Response to Nicholas on Rosary

This post is a long overdue response to the TRUTH PROVIDED NEWSLETTER dated April 31, 2003 on the Rosary. Various tidbits of news or general information were distorted to mock the rosary and to damage the Catholic faith.

Pope Dedicates His General Audience to "The Virgin Mary"
May 7, 1997 (David W. Cloud, Fundamental Baptist News Service, 1701 Harns Rd., Oak Harbor, WA 98277) - On May 7 Pope John Paul II dedicated his general audience to "the Virgin Mary" and urged all Christians to accept Mary as their mother. He noted the words spoken by Jesus on the cross to Mary and to John-- "Woman, behold thy son!" and "Behold thy mother!" (John 19:26,27), and he claimed that in this statement "IT IS POSSIBLE TO UNDERSTAND THE AUTHENTIC MEANING OF MARIAN WORSHIP in the ecclesial community ... which furthermore is based on the will of Christ" (Vatican Information Service, May 7, 1997).

Nicholas knows full well that David Cloud is an anti-Catholic polemicist and author who would find many of his own ideas quite suspect. Ah, but shared bigotry and hatred makes for stranger bedfellows than love. I do not have the original text before me, but in any case, if the phrase Marian "worship" is used then it is a generic translation of the Latin. Sometimes even the word "cult" is used but with none of the pejorative and negative undertones or meaning that we use regarding false religious communities that fall short of being churches. The word worship can be used in many ways. A man might tell his wife that he worships the ground she walks upon. It is a romantic expression and does not mean that he has elevated her to the level of a pagan goddess. Divine worship, according to Catholic doctrine, is reserved to God alone. Marian "worship" is all about intercessory prayer and a recognition that Mary cooperated with her Son in his act of redemption. She said yes to the angel of the Annunciation. She held and nursed Jesus at the manger in Bethlehem. She held the tortured and murdered body of her Son on Calvary. All this makes Mary quite special and worthy of particular honor. Surely, our love and recourse to her as Catholics is the will of Christ. There is no competition between Christ and Mary. Everything about Mary points away from herself and back upon her Son. The citation is incomplete and I suspect it would have been somewhat clarified if we had the missing bits, but there is still enough to get at the truth.

John Paul II underlined that "the history of Christian piety teaches that MARY IS THE PATH THAT LEADS TO CHRIST, and that filial devotion to her does not at all diminish intimacy with Jesus, but rather, it increases it and leads it to very high levels of perfection." He concluded by asking all Christians "to make room (for Mary) in their daily lives, ACKNOWLEDGING HER PROVIDENTIAL ROLE IN THE PATH OF SALVATION" (Ibid.).

Absolutely beautiful, and astutely true, it is too bad that Nicholas and David are not moved intellectually or emotionally by it. It remains true, all the same.

Nicholas cites John 14:6, where Jesus says, "I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me." Yes, but we also have, "Behold your mother!" Listen to ALL the words of Jesus.

There is nothing evil about the rosary. We may find it around the necks of confused kids and desecrated and destroyed by sick people, but true Satanists will have nothing to do with it. Modern day pagans are into nature worship and so are not even on the same playing field with the rosary. Voodoo is a distortion of true faith and is condemned by the Church. Witches, the kind that are into the 666 business, repudiate the rosary. They do not pray it because the mysteries center upon Jesus Christ. Buddhists and others may use beads, but is is NOT the rosary. Protestants are becoming better informed about Catholic practices and realize that there are many ways that authentic believers can pray. It is interesting that certain traditionalists condemn the Church after Vatican II for becoming too Protestant and Nicholas judges the majority of Protestant churches as becoming too Catholic. He will admit nothing of fraternity or unity with Catholics. Indeed, Nicholas, is hard pressed to find many true friends at all-- particularly if they take exception to anything he says.

Nicholas has one charge that appears in almost every post he makes. He insists that the Catholic Church is the "church" of the Anti-Christ. What does that mean? In a nutshell, it means that everyone who is a Catholic or who accepts Catholics as fellow Christians with whom he or she can pray will one day fall to sleep in death and never awaken. It is all quite clear. Nicholas could not say otherwise. Almost the entire world, and certainly the one billion plus Catholics, are damned. I guess heaven will only be populated by Nicholas, and maybe a few of his cronies, but don't bank on it. Pray for Nicholas, everybody. He is a lost brother. The Church preaches Jesus Christ and he cries, foul, that it is the "church" of Satan. I don't know if he'll ever come all the way home to the Church but we can pray for miracles.

