Audio only:
Does the Rosary violate Jesus’ warning against “vain repetition” in Matthew 6:7? In this episode, Karlo Broussard explores the biblical and theological evidence showing that Christ condemns mindless and quantity-focused prayer—not meaningful repetition—and why the Rosary, rightly understood, draws us deeper into meditation on the life of Christ.
TRANSCRIPT:
The rosary is one of the most popular Catholic devotions we have. And the Catechism of the Catholic Church, in paragraph 1674, explicitly endorses it as a “form of piety” that expresses the “religious sense of the Christian people.” But for many Protestants, the rosary causes great concern—especially because of all the repetition, particularly the repeated Hail Marys. They’ll often point to Jesus’ words in Matthew 6:7, quoting the King James Version, “Use no vain repetitions as the heathens do.”
On the surface, it can look like the rosary is doing exactly what Jesus told us not to do. So the question is pretty straightforward: Is praying the rosary a direct violation of Jesus’ command?
Short answer: no, it’s not.
And today, we’re gonna see why.
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Alright! So you’re probably thinking, “Another Catholic video responding to the ‘vain repetition’ objection. Haven’t we heard this a million times already?”
Yes you have—and I get it. There’s no shortage of articles and videos tackling this issue. And yes, I’m adding my voice to the conversation.
But I think there are a few important questions that often get overlooked in these discussions. So my hope is that by focusing on those, I can contribute something a little extra.
As I mentioned earlier, many Protestants believe the repetitious prayers of the rosary violate Jesus’ warning in Matthew 6:7.
Loraine Boettner appeals to this verse in his book Roman Catholicism. And for a more recent example, Daniel Martiz — a non-denominational Christian with the YouTube channel DLM Christian Lifestyle — seems to appeal to the same idea in his video “The Rosary — The Shocking Truth that Most People Don’t Know.”
If you want a full response to Martiz’s video, I highly recommend Joe Heschmeyer’s reply titled Does the Bible CONDEMN the Rosary?
So how do we respond to this objection?
First, Jesus can’t be condemning repetitious prayer as such.
Why? Because the Bible itself affirms prayers that involve repetition.
Let’s start in the Old Testament. Take the shema prayer in Deuteronomy 6:4-7. God commands the following:
[READ #1]
“These words which I command you this day shall be upon your heart; and you shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, and when you walk by the way, and when you lie down, and when you rise.”
That’s a lot of times to repeat the prayer throughout the day—and it’s commanded by God.
We also have the Psalms. The Psalms were prayers meant to be prayed over and over again. And some of them explicitly use repetition.
Psalm 136 is a great example. The refrain “for his steadfast love endures forever” appears twenty-six times. Are we really supposed to believe the Holy Spirit inspired something Jesus later condemned? Of course not.
Now, someone might say, “Okay, but maybe Jesus wasn’t condemning such repetitious prayer in the Old Testament but simply moving away from it.”
But that doesn’t work either.
Right after Jesus warns against “vain repetitions,” he says, “Pray like this…” and gives us the Our Father. Are we supposed to pray it only once? Are we forbidden from repeating the Lord’s Prayer throughout the day?
I think most Protestants would agree that the answer is no. It would be a bit strange for God to command the shema prayer to be said repeatedly in a day but not the Our Father.
As we turn to the New Testament, we have Jesus himself.
In the Garden of Gethsemane, Jesus prays, “Father…remove this cup…not what I will, but what you will” (Mark 14:36). Mark tells us that Jesus prayed this multiple times, and even says explicitly in verse 39, “[A]gain he went away and prayed, saying the same words.” Surely, Jesus wouldn’t have given us an example of improper prayer.
This idea of repetitious prayer is also found in Jesus’s parable of the persistent widow in Luke 18:3-9. The widow just keeps going back to the judge with her request for vindication. She doesn’t give up. And eventually, the judge gives in.
When Jesus explains the parable, the takeaway is clear: God responds to those who cry out to Him day and night. In other words, persistence in prayer—even repeating the same request—is not only allowed, it’s encouraged.
So Jesus wasn’t against repetitious prayer. In anything, he affirmed it.
One last biblical example: Revelation 4:8. John describes the angels in heaven who “Day and night they never cease to sing, Holy, holy, holy, is the Lord God Almighty.” If repetition is a problem, heaven itself seems like a strange place.
