A Brief History of the Rosary (Catholic.com)

A Brief History of the Rosary (Catholic.com)
Over a hundred years of spiritual turmoil and civil unrest had ravaged the twelfth-century French countryside. Heretics’ rejection of marriage in particular had torn apart families and fostered vice. Dispatched on an urgent mission by the Spanish king, a young priest named Dominic Guzman (1170–1221) was moved by the suffering of the ordinary people he encountered on his journey.

Pious legend holds that the Blessed Mother appeared to Dominic in a dream. She gave him the beaded chain on which the prayers of the rosary were to be recited and told him that prayer and meditation on the life of her Son would defeat heresy.

Although this legend is a lovely story, the development of the rosary is more complex. According to a recent interview he gave Zenit news agency, Fr. Ennio Staid, a Dominican theologian and expert on the subject, said Mary’s Psalter predated Dominic, though he and the Dominicans became its principal promoters.In its history of the rosary, The Catholic Encyclopedia (vol. 13, p. 184–189) recounts that in the early centuries of the Church monks would recite the Psalms as part of their rule of life. Since learning the Psalms was necessarily restricted to those who could read, a simpler prayer tradition was needed for the illiterate brothers. The Lord’s Prayer was adopted for this purpose; the brothers would recite 150 Our Fathers to correspond to the number of Psalms.

Small stones were used originally to count the prayers. Later, beads were strung as prayer counters. In the early part of the second millennium, with the rise of widespread medieval devotion to the Blessed Mother, the Hail Mary developed and gained popularity and was inserted into the prayer tradition. (See The New Catholic Encyclopedia, vol. 12, pp. 667–670).

During the twelfth century the praying of the Hail Mary spread in the West. Gabriel’s annunciation to Mary was, until the seventh century, the antiphon of the offertory of the fourth Sunday of Advent, a Sunday with particular Marian significance. At that time the Hail Mary ended with "blessed is the fruit of they womb." The name Jesus and the second part—"Holy Mary, Mother of God . . ."—were introduced around 1483.

Between 1410 and 1439, Dominic of Prussia, a Cologne Carthusian, proposed to the faithful a form of the Marian Psalter in which there were 50 Hail Marys, each followed by a verbal reference to a Gospel passage. The Carthusian’s idea caught on, and psalters of this type multiplied in the fifteenth century. The references to the Gospel grew numerous, at one point reaching 300, according to the regions and favorite devotions.

Dominican Alain de la Roche (1428–1478) did a great work in promoting the Marian Psalter, which during his lifetime began to be called "Rosary of the Blessed Virgin Mary," thanks to his preaching and to the Marian confraternities he founded. The rosary was simplified in 1521 by Dominican Alberto da Castello, who chose 15 evangelical passages for meditation, which included the short prayer at the end of the Hail Marys. The final, traditional form was standardized during the pontificate of one of Dominic’s spiritual sons, Pope St. Pius V (1566–1572).

A wide variety of prayer traditions have been attached to the rosary. The Franciscans developed their own form, which has survived into our time. The faithful have added other prayers to the traditional form. In the U.S., the rosary usually begins with the Apostles Creed, while in other parts of the world it opens with Psalm 70. In some places, since the apparitions at Fatima, Portugal, in 1917, the prayer that our Lady is believed to have taught the young seers has been added after the concluding Gloria of each decade. Some end the rosary with the prayer Hail, Holy Queen; others add Pope Leo XIII’s prayer for protection to St. Michael the Archangel or a favorite litany in honor of the Blessed Mother.

Reference: Catholic.com

Have you ever been visited by Jehovah's Witnesses?

Well, my friends it happened to me for the very first time over this past weekend. Two really nice, very polite ladies knocked at my door this past Saturday (Memorial Day weekend) and wanted to share their faith with me. In other word they wanted to start a conversation or a dialogue by which they would share their faith and show me doctrinal errors my faith had i.e.” Catholicism”. That the Catholic Church was very worldly, Catholic Churches involvement in politics and wars, especially World War I. Now, please keep this in mind, JW do not vote, or get involved in earthly issues.

So, as a baptized Catholic, my responsibility is and will always remain to the Church on how I should defend it from erroneous claims. Having an inquiring mind, I wanted more clarification in terms of Pope Pius’ involvement in World War I. But, when I wanted to get proof of our (Catholic Churches) involvement in WARS, these two nice ladies weren’t able to provide any or in other words “a” strong argument.

Well, after they left I became very curious that afternoon and wanted to explore more about the JW's doctrine. So, this is what I found during my research. My goal is not to bore you, help keep the information accurate, concise. I hope you enjoy…

About roughly Fifty years ago the Jehovah's Witnesses numbered fewer than 100,000. At the present time there are several million of them around the world. They don’t have churches; they have "Kingdom Halls" instead. Their congregations are uniformly small, usually numbering less than two hundred and the sad part is most Witnesses used to be Catholics (fallen away Catholics) or Protestants.