Hear that Nicholas? May Our Lord Jesus Christ heal the wounds in your heart and liberate you from any and all demons of prejudice, hated, and ignorance.

Pope Encourages Catholic Youth to Publicly Pray the Rosary
March 11, 2003 - VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- Pope John Paul II encouraged Catholic young people to pray the rosary in public without shame, saying Mary would help them reach the true happiness offered only by Christ. "Humanity has a decisive need for the witness of free and courageous young people who dare to go against the current and proclaim with force and enthusiasm their own faith in God, lord and savior," he said in a message for World Youth Day 2003. "Don't be ashamed to recite the rosary alone, while going to school, to university or to work, along the street and on public transportation," the pope said. "Get into the habit of reciting it among yourselves, in your groups, movements and associations; don't hesitate to suggest its recitation at home to your parents and brothers and sisters, because it revives and strengthens the bonds between family members," he said. The annual message to youth, which came during a year of the rosary proclaimed by the pope, was released March 11 in Italian only at the Vatican. World Youth Day 2003 will be celebrated in most dioceses April 13, Palm Sunday. This year, the U.S. observance of World Youth Day is Oct. 25-26.

Thanks Nicholas, for reporting the good news. The rosary is a wonderful way for us to witness our Christian faith in public, growing in holiness while asking for Mary's intercession and divine assistance.

Pope's Letter on Rosary a Best Seller in Africa
ROME, MARCH 30, 2003 (ZENIT.org-Fides).- John Paul II's apostolic letter for the Year of the Rosary is a best seller for Pauline African publishers. Some 15,000 copies of "Rosarium Virginis Mariae" in English and 20,000 in Swahili have been sold. Also popular is the booklet explaining the new luminous mysteries of the rosary; some 30,000 copies have been distributed. Local Catholic bishops and communities thanked the Pauline Publishers for the speed with which the texts were produced.

ROSARIUM VIRGINIS MARIAE, 19
To bring out fully the Christological depth of the Rosary it would be suitable to make an addition to the traditional pattern which, while left to the FREEDOM of individuals and communities, could broaden it to include the mysteries of Christ's public ministry between his Baptism and his Passion. In the course of those mysteries we contemplate important aspects of the person of Christ as the definitive revelation of God. Declared the beloved Son of the Father at the Baptism in the Jordan, Christ is the one who announces the coming of the Kingdom, bears witness to it in his works and proclaims its demands. It is during the years of his public ministry that the mystery of Christ is most evidently a mystery of light: "While I am in the world, I am the light of the world" (John 9:5) . . . Consequently, for the Rosary to become more fully a "compendium of the Gospel," it is fitting to add, following reflection on the Incarnation and the hidden life of Christ (the joyful mysteries) and before focusing on the sufferings of his Passion (the sorrowful mysteries) and the triumph of his Resurrection (the glorious mysteries), a meditation on certain particularly significant moments in his public ministry (the mysteries of light).

The Pope's booklet on the rosary is proving quite popular worldwide. The Catholic population in poor countries is often the best educated, because of the stress given learning by the Church and her missionaries. Swahili is a beautiful language and their hymns are said to rival traditional Latin. Some African nations, like Nigeria, have so many vocations that African priests are themselves going out to the Western world to re-ignite the fire of true faith. Nicholas mentions that 14 of the 20 nations in the world with the highest illiteracy rate are in Africa. He means the illiteracy remark as a slur, suggesting that Africans are being targeted because they are too ignorant to appreciate real Christianity. Not only is he far off the mark, but vulnerable to the charge of racism, too.

Pope "Oppressed" By War News: Urges Rosaries For Peace
During his regular weekly public audience on Wednesday, Pope John Paul II said that he felt his "heart oppressed" by the latest news from Iraq, and repeated his plea for the faithful to pray the Rosary for peace -EWTN NEWS - 26-March-2003 -- Catholic World News Brief

No matter what side one takes about the war, all sane men should feel their hearts "oppressed" by the need for violence and the death of people, particularly the innocent.

