Why do Catholics repeat the same prayer over and over again when they pray the Rosary? Is this not the vain repetition condemned by Christ in Matthew 6:7?
Catholics do not just repeat the same prayer over and over again when they pray the Rosary. The Rosary is a progression of many prayers–the Apostles’ Creed, the Lord’s Prayer, the Gloria, the Hail Mary and the Salve Regina–and these prayers are accompanied by many holy meditations. As the Rosary progresses, Catholics meditate on the joyful, the sorrowful, and the glorious mysteries of the life of Christ and His Mother. True, the Hail Mary is repeated many times during the course of the Rosary, and some of the other prayers are repeated several times, but this is not “vain” repetition, certainly not the vain repetition condemned by Our Lord. The vain repetition He condemned is that of people who pray standing “in the corners of the streets, that they may be seen by men.” No prayer is vain, no matter how often repeated, if it is sincere, for Christ Himself engaged in repetitious prayer in the Garden of Gethsemani (“. . .