Brief History:

Charles Taze Russell (founder of JW) was born in 1852 and worked in Pittsburgh as a haberdasher. He was raised a Congregationalist, but at the age of seventeen he tried to convert an atheist to Christianity and ended up being converted instead—not to outright atheism, but to agnosticism. Some years later he went to an Adventist meeting, and was told that Jesus would be back at any time, and got interested in the Bible. (Catholic.com)This doctrine about Jesus’ return and knowing the year, date and time is heavily professed and claimed in the JW faith and I am sure his Adventist influence played a major part in predicting Christ’s return. Time after time their leaders have predicated Jesus’ coming via their doctrine since the formation of their sect. But, unfortunately their predictions have failed. WE ARE STILL HERE!!!!

Prediction Blunders of Christ’s Return and erroneous prophecies:

Date: 1843 (Failed attempt)
Date: 1914 (Failed attempt)

One of Russell’s successors a gentleman by the name of Rutherford said that in 1925 Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and the prophets would return to Earth, and for them he prepared a mansion named Beth Sarim in San Diego, California. He moved into this mansion (where he died in 1942) and bought an automobile with which to drive the resurrected patriarchs around. The Watch Tower Society quietly sold Beth Sarim years later to cover up an embarrassing moment in their history, namely another failed prophecy. (Catholic.com)


Formation of Jehovah Witnesses:

In 1879, Russell began the Watch Tower—what would later be known as the Watchtower Bible and Tract Society, the teaching organ of the Jehovah’s Witnesses. In 1908 he moved its headquarters to Brooklyn, where it has remained ever since. (Catholic.com)In order to raise money, Russell indulged into shady schism like "miracle wheat," which he sold at sixty dollars per bushel. He claimed it would grow five times as well as regular wheat. In fact, it grew slightly less well than regular wheat, as was established in court when Russell was sued. Later he marketed a fake cancer cure and what he termed a "millennial bean" (which a wag has said probably got that name because it took a thousand years to sprout). (Catholic.com)

After Russell died in 1916 many successors came and in 1931 their faith sects name was officially changed to Jehovah’s witnesses by which name they are presently known and it’s based off Bible verse from Isaiah 43:10 ("‘You are my witnesses,’ is the utterance of Jehovah, ‘even my servant whom I have chosen . . . ,’" New World Translation). (Catholic.com)

Jehovah witnesses’ doctrine; what do they believe?

Jehovah witnesses’ do not believe Jesus Christ is GOD and that he had a divine nature. Almost similar view point as Muslims believe Jesus is not GOD or son of GOD. Jehovah witnesses identify Jesus with Michael the Archangel.

“One of the most unique doctrines the Jehovah’s Witnesses teach is that Christ, both before he came to Earth and since he has returned to heaven, was and is Michael the Archangel. To argue this, the Witnesses use 1 Thessalonians 4:16: "the Lord himself will descend from heaven with a commanding call, with an archangel’s voice and with God’s trumpet." (Unless otherwise noted, all quotations are from the New World Translation [NWT] of the Bible, published by the Watchtower Bible and Tract Society, the parent organization for the Jehovah’s Witnesses.) From this verse the Witnesses conclude that the Lord Jesus Christ is an archangel because he has "an archangel’s voice." No other denomination has ever come up with such a conclusion, because every other denomination has concluded that the return of the Lord will simply be heralded by an archangel. But let’s continue with the Witnesses’ argument.” (Catholic.com)

They also believe in the non-existence of hell and the annihilation of unsaved people (a doctrine he picked up from the Adventists), the don’t believe in the Trinity (he said only the Father, Jehovah, is God), the reduction of the Holy Spirit from a person to a force, the mortality (not immortality) of the soul, and the return of Jesus in 1914. Which as you know failed as well and we are still here on earth awaiting our Messiah’s return. Bible Translation used by Jehovah

Witnesses:.

The New World Translation (NWT), the JWs’ own Bible version, was created between 1950-61 in several parts, beginning with New Testament (NT). The translation was made by an "anonymous" committee, which transliterated and altered passages that were problematic for earlier JWs. Nathan Knorr, Fred Franz, Albert Schroeder, George Gangas, and Milton Henschel were later identified as the men that created the text, which is used by no other sect. Franz studied non-biblical Greek for two years, and taught himself Hebrew. The rest had no formal training in any biblical language. The text of the NWT is more of a transliteration to fit theological presumptions than it is a true translation. This can be seen in key verses that the WTS changed in order to fit its doctrines. (Catholic.com)

Jehovah’s also use a supplementary book “Reasoning from the Scriptures -Which, they use for the interpretation of the New World Translation Bible.

There is much more to their faith, my brief explanation of their doctrine gives you a snap shot of what they believe and profess. Anyhow, if you want to learn more about the Jehovah witnesses’ and I hope it’s mainly for scholarly reason. Then, please check out Catholic.com, they have tons of articles on JW. Equip yourselves before a JW approaches you. God Bless.