Focolare Group Promoting Rosary for Peace
ROME, MARCH 30, 2003 (Zenit.org).- The Focolare movement's Youth for a United World kicked off a 24-hour-a-day campaign among young people to pray the rosary for peace. The "planetary rosary for peace" carries on, in part, an appeal made by L'Osservatore Romano the day after the Iraqi war started. That appeal also called for round-the-clock recitation of the rosary for peace. The Vatican semiofficial newspaper said the moment had arrived "to intensify supplication to the Queen of Peace so that she would intercede before her Son, the Prince of Peace." The proposal was made on the day that Iraqi Catholics and other Christians consecrated their country to Mary, the Queen of Peace, in St. Joseph's Cathedral in Baghdad. Youth for a United World, active in 180 countries, brings together young people of various races, cultures and religions.

Yes, and thanks again for sharing the news from the Catholic Information services. We should not forget that there are hundreds of thousands of Christians in Iraq, many of them Catholic, and centered in urban areas like Baghdad. If a fundamentalist Islamic government should replace the previous secular dictatorial regime, Christians would be quite vulnerable. Tarak Aziz was himself a Catholic, with the Christian name that we translate as Michael. It is unfortunate that a man who brokered peace in the past and was well liked by many in the Middle East should have allowed himself to become a puppet president for Saddam Hussein. Again, it is no crime to pray for peace. Even President Bush does this every day, while recognizing the need for justice and our security. The Focolare is a wonderful movement in the Church. Many of its members live in common, there is a regimen of prayer, etc. Their witness to chastity is exceptional. We need more people like them in the Church.

It is at this point that Nicholas goes into his slanted take on the news and Catholic teaching:

In Matthew 6:7 we read, "...when ye pray, use not vain repetitions, as the heathen do: for they think that they shall be heard for their much speaking."

The RSV translation (Protestant) gives us a better appreciation of this verse. We read, "And in praying do not heap up empty phrases as the Gentiles do; for they think that they will be heard for their many words." Jesus then teaches them the Lord's Prayer. The New American version (Catholic) translates it as follows: "In praying, do not babble like the pagans, who think that they will be heard because of their many words." The pagans would literally babble a long list of nonsense in the hope that one of the words might be the name of deity who would then be obliged to hear and answer their request. In contrast, the words of the rosary are intelligible and they acknowledge the saving name of Jesus, Son of God and Son of Mary. We beseech Mary's prayers, not as a deity but a woman, who unlike her Son, is simply a creature and no more than human like the rest of us.

No prayer addressed to the Lord or meditating upon the mysteries of Christ can possibly be vain. The Scriptures say nothing about repeating real prayers. How often do we say the Our Father. Should we say it once and quit? No. Repetition can have great value and is a good thing. Prayer keeps the lifeline open between us and heaven. We should pray unceasingly in our word and witness and song. Opponents who oppose the rosary because it contains repeated prayers might reflect upon how wonderful repetition is regarding their lungs and breathing. I do not hear anyone saying they want to stop inhaling and exhaling because it bores them. Just as certain things are repeated in the natural order like breathing, eating, sleeping, etc., there are also spiritual activities that benefit us when repeated. I wonder, would Nicholas forbid believers to pray the Psalms, those wonderful Scriptures that were the prayer book for every good Jew in the time of Christ? Psalm 136 repeats the phrase, "God's love endures forever," in some 26 consecutive verses. Only vain repetition is condemned, not repetition as such. Who should we follow on this question, Nicholas or the Pope?

Poor Nicholas, don't you pray with anyone? His fundamentalist interpretation of Matthew 6:6 would eliminate all public and communal prayer. The Lord tells us that when we gather to pray, he is in our midst. The Pope is not asking for pretend prayers for show, rather he wants Catholic Christians not to be ashamed to express and to share their faith. The wording from the news items Nicholas cited make this distinction clear. Christians pray in both public and private. The Lord was simply warning us against hypocrisy. If a person of genuine faith prays, does it matter if anyone sees him or not. God knows our hearts and he is a jealous God. He wants us totally for himself. How can Nicholas get so caught up with a narrow focus on certain biblical verses and still consistently miss the point? It is frightening. Maybe there are dark spirits that darken the minds of men, particularly those with hatred in their hearts? His interpretation, taken to its logical extreme, would mean that believers could only pray alone in their closets and only the Lord's Prayer at that. Sorry, score another point for the Pope. Poor Nicholas is batting zero.

