The Rosary Sending Sinners Further Away from God
The Pope recently invited Roman Catholics to pray the rosary, stating that October was “the month of the Rosary”. His most recent predecessors also have greatly encouraged this idolatrous rite, though the use of a string of beads as an aid to prayer has been common in the Church of Rome for centuries. Other religions such as Islam have similar practices. When Romanists “pray the rosary” they imagine that by reciting certain statements in rotation – turning a bead at each point in the ritual – they are entering into meditation on themes in the life of Christ.
The real focus of the Rosary, however, is on Mary and “participation in the life of Mary”, with the idea of coming “to Christ through Mary”. Such misguided devotion therefore leads poor sinners away from Christ’s mediation and sets up a human mediatrix between the soul and the Saviour. When the Pope invites the recital of the rosary, he is actually sending sinners further away from the God against whom they have sinned, substituting a ritual in the place of the true prayer for mercy that the sinner needs in drawing near to the Lord.
In this connection John Owen states, “They have, under the name and pretence of the means of mortification, or the duties of it, invented and enjoined, like the Pharisees, a number of works, ways, duties, so called, which God never appointed, nor approved, nor will accept; nor shall they ever do good to the souls of men. Such are their confessions, disciplines, pilgrimages, fastings, abstinence, framed prayers,1 to be repeated in stated canonical hours, in such a length and number. In the bodily labour of these things they exercise themselves to no spiritual advantage.”2 The solemn question that the framers and practitioners of such unscriptural worship will yet be forced to answer is, Who hath required these things at your hands? AWM
1It is likely that, among other things, the recitation of the rosary is intended in this reference to “framed prayers” – that is, prayers framed by others.
2John Owen, “Meditations and Discourses on the Glory of Christ Applied to Sinners and Saints”, in The Works of John Owen, vol 1, Banner of Truth Trust, 1965 reprint, p 453.