5:8 and 8:3-4).
There is only one High Priest intercessor in heaven. On earth, there was no intercessor equal to or higher than the Levitical high priest in Jerusalem, which was a type of Jesus’ intercessory function even though Jesus is now the High Priest of the order of Melchizedek.
As Peter correctly points out, Revelation depicts the saints and angels in heaven bring our prayers to God, and it stands to reason that this image symbolizes their role as intercessors, which in turn implies that we can ask them to intercede for us about specific matters.
Again Peter, I’m not really sure what your point is about Jesus being our only high priestly intercessor. Can you elaborate on that?
JP Nunez: The Catholic faith encompasses a lot more than the magisterium.
If our faith is in Christ, we don’t need to be easily shaken by inconsistencies that may appear at times. His grace is sufficient.
But an essential part of the Catholic faith is believing that He has given us the Church to authoritatively interpret the deposit of faith. So if the magisterium doesn’t fulfill that function, then we should all be Protestant.
JP Nunez: Hebrews 7:24-25 says of Jesus: “But this man, because he continues forever, has an everlasting priesthood. Therefore he is able also to save them to the uttermost those that come to God by him, seeing he ever lives to make intercession for them.”
Christ has a unique intercessory function. As part of the Godhead, Jesus has immediate access to the Father.
When Christ’s Spirit is within us, we also have the Father: and Christ is interceding within us. Entrustment (latria) directly to Christ is how we become beneficiaries of this.
I’m not really sure what your point is here. Can you please expand on it a bit?
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We also pray to Jesus for many reasons. But keep in mind that He is the only one who can intercede for us with God, which was made clear by Paul in his writings.
You are correct because the man Christ Jesus is the only intercessor who can give us access to the Father and salvation because of His shed blood and His resurrection. These were required for our redemption. We are allowed to give Him the entrustment or consecration that is only due to God (latria) because He is the Word incarnate; and, it would be idolatry to give it to Mary or any other creature of God. This brings us His Spirit and grace within us.
BUT, we can ALL intercede with Jesus, including Mary. Otherwise, Paul recommending intercessory prayer is a lie…
Paul says that Jesus is the only mediator between us and God, not that Jesus is the only intercessor between us and God. Those two words are not synonymous. Plus, Paul clearly interceded for other people (for example, Romans 12:5), so he couldn’t have meant that Jesus is the only one who can do that.
JP Nunez: The Catholic faith encompasses a lot more than its popular devotions. It has the Biblical teachings and 2000 years of history behind it. The Church could only be in trouble if Christ was no longer at the right hand of the Father interceding for us.
Thanks for sharing your thoughts.
Sure, the Catholic faith is more than just the rosary, but look at it this way. Catholicism is based on the idea that we have a magisterium to authoritatively interpret the deposit of faith, so if the magisterium is wrong about the rosary, that puts its authority in general in serious doubt, and that is a huge problem for the Catholic faith.
What else did Jesus say about prayer? Pray to angels? Pray to Mary? Pray to church-declared “saints”? Participate in one of many novenas?
I think not!
Matthew 6:6
New American Bible (Revised Edition)
6 But when you pray, go to your inner room, close the door, and pray to your Father in secret. And your Father who sees in secret will repay you.
Jesus says, “[the rich man] cried out, ‘Father Abraham, have pity on me. Send Lazarus to dip the tip of his finger in water and cool my tongue, for I am suffering torment in these flames.’”
By that logic, we also can’t pray to Jesus, but that’s clearly not right, so that passage isn’t intended to be the be-all and end-all of who we can and can’t pray to.
To pray means to ask. Look it up. You can ask anyone to pray for you….This isn’t hard…
Thank you for this. As a convert, I did initially question The Rosary but that didn’t last long! If I want/need peace, I turn to The Blessed Mother.
Thank you for your kind words! I’m glad you enjoyed the article.
Catholics who don’t pray the rosary and don’t do Marian devotions may not feel the need to defend them. Catholics are not as uniform as they once were, especially with practices and beliefs that developed later in Catholic history.
Even if you (or any other Catholic) don’t pray the rosary, it’s still an important part of the Catholic faith. It’s probably the most popular devotion in the Church today, and it’s been approved and recommended by the magisterium multiple times, so if it’s wrong to pray it, then the Catholic faith (which is bigger than any one person’s particular spiritual life) is in trouble.