Well, here it comes. As soon as Nicholas has spouted the worn out old anti-Catholic propaganda, he resorts to his name calling. Believers in the Catholic Church, according to his classification, only "call themselves Christian". Remember, everybody, Nicholas even thinks that the late Mother Teresa is lost because of her Catholicity. Nicholas has no saints, right Nicholas? At least no dead ones. The dead are asleep and the damned wont be coming back, that is essentially everybody who disagrees with Nicholas. If there is any mockery against the Lord, it is rooted in the bigotry that fuels Nicholas' incessant tirades against Catholics and any with Catholic sympathies. He considers our good and holy Pope to be the "anti-Christ" and all who respect him, to be his agents.

Nicholas, loves to put words into the mouths of others and yet the resounding cry here is his: "OBEY ME RATHER THAN GOD!!!" He knows shame.

Nicholas presumes to teach us about the rosary. His peculiar commentary proves interesting.

#1 Looking at the cross, Catholics hold it while they make the sign of the cross and pray the Apostles' Creed which is actually a summary of all the things Catholics are taught to believe.

Nicholas must associate creed and catechism, or maybe he is just upset about the figure of our Lord on the crucifix? Nicholas contends that Catholics have wiped out the second commandment. He tells us to check our catechisms and then compare the text to Exodus 20. Hum, that's funny Nicholas, I have the official universal catechism of the Catholic Church and here on page 496 there is the listing of the Ten Commandments from Exodus 20:2-17, Deuteronomy 5:6-21, and the traditional catechetical version, simplified for memorization by children. I guess he must still have his baby-book catechism. Here is the text from the catechism, also available in Catholic bibles: "You shall have no other gods before me. You shall not make for yourself a graven image, or any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth; you shall not bow down to them or serve them; for I the Lord your God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children to the third and the fourth generation of those who hate me, but showing steadfast love to thousands of those who love me and keep my commandments." The catechetical version simply joins the main thread of the second commandment to the first. Thus, the catechetical version gives the first commandment as "I am the Lord your God (1): You shall not have strange Gods before me (2). For teaching purposes, and simply memorization that biblical 10th commandment is divided: "You shall not covet your neighbor's wife; You shall not covet your neighbor's goods." Nothing of the essentials is omitted. Nicholas would have us return to the Iconoclastic controversy about images. He takes exception to both the cross and the crucifix as representations of the passion and death of Christ. Funny, I seem to recall he used to have animated cross gifs on his web site. I guess he has become even more extreme. Catholic Christians astutely observe that, going back to the ancient Jews, the prohibition against images in practice was never absolute. The ark of the covenant had angels and ornamentation upon it. God ordered Moses to put the bronze image of a seraph serpent upon a pole so that any who would look upon it would recover from the bite of poisonous snakes. The images upon the ark never took the gravity of importance away from what was inside, the commandments that issued forth a covenant between God and his people. Similarly, the snake upon a stick had no power to save, but when people saw it their faith in God brought healing. The seraph stick of Moses was regarded by the early Church fathers as a prefigurement of the cross of Jesus. Those who looked with faith upon the cross, invited the mercy of God and the saving work of Christ into their lives. It is by his sacrifice that we are healed. This understanding, that God was present in Jesus Christ, gave us a whole new economy of images. Jesus is the revelation of the Father. He became a man, and in doing so, elevated natural creation and imprinted there an enduring sign of his loving intervention for us. Images in stone, metal, and in painting could now convey the history of salvation, the mission of Christ, and that of his holy saints and martyrs. Of course, the prohibition against WORSHIPPING images remains, but no good Catholic worships a statue of plaster as divine. Rather, they bring to mind the holy witness of the saints and the abiding presence of our Savior, Jesus Christ.

Nicholas will have none of this. Is he consistent? Probably not. If we interpreted the prohibition against images as stringently as he does then it would also prohibit secular statues, trophies, paintings, even photographs, movies and television. After all, they are not the real thing, only images, pictures or depictions of real life and real people and things. It is in this regard that Nicholas is closer to the thinking of militant fundamentalist Islam than Christianity or modern-day Judaism.

