Chapter 24 of the book Talking with My Evangelical Friends by José Miguel Arráiz
Michael: Hi Joseph, there is a topic that I would like to discuss with you if you can clarify something for me.
Joseph: With pleasure.
Michael: A few days ago, I went to a funeral of a Catholic friend, and I saw that his family was praying what they call “the rosary”, and they repeated the same thing over and over again. If I have to be honest, this caught my attention, because the Bible says “And when you are praying, speak not much, as the heathens. For they think that in their much speaking they may be heard. Be not you therefore, like to them for your Father knoweth what is needful for you, before you ask him.” (Matt 6,7-8) Weren’t they doing exactly what Jesus says not to do? Multiply words in the prayer thinking that they will be heard if they do this?
Joseph: Ok, but I have to understand exactly what your question is. Do you think that the problem is that it was a “prefabricated” prayer or that it was wrong because they repeated the same sentences?
Michael: I think there is a little of both things. To pray, I don’t have to repeat sentences that I know by heart, I just have to say to the Lord the things that come from my heart. I don’t feel that it is necessary to repeat the same thing over and over again, because like Jesus says, He knows what I need.
Joseph: On the other hand, we believe that what Jesus criticizes is neither the one nor the other, so let me explain.
Michael: Go on.
Joseph: In the first place, we believe that Jesus doesn’t question the prefabricated sentences for being, while it may appear redundant, “prefabricated”. Remember that the psalms are just beautiful collections of prayers like this that Jesus (Mark 14,26; Mateo 26,30) and the early Church used (Acts 16,25; 1 Cor 4,15; 14,26; Col 3,16; Heb 2,12). St. Paul also recommended them: “Speaking to yourselves in psalms and hymns and spiritual canticles, singing and making melody in your hearts to the Lord” (Eph 5,19). With all this, I don’t want to say that we Catholics pray only in that way. Of course, we also pray in a spontaneous way, we don’t believe that one thing excludes the other, but they complement each other. In prefabricated prayers, we find a valuable tool for asking for help for praising God (Ps 145), and at the same time, we ask him for forgiveness (Ps 51), for protection (Ps 23, Ps 91), etc. The same Jesus taught us a prayer that is repeated thousands of times by the Christians: The Our Father. And there is historical evidence that ensures that it was like this since the early years because in the Didache, one of the oldest primitive Christian writings dated approximately in the years 65-80 AD, testified that He was teaching to the catechumens.
Secondly, we don’t believe that the problem is the repetition itself. Remember that Jesus prayed repeating the same words when he was in the garden of Gethsemane:
“And he cometh again and findeth them sleeping: for their eyes were heavy. And leaving them, he went again: and he prayed the third time, SAYING THE SELFSAME WORD.” (Matt 26,43-44)
Now, the fact that Jesus repeated the same words several times means that his prayer was in vain? The angels in heaven repeat the same words over and over again to praise to God day and night, and we don’t say that they are praying in vain: “Upon it stood the seraphims: the one had six wings, and the other had six wings: with two they covered his face, and with two they covered his feet, and with two they flew. And they cried one to another, and said: Holy, holy, holy, the Lord God of hosts, all the earth is full of his glory.”(Isa 6,2-3) “And the four living creatures had each of them six wings: and round about and within, they are full of eyes. And they rested not day and night, saying: Holy, Holy, Holy, Lord God Almighty, who was and who is and who is to come.”(Rev 4,8). In the same chapter of Daniel 3,51-90 we see the famous Canticle of the three children, which is full of repetitions, and the same happens with the Psalm 136 that has 26 verses and in each there is a sentence that says, “for his mercy endureth forever.” The Psalms 150 which has only six verses that says “Praise ye him” and it is repeated eleven times.
Michael: But if he wasn’t referring to prefabricated prayers, what does he mean?
Joseph: We’ll get there, wait.
Let’s start by reading carefully all the text. See that Jesus first says “And when you are praying, speak not much, AS THE HEATHENS. For they think that in their MUCH SPEAKING they may be heard”. Whatever Jesus is questioning, there are two things clear enough:
FIRST: We know that with “much speaking” he wasn’t referring to the “repetition” or to a “prefabricated pray” because the two things are very different and we have seen that Jesus and the apostles also prayed in this way. He doesn’t question that the prayer is long, because Jesus in Gethsemane gave an example of a long prayer, when he remained “one hour” in prayer (Matt 26,39.42.44), and this is the same thing of lasting, sometimes, the whole night praying.
SECOND: this “much speaking” that he’s questioning was habitual in the prayers that the gentle did, so this can help us to understand that he wanted us to examine the way in which they prayed.
Michael: That sounds good.
Joseph: The gentle and the pagans considered the prayers as a kind of magical formula that will help them to achieve their goals if they repeated them mechanically. The priest of Baal, for example, appears in the Old Testament showing endless pathological practices in prayer (1 Kings 18,26). The same thing happens with the lists of epithets that appear in the Babylonian hymns and with the enchantment formulas that appear in the magical papyri of the Hellenistic age. The Roman Gods had their “carmina”, where not even a detail was omitted and in which they put all the titles and preventive requirements so the petition didn’t fail. It was a kind of “magic” or a “mechanization” of the piety.
So we can interpret that Jesus was emphasizing the component of the real Christian prayer, which demands as an essential condition the sincerity and the simplicity, while he censures the way of praying of the gentle, who thought they would be heard for their much speaking, when they recited long and calculated formulas, as if they had a magical efficacy before God.
Whether we pray a prefabricated prayer, or a spontaneous prayer, the important thing is not to do it mechanically but with the heart. Those who pray in this way but do not do it with sincerity are worthy of the reproach Jesus made to the Pharisees: “This people honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far away from me.” (Matt 15,8)
Michael: Your explanation is reasonable, but isn’t the Rosary a mechanical prayer that the Catholics use expecting to obtain results only by repeating a prefabricated formula?
Joseph: We don’t see the Rosary as a “magical formula” that will give us the results we want just by reciting it mechanically. The purpose of the Rosary is to give us a special time to meditate on the life of Jesus, and in fact, it is like this because someone who has prayed the Rosary every day for a week has meditated about the whole life of the Lord. It is simply a wonderful prayer in which every day of the week is dedicated to the reflection of the divine mysteries. These are the divine mysteries in which we meditate with the Rosary:
Joyful Mystery of the Rosary (Monday & Saturday)
The Annunciation of the Lord to Mary
The Visitation of Mary to Elizabeth
The Nativity of our Lord Jesus Christ
The Presentation of our Lord
Finding Jesus in the Temple at age 12
Sorrowful Mystery of the Rosary (Tuesday & Friday)
The Agony of Jesus in the Garden
The Scourging at the Pillar
Jesus is Crowned with Thorns
Jesus Carried the Cross
The Crucifixion of our Lord
Glorious Mystery of the Rosary (Wednesday & Sunday)
The Resurrection of Jesus Christ
The Ascension of Jesus to Heaven
The Descent of the Holy Ghost
The Assumption of Mary into Heaven
Mary is Crowned as Queen of Heaven and Earth
Luminous Mystery of the Rosary (Thursday)
The Baptism in the Jordan
The Wedding at Cana
The Proclamation of the Kingdom
The Transfiguration
The Institution of the Eucharist