Would Jesus Condemn the Rosary? Jesus condemns ‘vain repetition’ in prayer . . . but Catholics also have the rosary.

Are Catholics guilty of “vain repetition” in prayer? Protestants often make this accusation. They say that repeated standard prayers—rather than spontaneous, improvised prayers—is pointless and even damaging. Typically, this comes up with regard to the holy rosary, but it is often applied more broadly. The claim is that Our Lord specifically condemned repetitive prayer during his earthly ministry, and Catholics are in violation of this prohibition.

The passage in question comes during the Sermon on the Mount in the Gospel of Matthew: “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. Do not be like them, for your Father knows what you need before you ask him” (6:7-8). In some translations—including the King James, which is the translation of choice for a great number of Protestants—“empty phrases” is translated as “vain repetitions.”

So was Jesus condemning repetition in prayer?

Let’s take careful note of the qualifier in the sentence, as that adjective makes clear what our Lord is saying: vain repetition or emptyphrases. Jesus is not condemning all repetition in prayer; if that were his intention, he would not have needed that qualifier. It would have been much clearer for him to say, “Do not heap up repetition in prayer, which is in vain” or something similar. As it is, he condemned not all repetition, but vain or empty repetition.

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