In the Catholic Encyclopedia it states the following for the "Sign of the Cross": A term applied to various manual acts, liturgical or devotional in character, which have this at least in common: that by the gesture of tracing two lines intersecting at right angles they indicate symbolically the figure of Christ's cross. (Catholic Encyclopedia http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/13785a.htm)

It is here Nicholas really gets silly. He loves to pull at straws. No doubt he has borrowed from Lorraine Boettner's infamous anti-Catholic work against Roman Catholicism. The pagan links to Baal here are bogus. The gesturing of the sign of the cross is one of the most ancient of Christian devotions. When done by a Christian, it is NOT the sign of Baal. We place our joined fingers upon our forehead and say, "In the name of the Father, " and then upon the lower center part of the chest, and say, "and of the Son," and then we we move up and over to the left and then the right shoulder, "and of the Holy Spirit."

I doubt the ancient worshippers of Baal would be invoking the Trinity when they crossed themselves, which was not their popular practice, anyway. The limitation of the lower gesture in the sign of the cross has nothing to do with Baal but a great deal to do with the shape of the human body and propriety. Nicholas contends that the Christian cross must have an elongated vertical shaft, even in gesturing. Would Nicholas have everyone pull a "Michael Jackson" every time they blessed themselves and thus touch their privates? This is all quite ridiculous. Equal lengths or not, no one should be fooled. Nicholas is against any kind of gesture!

Nicholas contends that the Baal cross is like the plus sign on a keyboard. He will allow it no other meaning. However, there is no denying that the cross is a symbol used with different meanings around the world and even prior to Christianity. While Nicholas' Baal business is his contrivance, the pictorial representation of the cross like the modern mathematical plus sign signified by its equal lengths the four dimensions of the universe. However, this is not the Christian meaning and the artistic depiction and the gesture usually has a longer vertical shaft or gesture. Nicholas must sit in front of a mirror crossing himself and using a ruler to come up with his bizarre notions and conspiracy fears. While there is much variation in artistic renderings of the cross, Nicholas probably found one with an inverted vertical shaft somewhere and then assumed in his troubled mind that it represented Satanism. For all we know, he bent it himself. In any case, it has absolutely no significance. (Coincidentally, the upside down cross in Catholicism does not represent Satanism but the crucifixion of St. Peter in Rome.)

Nicholas says that every Christian who makes the sign of the cross is saluting both Satan and Baal. Hogwash! We remember the name into which Christ commanded we be baptized, the name of God. At the same time we sign ourselves with the cross, the symbol of our redemption. We touch our heads. Our minds need to be conformed to that of Christ so that our ways will become his ways. We touch our chests, just about where the human heart rests. We must also have hearts like his, burning with self-sacrificing love for one another and devotion to God. We motion from shoulder to shoulder, and recall that we had no passive Savior, but one who stretched out his arms on the cross on our behalf.

#2 On this first bead of the rosary of the rosary the Catholic is taught to pray an 'Our Father.'

Nicholas says the Our Father is not really a prayer at all. Well, dah, yeah we assume it is an actual prayer, Jesus himself recited it to us and we find it in the Bible. It is at this point that anyone with half a brain is wondering if poor Nicholas is quite okay. There is no either/or here. The Lord's Prayer is important because it comes from the mouth of Christ. Do Nicholas ever recite it? Further, no one denies that the Our Father gives us a pattern for our own prayers or dialogue with God. The Catechism of the Catholic Church even uses the verses of The Lord's Prayer to reflect upon this matter, see section 2, articles 1-4.

#3 On each of the next three beads, Catholics are taught to pray a prayer to Mary, called 'the Hail Mary.'

It has already been noted that this is not vain repetition. Further, it provides the prayerful backdrop to our meditation upon a mystery of God.

#4 On the next bead, Catholics are taught to announce the first mystery that this Rosary is about to be dedicated to. They are taught to reflect on what happened to Jesus at the time depicted in the particular mystery. On this bead the "our Father" is repeated the first time.

