what about this what about people who say ah you Catholics you're doing exactly what Jesus warned you against Jesus warned against repeating yourself in prayer did Jesus actually warn against repeating ourselves in prayer or did he actually use another particular phrase do not Babble like the pagans hi my name is father Mike Schmitz and this is essential presents I made a video on the origins of the Rosary you know tful tful to know where things come from origins of everything the superhero origin stories Jesus at one point is teaching on prayer and he says okay
when you pray do not Babble like the pagans sometimes people say this they say Cath you're babbling like the pagans when you have a rosary bead or Rosary rosary and pray on the rosary beads and rep repeat yourself in prayer you're just doing exactly what Jesus told you not to do now again Jesus did not say do not repeat yourself in prayer how do we know this a because he didn't say it B because he himself repeated himself in prayer if you go back to the story of Jesus in The Garden of Gethsemane what does
he do he prays to his father using the same words multiple times he repeated himself in prayer so Jesus is not condemning rep repeative prayer also if Jesus was a good Jew and we know he was a good Jew that would mean that he would pray the Psalms and he didn't just pray the Psalms once he most likely repeated the Psalms so many times that he had largely committed them to Memory so he could repeat those psalms those prayers anytime he wanted to Jesus was not condemning repeating oneself in prayer he was condemning babbling like
the pagans he says when you pray do not Babble like the pagans here's the next part of the phrase which is so critical for us who who think that because of their many words they'll be heard so we have to ask the question who are the pagans well these were the Greco Roman peoples who are surrounding Israel at the time or even other mes Mesopotamian folks and cultures didn't have belief in one God they had a belief in a Pantheon of gods right we guys we know this we've seen Percy Jackson we know the story
we've read about Hercules and all these kind of things where we have the the pagans would have a Pantheon as I said a Pantheon of gods and they would pray to them but when you pray to the pantheon of Gods here's something that's really really critical you knew that those gods were not good you knew that those gods were not just you knew that those gods did not care about you you knew that those gods did not love you and so if you're going to actually pray to those greo Roman gods or the Ser Mesopotamian
Gods you were taking your life in your hands basically you were risking being cursed by the gods just as much as you were banking on getting blessed by the gods Zeus could easily just throw a lightning bolt boom and curse you kill you as he could send abundance and bless you so if you're going to pray you prayed for one of two reasons either you were so desperate that you were willing to risk getting cursed by the god in order to get blessed by the god or you wanted to preemptively get the God in your
good side so you go to the temple offer up your sacrifice and then hopefully you keep the god at a distance now I think this is fascinating I think this is one of the ways one of the reasons why a lot of Christians pray like I don't really talk to God a lot until I'm really desperate and then I'm going a come into into God's presence and ask him beg him for this favor or we say this or we say okay God I'll give you one hour a week and the other 167 hours of the
week are mine to do whatever I want with think about that that's we sometimes as Christians even pray like the pagans but what Jesus is saying is when those pagans approached the gods right they babbled meaning they had to fight to get the God's attention because they didn't trust that the gods were paying attention to them because why because they weren't not only because they didn't exist but because that was the nature of those gods and goddesses they don't care about you so Jesus is making this massive claim and he's saying okay here's the deal
those Gods Not only they not real they don't care about you so yeah you have the incantations and say the right things in just the right way to get their attention he says but when you pray don't do that when you pray realize who you're praying to realize who you're talking to you're talking to God your father those other gods and goddesses you had to fight to get their attention here is God who's actually didn't to get your attention those other gods and goddesses they didn't care about you here is the true God who actually
cares about you those other gods they don't love you here is the Father in Heaven who loves you so when you pray you do not have to jump through a bunch of Hoops you do not have to shout any incantations you don't have to babble like the pagans you just get to turn to the father and say Our Father who art in heaven Hallowed be thy name basically the moment you turn to the father you realize he's already you already have his attention which is amazing incredible news and so again look back to the Rosary
when Jesus is telling his Apostles his disciples When you pray you don't have to fight for God's attention you have his attention he's not saying don't repeat yourself in prayer and so here as c as my fellow Catholics when we pray the rosary here's the thing we need to stay away from and and for every prayer we have whether that's going to mass or reading the scriptures or coming before God in adoration whatever kind of prayer we have we are not trying to convince God to give us the good thing why because God is good
we're not say if I if I go to mass then good things will happen if I pray the rosary good things will happen if I if I do X Y and Z good things will happen no why because God is good when we pray the rosary what we're trying to do is we're saying okay God I'm going to take a moment and I meditate on the life of Jesus at some stage right whether it's the Joyful Mysteries or the sorrowful mysteries or the Glorious Mysteries or those extra Mysteries the Luminous Mysteries God I'm going to
meditate on your life I'm going to ask your mom who you gave to me as my mom to pray for me and pray with me to the father there's something powerful about that but I'm not trying to convince an indifferent God to be good to me I'm not trying to convince a bad God to pay attention to me we're coming before God who is our loving father our good Dad we're meditating on the life of his son on Earth and we're coming before him knowing that we don't have to fight for his attention we're not
babbling like the pagans we have his attention we simply get to speak to him and get to speak to him with his mom with the other Saints who have been devoted to the rosary to all the saints who are in heaven we're not alone yes we approach God personally but we always approach him as part of a family that's really really good news anyways we don't Babble like the pagans as long as we know who we're talking to our god who's a good and loving dad anyways from all here to S your presents my name
is brother Mike God bless [Music]
