Most Protestants take issue with the Rosary. Although Catholics pray the rosary to honor Mary and ask for her intercession, protestants see it as amounting to worshipping her.
But what if we were to tell our Protestant friends that they should pray the Rosary and can do it in a way that doesn’t violate their beliefs?
Here’s how to explain this!
Only pray the first half of the Hail Mary.
That’s the part that goes, “Hail Mary, full of grace, the Lord is with thee; blessed art thou among women, and blessed is the fruit of thy womb, Jesus.” Protestants shouldn’t have any issue with this because the words come from Scripture: the angel Gabriel’s greeting to Mary in Luke 1:28 and St. Elizabeth’s words to Mary in Luke 1:42.
If Sts. Gabriel and Elizabeth could address these words to Mary, and so can Protestants. We’re literally praying the Scriptures!
Protestants can leave off the second part of the Hail Mary if they’re not yet comfortable calling Mary the Mother of God or asking for her intercession.
Some Protestants worry that the number of Hail Marys in the Rosary amounts to the “vain repetition” of prayers condemned by Jesus. But saying 53 Hail Marys is only a problem if you pray them without love or think that repeated prayers will automatically win you favors. Repeating prayers out of love is perfectly acceptable. After all, Revelation 4:8 records that there are four living creatures in heaven and that “day and night they never cease to sing, ‘Holy, holy, holy, is the Lord God Almighty, who was and is and is to come!’”
Most of the other prayers of the Rosary should pose no issue.
Many Protestants already pray the Our Father, which, of course, comes directly from Jesus. Most Protestants believe in the Holy Trinity, so the Glory Be should be fine.
The Salve Regina (“Hail, Holy Queen”) can be skipped.
So we say to our Protestant friends, “What’s keeping you from praying this modified Rosary in which you’re mostly reciting passages from the Bible? We encourage you to give it a try.”
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