#5 Here the Catholics are told to pray one 'Hail Mary' on each of the next 10 beads. Then they are told to recite the prayer called 'the Glory Be.'

Nicholas claims that the evil heart of the rosary becomes "graphically" obvious at this stage because of the REPETITION. I guess his sweetheart or his mother would tell him to stop saying, "I love you," because it is vain repetition. Holy smokes, Nicholas, needs to get a life, or at least get a few new and worthwhile ideas. He has no case here but he keeps burying the same dead horse.

Nicholas borrows from SDA theology, although he claims no affiliation with them, that the dead are asleep. He actually thinks they go temporarily out of existence and that only the righteous will awaken to eternal life. If it were not for his mean demeanor, we could have a reasonable discussion about his position. Catholics believe that the saints are already with Christ and that upon Judgment Day a final rendering will be made for the righteous in heaven and the damned in hell. We believe that the annihilation of persons, (Nicholas denies the existence of the soul), is a violation of the divine economy. The self-conscious sentient beings created by God do not pass into utter oblivion. Catholics believe that Mary is with her Son. Yes, Jesus is the Savior of all, but Mary has a special place in heaven as the Mother of the Redeemer, and with Christ's charge to John at the cross, she has also become the spiritual Mother of the Redeemed.

#6 On each bead that separates the preceding ten, the 'our Father' is repeated.

#7 Again, the 'Hail Mary' is prayed/repeated for the next ten beads. Then the 'Glory be' is repeated.

#8 Again on this bead the 'our Father' is repeated.

#9 Again, the 'Hail Mary' is prayed/repeated for the next ten beads. Then the 'Glory be' is repeated.

#10 Again on this bead the 'our Father' is repeated.

#11 Again, the 'Hail Mary' is prayed/repeated for the next ten beads. Then the 'Glory be' is repeated.

#12 Again on this bead the 'our Father' is repeated.

#13 Again, the 'Hail Mary' is prayed/repeated for the next ten beads. Then the 'Glory be' is repeated.

#14 The end of the Rosary (for this dedication) is reached. Now the Catholic is taught to pray the 'Hail Holy Queen.' for the "first" time.

#15 The Catholic is taught to then repeat all of the above for the next two dedications if in fact he or she is going to do an ENTIRE rosary.

Nicholas tells us that the Pope has added a net of mysteries to the rosary. This is true. However, the Mysteries of Light are not about the devil. He quotes 2 Corinthians 11:14: "And no marvel; for Satan himself is transformed into an angel of light." The Luminous Mysteries are optional and yet the truths they entail are NOT optional truths of the Catholic Faith. NIcholas is quick to remind us that Lucifer means light, but the Luminous Mysteries of the rosary refer to Jesus Christ who is the LIGHT OF THE WORLD. Let us look at these mysteries that he maligns:

The Luminous Mysteries
PRAYED ON THURSDAYS

The public life of Our Lord reveals what the reign of God's Kingdom is like -- both in the miracles He worked and in His preaching. We meditate on these mysteries asking Our Lady to help us to allow His light to shine in our darkness.

1. The Baptism of the Lord Jesus -- At the River Jordan, Christ descends into the waters, the innocent lamb who became "sin" for our sake, the heaven's open and the voice of the Father proclaims him the beloved Son, while the Spirit descends on him to invest him with the mission of redemption.

And when Jesus was baptized, he went up immediately from the water, and behold, the heavens were opened and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove. (Matthew 3:16)

2. The Wedding Feast at Cana -- At Cana, through the intervention of Mary, the first among believers, Christ changes water into wine and opens the hearts of the disciples to faith in him.

Jesus said to her, "O woman, what have you to do with me? My hour has not yet come." His mother said to the servants, "Do whatever he tells you." . . . This, the first of his signs, Jesus did at Cana in Galilee. (John 2:4-5,11)

3. The Invitation of Jesus / The Kingdom of God -- Jesus proclaims the coming of the Kingdom of God, calls to conversion and forgives the sins of all who draw near to him in humble trust. He continues his ministry of mercy until the end of the world, through the Sacrament of Reconciliation which he has entrusted to his Church.