And these are the same angels Isaiah saw centuries earlier in Isaiah 6:1-3, saying the same thing.
So the Bible—from start to finish—clearly affirms prayers that involve repetition. That tells us Jesus can’t be condemning repetition per se.
The question now is, “So what is he condemning?”
Let’s start with the Greek. The Greek word translated “vain repetition” is battalogeō. According to A Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament and Other Early Christian Literature (commonly referred to as BDAG; pg. 172), battalogeō means speaking in a stammering way, saying the same words over and over again without thinking. But it can also mean “to use many words, to speak for a long time,” the emphasis being on the quantity of words. J.P. Louw and E.A. Nida give this definition in their Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament: Based on Semantic Domains (pg. 398).
Which meaning does Jesus have in mind?
The context reveals that Jesus is targeting the quantity of prayers. Consider that Jesus says in verse 7, “For they [the Gentiles] think that they will be heard for their many words”—as if piling up words can wear down the gods to get what they want. That’s the mentality Jesus rejects—the mentality that sheer volume of words ensures that God hears us.
This is exactly how the Gloss Ordinaria—the standard medieval biblical commentary—interpreted the passage. Aquinas quotes it in his Catena Aurea, a compilation of commentary on Scripture from the early Church fathers. Here’s the commentary from the Gloss Ordinaria:
[READ #2]
What He condemns is many words in praying that come of want of faith; “as the Gentiles do.” For a multitude of words were needful for the Gentiles, seeing the daemons could not know for what they petitioned, until instructed by them; they think they shall be heard for their much speaking.
That explains why Jesus immediately adds in verse 8, “Don’t be like them [the heathens], for your Father knows what you need before you ask him.” The implication is that it’s futile to think a bunch of words is needed for God to hear a prayer, because he already knows it.
St. Augustine makes the same point in his commentary on Matthew. He writes,
[READ #3]
For we use many words then when we have to instruct one who is in ignorance, what need of them to Him who is Creator of all things; “Your heavenly Father knoweth what ye have need of before you ask Him.
Aquinas includes this passage in his Catena Aurea.
So, Jesus isn’t worried about repetition as such. He’s condemning the idea that more words automatically make prayer effective.
Now, I do think Jesus’ condemnation of “vain repetition” also involves a condemnation of mindless prayer—prayer that involves words with no attention, no intention, and no engagement of the heart. That was common in pagan prayer, which aimed at appeasing the gods rather than forming the heart.
But Jesus teaches that Christian prayer is different. The heart must be engaged. And that requires understanding what we’re praying.
Now, when it comes to the rosary, and what the Church teaches about the rosary, it’s clear that what Jesus is condemning doesn’t apply. According to the Catechism in paragraph 971, the rosary is an “epitome of the whole gospel.” It’s meant to focus our minds and hearts on the mysteries of Christ’s life—the Incarnation, the Nativity, Christ’s ministry, death, resurrection, and ascension.
Meditating on these mysteries is meant to give us a deeper knowledge of Christ and draw us into a deeper communion with him, so that we can be more conformed to him. And Mary is included because her soul “magnifies the Lord” (Luke 1:46). The rosary, therefore, is ultimately about meditating on Christ to foster a greater love for him, not manipulating God with words.
So the rosary is worlds apart from what Jesus condemns.
Now, that doesn’t mean someone can’t fall into vain repetitions. That’s always a danger—with any prayer. This being the case, we must always check ourselves and stay on guard against mindless prayers, whether it’s the rosary or some other devotion.
We should also be on guard against importing New Age mantra-style practices into Christian prayer—practices that involve mindless repetition. Paul Senz makes this point in his article “Would Jesus Condemn the Rosary?” at catholic.com.
Okay, so much for the apologetics part! Let’s now turn to some important theological and pastoral questions that I think need to be answered.
What I said earlier about “mindless” prayer sparks the first one. Someone might wonder, “How attentive do we have to be in praying the rosary?”
I think we can look to St. Thomas Aquinas for some help. In the second part of the second part of his Summa Theologiae, question 83, article 13, Aquinas explains that when it comes to the end of prayer being better obtained—which is devotion ((a movement of the will to readily subject oneself to things pertaining to God)—Aquinas says that conscious attentiveness is necessary.
