Rosary not only RC

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Rosary not only RC

Forum: Theological Expressions
Re:

Martin Luther a Marian? Its shocking to me man! (Emmanuel)
Re:

Not surprised (Observer)
Re:

Then only Catholics are saying the Rosary and A Protestant father like him .... (Emmanuel)
Date: 2001, Aug 09
From: <Anonymous>

Rosary is nothing but beads or knots placed in a certain way on a rope or cord which can be utilised in prayer.
There are Orthodox who use the rosary, Anglicans (High Church group) and some Methodists do as well. (Neville Ward, a Methodist minister in UK, wrote a book about the rosary)
The Orthodox rosary is made up of knots...no "decades" (divisions of 10) as in RC Rosaries.
Different prayers are used while fingering the rosary...Rosary doesnt have to be about the Hail Mary. The Orthodox and many others use the Jesus Prayer ( which was Bartimaus' prayer: " Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me, a sinner..." ). Still others use a particular verse of scripture eg "Be still and know that I am God" or an old prayer of the church eg " O Saviour of the world, who by Thy cross and by Thy precious blood has redeemed us, save us and help us, we beseech Thee O Lord". Some people use the rosary for intercession: bead l is for so and so...bead 2 is for so and so....etc....
Why use rosary (the physical object rather than the Hail Mary prayer associated with it)? Itchy fingers is a good reason. Some people need to pray with their hands. So it is merely a tool for prayer....to occupy the fingers. Theologically, we can say it involves the fingers, a part of the body in worship of God.
Vain repetition of prayers? Well, the same applies for singing a verse of hymn or a chorus several times over. Is that vain repetition? The purpose of repeated singing or praying the words is not to ensure that God will hear if we repeat..nor to nag God into doing something....The purpose is to deepen the prayer within ourselves so that we are saying what we mean deep inside ourselves. Our heartbeat then beats with that prayer even without the words being said audibly....
I have no experience in saying the Hail Mary (though I got to know it by heart after hearing it so many times at a RC wake years ago!). Do not intend to say the Hail Mary either since I do not believe in the second part of the prayer....
But in praying other Scriptural prayers, eg the JESUS PRAYER (see above), I have found myself drawn closer to centering on Christ...and submitting myself again to His Lordship in a deeper and more whole way...
THE PILGRIM