Jesus came into Galilee, preaching the gospel of God, and saying, "The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand; repent, and believe in the gospel." (Mark 1:14-15)

4. The Transfiguration -- The glory of the Godhead shines forth from the face of Christ as the Father commands the Apostles to "listen to him" and to prepare to experience with him the agony of the Passion, so as to come with him to the joy of the Resurrection and a life transfigured by the Holy Spirit.

And as [Jesus] was praying, the appearance of his countenance was altered, and his raiment became dazzling white. . . . And a voice came out of the cloud, saying, "This is my Son, my Chosen; listen to him!" (Luke 9:29-35)

5. The Holy Eucharist -- At the Last Supper, Christ offers his body and blood as food under the signs of bread and wine, and testifies "to the end" his love for humanity, for whose salvation he will offer himself in sacrifice.

Now as they were eating, Jesus took bread, and blessed, and broke it, and gave it to the disciples and said, "Take, eat; this is my body." (Matthew 26:26-27).

While the rosary is a wonderful and fruitful prayer, Catholics are not absolutely obliged to say it. There is no contradiction with God's Word. Note the quote at the beginning of this page from the Pope where he remarks about the FREEDOM people have in this regard.The listing of the Luminous Mysteries is ample evidence that it is not graphic worship of Mary. The Pope says, again see his quote, that the new mysteries are to bring out more comprehensively the CHRISTOLOGICAL depth of the rosary. The ultimate efficacy of the prayer depends upon the power of Christ. Nicholas condemns the Hail Mary prayer as spiritualism and necromancy, the worship of the dead body of Mary. Notice how narrow his focus is that he condemns prayer as occult. Look at the other mysteries:

Joyful - The Annunciation of the Lord (Luke 1:26-28), The Visitation (Luke 1:39-41), The Nativity of the Lord (Luke 2:7), The Presentation of the Lord (Luke 2:27-30), Finding Jesus in the Temple (Luke 2:45-47). Even the visitation is Christocentric because the unborn John the Baptist leap in his mother's womb, because his Savior was so near.

Sorrowful - The Agony in the Garden (Matthew 26:39), The Scourging (Matthew 27:26), The Crowning with Thorns (Matthew 27:28-29), The carrying of the Cross (Matthew 27:31-32), and The Crucifixion (Matthew 27:50-51). Meditating upon the great price that Jesus paid so that our sins might be forgiven is certainly not misguided worship and definitely not occult witchcraft as Nicholas charges.

Glorious - The Resurrection (John 20:8), The Ascension of the Lord (Acts 1:7-9), The Descent of the Holy Spirit (Acts 2:3-4), The Assumption of Mary (1 Thessalonians 4:14), and The Crowning of Mary (Revelation 12:1). Again we see the stress upon the work and life of Jesus. Even the two mysteries that regard Mary are linked to Jesus. While it is outside of the biblical context, the early Church held a special place in their hearts for the Mother of Jesus. They passed this love down to us. At the end of her life, Mary was taken by God to join her Son as a sign that the new life merited by Christ would extend to believers. We read, "For since we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so, through Jesus, God will bring with him those who have fallen asleep." This phrase about sleep is a euphemism for death. The Eastern churches call the Assumption, the Dormition of the Blessed Theotokos, which is literally rendered as "The Falling Asleep of the Bearer of God." As for her crowning, it is a symbolic way of speaking and has more to do with Jesus than Mary. Mary is the Queen of the Saints because her Son is the KING.

Returning to the tripe that Nicholas posts, the Catholic Church forbids necromancy and spiritualism. Catholics do not seek two way communication with the dead. The danger is that one can be deluded and/or that evil spiritual entities can feign the identities of the deceased. We recall the holy lives and witness of Mary and the other saints. We ask them to pray WITH and FOR us. Since we do not buy the untenable argument that they are lost in oblivion, and hold that they are conscious and with God, we trust that our solidarity with them is not breached by death. We ask for the intercession as living members of the Church on the other side of the grave.

Remember, Nicholas does not believe in the soul. Is that not right, Nicholas? For him, all the dead are gone and some are gone forever. This is not Catholic teaching.

The business about the Catholic Church manufacturing the "assumption" of Mary some five centuries after the birth of Christ is typical fundamentalist jargon that denies all extra-biblical testimony except that which seems to support their position. We must remember that the oral tradition is far older than the written. Further, when Christianity was outlawed by the state and believers were being put to death by pagan Rome, the taking of notes for bigots like Nicholas some 20 centuries in the future was the furthest thing from their minds.

