Day 25 - Rosary

I am in the process of converting to Catholicism. I will be confirmed into the Catholic church next Saturday, during the Easter vigil mass. Today I will talk about the Rosary, and the effect it has had on my life for a few reasons. One, this has been a teaching of the Catholic church that I have struggled with during my journey of converting, and two, it has been very important to me since living on the island. I'll explain my second point first. On Wednesdays a group of Catholic students meet and say the Rosary together, we share things that are happening in our lives and pray for each other, and spend a brief, but powerful half hour in prayer. I look forward to spending this time in fellowship, and this will be one of the biggest things I miss when leaving the island.

For my first point, the rosary is a pretty controversial teaching of the Catholic church, for non-Catholics. It is pretty misunderstood, some people even believe that Catholic worship the virgin Mary through reciting the rosary. Others have a problem with the group prayer, favoring private prayer instead, which was how I was always taught. Most have the issue that Catholics are praying to Mary, and not Jesus directly. 

The Catholic Answers website answers this claim pretty well:

The most problematic line for non-Catholics is usually the last: "pray for us sinners now and at the hour of our death." Many non-Catholics think such a request denies the teaching of 1 Timothy 2:5: "For there is one God, and there is one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus." But in the preceding four verses (1 Tim. 2:1-4), Paul instructs Christians to pray for each other, meaning it cannot interfere with Christ’s mediatorship: "I urge that prayers, supplications, petitions, and thanksgivings be made for everyone. . . . This is good, and pleasing to God our Savior." We know this exhortation to pray for others applies to the saints in heaven who, as Revelation 5:8 reveals, intercede for us by offering our prayers to God: "The twenty-four elders fell down before the Lamb, each holding a harp, and with golden bowls full of incense, which are the prayers of the saints. 
http://www.catholic.com/tracts/the-rosary


For the past four semesters I have tried to make an effort to get to Rosary on Wednesdays, learn the prayers, learn the actual meaning behind the prayers, reflect on the teachings, and learn the history of the Rosary. Now I have an appreciation and understanding (yet..young understanding) of the Rosary.