But when it comes to the effects of prayer, sustained attentiveness is necessary only for one of the three.
For meriting an increase in grace (the first effect) and obtaining what we ask (the second effect), the original intention with which one begins the prayer is sufficient.
But for what he calls “spiritual refreshment of the mind” (the third effect), continued attentiveness is necessary. And for support he quotes 1 Corinthians 14:14, where St. Paul writes, “If I pray in a tongue . . . my understanding is without fruit.”
Now, you might be asking yourself, “What kind of attentiveness does Aquinas have in mind here?” He lists three.
First, there is attention to words, making sure that we don’t say the wrong thing.
Second, there is attention to their meaning.
Third, there is attention to the end of prayer, namely, God, and what we’re asking for.
For Aquinas, all three matter. But the last one is most important, especially because when prayers are committed to memory the first and second senses of attention are easily fulfilled.
Alright. Here’s another important question: Even if repetition is okay, what’s its purpose—particularly in the rosary?
Well, I can think of four things it achieves.
First, it orders the will toward God. Every Hail Mary and Our Father that we pray involves a new act of desire for the spiritual goods we’re asking for in the prayers. Such repetitive requests keep the will fixed on these spiritual goods, which in turn keeps the will fixed on God because we recognize he’s the source of these goods.
Second, repetition intensifies love—for Jesus and for our Blessed Mother. Each repeated prayer expresses renewed trust in God’s grace and renewed trust in Our Lady’s assistance, thereby deepening our love for both. As St. Augustine says in Epistle 130—his Letter to Proba, “by means of words and other signs [in repeated prayer] we arouse ourselves more effectively to an increase of holy desires.”
Third, repetition provides a stable verbal framework, freeing the mind to contemplate the mysteries of Christ’s life rather than scramble for new words, while at the same time willing the requests that each prayer expresses.
Fourth, the repeated pursuit of the good in and through the prayers forms virtue, building stable dispositions of faith, hope, and charity. That shapes the soul over time into a saintly soul.
So there we have it: a four-fold purpose of repetitious prayer.
Okay. There’s one last thing I want to share about repetitious prayer, and in particular it’s usage in the rosary. And it’s not so much a theological question but more of a pastoral point. And again, it comes from Aquinas.
In that same question 83, article 14 of the second part of the second part of his Summa Theologiae, Aquinas provides us with a helpful principle: the quantity of a thing should be commensurate with its end.
In layman terms, that just means you use as much of something as the goal calls for—no more, no less. For example, you only use the amount of medicine that’s needed for restoring health. You don’t use ten pain killers for a mild headache—the amount should fit the purpose.
Applied to prayer, Aquinas says prayer should last long enough to arouse devotion—but if it causes weariness, it should stop. Here’s what he says:
[READ #4]
“[P]rayer should last long enough to arouse the fervor of the interior desire: and when it exceeds this measure, so that it cannot be continued any longer without causing weariness, it should be discontinued.”
If we apply that to repetitious prayer, Aquinas would have us stop the repetition and employ another form of prayer if such repetition is causing weariness within the soul—a loss of fervor of devotion.
And that matters pastorally. Some Catholics feel guilty for not wanting to pray the rosary. But they fail to realize that it might be due to the simple fact that they’re weary with the repetition, and need to foster devotion in some other way. Perhaps at that moment the Holy Spirit is moving them to another form of prayer for a season. Just like in human relationships, our relationship with the Lord involves a variety of different ways in which we express love for him.
So here’s the wrap up!
Jesus isn’t condemning repetitious prayer itself because the Bible throughout is favorable of that kind of prayer. What he’s condemning is prayer focused on quantity rather than the heart. The rosary, as the Church understands it, doesn’t fall under that condemnation.
Yes, we must guard against prayer becoming empty or mechanical. But that doesn’t mean we reject repetitious prayer all together—especially when see consider the spiritual goods it can produce.
Finally, if the repetition in the rosary no longer is assisting us to achieve the end of devotion, then we would do well to employ some other form of prayer, and perhaps go back to the rosary at some other time.
Well, my friends, that’s it for today. If you found this video helpful, make sure to like, subscribe, comment below, and share it with someone who might need to hear it.
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