The dates assigned for it (the assumption) vary between three and fifteen years after Christ's Ascension. -Catholic Encyclopedia http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/02006b.htm.

Look at how he always talks about Mary. He counts the number of prayers in which she is invoked, but explores nothing of their content. Our Christian hope is first realized in Mary. The grave will NOT consume us!

Around and around we go. Mary is a highly blessed daughter, and a creature like all the rest of us. She is NOT a goddess and the Church would never allow such a distortion in her veneration. She is queen because Jesus is the KING. Eternal life comes with membership in his kingdom. Does Nicholas BLASPHEME THE HOLY SPIRIT in calling Mary a "Satan" in disguise? He certainly comes close to this serious sin. Mary's role in the Catholic Church is to draw us closer to her Son. Spouse of the Holy Spirit, she is the Virgin Mother who gives birth to the Savior of all mankind. This is the Mary of the Scriptures and the Mary of the CHURCH. Nicholas forces the Scriptures, Church documents, and the News to his own forced interpretations and biases. The hallmark of the new universal catechism is the Decalogue. All of section 2 under LIFE IN CHRIST is dedicated to the commandments. Nicholas fails to apreciate any of this.

Repetition is an element of the prayer, but that in itself means nothing. Nicholas misunderstands the ban on vain repetition and what the Scripture verse cited actually means. The Pope is urging us to say the rosary. Such repetitious prayer is following the example of Shadrach, Meschach and Abednego (Deuteronomy 3:19-23). Thrown into the furnace for refusing to compromise their faith, they praised God for 39 verses with the same benedictions, crying out, "bless the Lord" and "praise and exalt him above all forever" again and again. A third appeared among them, like a son of man. When we pray the rosary, we are not alone, too. We have the Son of God with us, Jesus Christ. Hail MaryHail Mary, full of grace. The Lord is with thee. Blessed art thou among women, and blessed is the fruit of thy womb, Jesus.

And coming to her, [the angel Gabriel] said, "Hail, favored one! The Lord is with you." (Luke 1:28)

When Elizabeth heard Mary's greeting, the infant leaped in her womb, and Elizabeth, filled with the holy Spirit, cried out in a loud voice and said, "Most blessed are you among women, and blessed is the fruit of your womb." (Luke 1: 41-42)

Gosh gee, the first half of the HAIL MARY is clearly biblical, and yet Nicholas would not have us repeat it. It should not surprise us since he says the OUR FATHER is not a prayer and she not be prayed either. Here we are repeating the salutation of an angel sent by God and Elizabeth, Mary's cousin and the mother of John the Baptist. Why is Mary blessed? It is because of the "fruit" of her womb. She carries the Christ. Just as she physically carried our Lord, she would spiritually bring her Son to our attention in prayer.

Holy Mary, Mother of God, pray for us sinners, now and at the hour of our death. Amen.

"And how does this happen to me, that the MOTHER OF MY LORD should come to me? For at the moment THE SOUND OF YOUR GREETING reached my ears, the infant in my womb leaped for joy. Blessed are you who believed that what was spoken to you by the Lord would be fulfilled." (Luke 1:44-45)

Mary is holy. Indeed, the source of holiness resided in her and she was preserved from the stain of sin because she would be the vessel through whom the Holy One would enter this world. She was the first touched by the redemptive cross, although in an anticipatory way. Who is Mary? She is the Mother of Jesus. Who is Jesus? He is Lord and God. It is according to this appreciation and no other that Mary is allowed her title in the prayer. She is the Mother of Jesus, Lord and God.

We ask Mary to pray for us. Her voice could move the unborn John the Baptist in the womb. Her voice urged Jesus as a boy to return to the family after teaching the teachers in the Temple. Her voice would find a hearing with Christ at Cana where he would perform the first of his public signs, changing water into wine. She sobs at the cross. There we hear the voice of Jesus, "Behold your mother." Mary was the woman of faith. She believed that God's Word would be fulfilled, at the cross and on Easter morning, and again at the end of her life and the lives of all believers. Her voice has not been silenced by death and still wins a hearing from her Son.