concludes with a Glory Be. At the end of each cycle the Mystery announced at its beginning is to be meditated upon. In all, reciting the rosary involves fifty-three Hail Marys, six Paternosters, five Mysteries, five meditations on the Mysteries, five Glory Bes and one repeating of the “Apostles’ Creed.” Unless hurried it takes some fifteen minutes at least.

BUT IS IT CHRISTIAN?

Does God’s Word authorize such repetitious praying? No. Jesus said: “But when praying, do not say the same things over and over again, just as the people of the nations do, for they imagine they will get a hearing for their use of many words. So, do not make yourselves like them, for God your Father knows what things you are needing before ever you ask him.” How well Jesus knew the human tendency to want to repeat prayers! And, in view of his warning, the fact that the use of the rosary is widespread among the people of the nations carries no weight with it whatsoever!—Matt. 6:7, 8.

Apologists for the rosary try to rob Jesus’ words of their effect by pointing to Revelation 4:8, in which the word “holy” appears three times: “Holy, holy, holy.” But it is quite different from repeating one word twice in a prayer for a total of three words to repeating the forty words in Hail Mary fifty-two times for a total of 2,120 words, not to say anything of the other repetitions involved. Repeating a thing twice for emphasis is done throughout the Scriptures and makes sense. Thus when Jesus was faced with his greatest test he prayed three times to Jehovah his Father. Likewise Paul three times asked God to remove a certain “thorn in the flesh.” There is nothing, however, in the Scriptures to indicate that Jesus and Paul had memorized these prayers or had used them at some other time in their lives. These prayers were born out of the serious trials they were undergoing.—Matt. 26:39-44; 2 Cor. 12:7.

But trying to remember all the various recitations required in saying the rosary and to repeat them in their proper order makes saying the rosary a memory test rather than a spontaneous expression of heartfelt prayer. Besides, one’s mind cannot help but wander when one has to say the same forty words fifty-three times in one prayer. Such repetition is but a variation of the prayer wheel of certain Oriental religions. It consists of a cylinder in which written prayers are placed. Each time the cylinder is revolved the prayers in it are supposed to have been repeated.

Nor is that all. The Hail Mary is said nine times as often as the Paternoster, or “Our Father,” fifty-three times as compared with six times. Is the prayer composed by men and directed to Mary nine times as important or effective as the prayer taught by Jesus and directed to God himself? The fact is that, look where we will in the Scriptures, not once do we read of anyone seeking access either to God or to Jesus by way of Mary.

NO BENEFITS

As for the benefits of indulgences promised those reciting the rosary: How can anyone gain such benefits when, look where we will in God’s Word, not a word do we find about a purgatory? On the contrary, we are plainly told the following: “The wages sin pays is death.” When man “goes back to his ground, in that day his thoughts do perish.” The dead “are conscious of nothing at all.” Man’s hope lies in a resurrection from the dead, “of both the righteous and the unrighteous.”—Rom. 6:23; Ps. 146:4; Eccl. 9:5; Acts 24:15.

And regarding the forgiveness of our sins, we are assured that it is “the blood of Jesus his Son [that] cleanses us from all sin.” And “if we confess our sins, he is faithful and righteous so as to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.”—1 John 1:7, 9.

The repeating of fifty-three Hail Marys every time the rosary is recited flies in the face of Jesus’ express condemnation of saying the “same things over and over again.” Its widespread use outside of professedly Christian lands argues that its origin is pagan. And the same must also be said regarding its associated features, the exaltation of Mary, the offering of indulgences for saying the rosary, the crediting of victories to it and its claimed power to decrease purgatorial suffering. None of these find any support in the Scriptures, but they do find parallels in pagan religions.

In view of all these facts, can the rosary be said to be Christian? It cannot!

Dishonest Shepherd Disgusts Catholic Lamb

SHE was a young, trusting Catholic lamb, a graduate of parochial schools. Upon her third Bible study with one of Jehovah’s witnesses she realized that what she had been taught by her church was not in line with the Bible and asked why. She was told the reason: because her church leans more heavily upon tradition than upon the Bible. She appreciated the explanation given but stated that, since she was no authority on the Bible, she would not be fully convinced until the witness accompanied her to her priest to hear his viewpoints on these matters.

This was agreed upon and the two visited the priest. He began by asking the witness if he had any degrees or diplomas as a minister; the witness, however, replied by asking if the priest thought such were essential, seeing that the early disciples of Jesus did not have any. He agreed that such were not necessary.

The priest then began by referring to Jesus’ words to Peter regarding the rock to prove that the Catholic Church was the true one. The witness refuted his position by showing that Jesus was referring to himself as the Rock. The priest did not agree but then took up other subjects, such as hell, the soul and the war issue. Finally he came back to the words of Jesus to Peter. The witness then produced the Diaglott (which has both a Greek and an English reading of the “New Testament”) to show that Jesus could not have been referring to Peter as the Rock on which he built his church because Jesus used different genders in referring to each.

The priest, however, taking the Diaglott, insisted that, being able to read Greek, he would show that Jesus’ words did refer to Peter. Unable to find the text, he began hinting around as to just where it was but the witness did not tell him. Instead he asked the priest if he did not know where this text was to be found upon which his church leaned so heavily to prove that she is the true church. He said he did, stopped leafing and began to read.

When the witness asked if he was reading the words of Jesus to Peter regarding the rock, the priest replied, “Yes.” But when the witness got up to peer over the priest’s shoulder the priest’s hands began to tremble; and no wonder, for the witness saw that the priest was feigning to read Jesus’ words to Peter from Mark the fourth chapter, whereas they are found only at Matthew 16:18! The witness rebuked the priest for trying to pull a trick like that and then suggested to the Catholic girl that in view of what had taken place it would be best to leave.

As the witness and the disgusted Catholic girl left, the priest said, “I wouldn’t be a Jehovah’s witness for all the proof in the world!” The witness asked, “Including the Bible?” “Yes,” replied the priest, “including the Bible.”

The result of this two-hour discussion was that this Catholic girl severed her connections with her church and now continues to study the Bible and to attend congregational meetings with the witnesses.