Wow Cheryl, can that really be?

Malleus, where are you to clear up this confusion!

Yawn.Actually Voice I was asleep, but my Mom called me to tell me to get up and watch the papal mass on television (and she's not even Catholic!)

The reason that the papal blessing of the rosary is important since it is also accomopanied by a plenary indulgence. 

An before you ask a plenary indulgence is s the full or partial remission of temporal punishment due for sins which have already been forgiven. The indulgence is granted by the church after the sinner has confessed and received absolution. The belief is that indulgences draw on the storehouse of merit acquired by Jesus' sacrifice.

It replaced a lot of the more severe penances of the early Church.Though I think one would be better servd by the old penances. Plenary indulgences are always conditional. In other word you have to do something in order to "activate" it (in this case pray the rosary).

Just please tell me they were nice rosaries and not the cheap plastic ones...lol 

I thank you and the Church thanks you.

Hope the answer helped. 

I wonder if itt would apply to this?

http://www.virtualrosary.org/

Though bringing a laptop to Mass would be quite gauche.... 

I almost laughed when I read Cheryl's first response.  When you gave your course on the Catholic faith I hope that you taught your class what Catholics really believe.  I'm pretty sure that the Church doesn't say that if the Pope kisses your Rosary that you are automatically saved because of it.  I do hope that you were joking.  Getting something blessed is not only a Catholic thing.  I've seen Protestant ministers on TV sending out blessed cloths if you give so much money to their ministry.

The Rosary is a prayer or a meditation on the life of Christ.  If you would like more information about how to pray the Rosary I invite you to check out RosaryArmy.com.

The Rosary is actually quite Scriptural.

• The Glorious Mysteries 

• The Joyful Mysteries

• The Luminous Mysteries 

• The Sorrowful Mysteries 

God Bless.

- Joshua 

P.s.  Cheryl, I do hope that you know I was just giving you a hard time.  I've heard a lot of non-Catholic Christians teach things about the Catholic faith that simply are untrue or they purposely misrepresent the Catholic faith.  This is why I really like this post, because instead of assuming she knows what Catholics believe, voice_in_dc asked the question.  I love sharing my faith and if a person has a genuine question then I am more than happy to explain what it is we believe and more importantly why we believe.  You see the problem is that Catholic Christians get attacked with questions by our protestant brothers and sisters who assume they already know what Catholics believe (and usually they don't really).  So if you honestly have a question about the Catholic faith don't be afraid to ask, but please do it charitably; throwing more questions on top of questions before we are able to respond, is why so many Catholic Christians come off as defensive.  A charitable dialogue is the way to go!  I hope this helps : )

Hail Holy Queen, Mother of Mercy, our life, our sweetness, and our hope. To thee do we cry, poor banished children of Eve. To thee do we send up our sighs, mourning and weeping in this valley of tears. Turn then, most gracious advocate, thine eyes of mercy towards us, and after this, our exile, show unto us the blessed fruit of thy womb, Jesus. Oh Holy, Oh Clement, Oh Sweet Virgin Mary, pray for us, Oh Holy Mother of God, that we may be made worthy of the promises of Christ. Amen.

voice_in_d..., I totally agree with you that sadly not enough Catholics know their faith as much as they should.  I know many Protestant and so-called non-Denominationalist (which I used to attend) who really do not know their faith that well.  For instance I work with a couple ladies who are of the Brethren faith and one talks constantly about the rapture.  I asked her if she is Pre-trib, Mid-trib, Post-trib, or doese she believe something else and she didn't know.  My wife was also a member of the Brethren Church and I used to attend their youth group and they said that the Rapture will be just like the Lefe Behind Series!  Wow!  Is this what Scripture says?  The concept of Pre-trib rapturism didn't even become popular until arount the 1800's by a guy by the name of Darby.

To answer your second question: Generally speaking, anyone who is a baptized Christian is a member of the catholic Church.

To answer your third question about the Rosary and having a devotion to the woman chosen by God to give birth to our Lord:  Martin Luther had a devotion to Mary and there are many Christians who do.  We do pray directly to Christ.  Do you ask others on earth to pray for you?  Why don't you just go directly to Christ?  When we die are we separated from the Body of Christ?  Christ, as the head of the body not only hears the prayers of the faithful here on earth, but also the prayers of those in Heaven.  The Rosary is not only a reflection on the Life of Christ, but also has devotional prayers to our Blessed Mother who is not against Christ as so many Christians tend to put her.

Cheryl, Understood corrected : )  I pray that your family members will learn the Why's of their faith, and more importanly, if they do not have a relationship with our Lord then I pray that he opens their hearts.  And I ask Mary to pray for all those who do not know her Son ; )

Dennis, Who runs this website that you linked to?  I'm just curious.  I'll take a look at the information you have posted in the link, but I don't have time to research and comment every claim made on the link you gave.  God Bless.

Malleus, wait...don't go!  what about my comment...is this still a belief or a practiced belief?

Sorry for the delay in responding. I had to finish some reading before my class at 11 AM. It is still (as Voice's depleted rosary stock demonstrates) a practiced belief. 

I hear ya...sad to say I participated in that sort of thing once upon a time and it didn't make much since back them either - but hey to each their own! All we can do is pray for Catholics and hope that one day they realize that the only way to God is through His Son Jesus Christ.

That it is by faith not of works that we go into heaven....

Elena, Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, and the truth, and the life: no one cometh unto the Father, but by me (John 14:6).

Amen!

That it is by faith not of works that we go into heaven?  Is this what the Bible says?  I agree with what John 14:6 is saying, but I think you have a misunderstanding of what Catholics mean by good works.  Take a look at James 2:24, which happens to be the only place where the words "faith alone" can be found in the New Testament.  "You see that a man is justified by works and not by faith alone" (James 2:24).  St. Paul says, "Work out your own salvation with fear and trembling" (Phil. 2:12).  Excuse me if I'm wrong, but I think you are confusing works of the lawgood works.  St. Paul also says in Galatians, "We ourselves . . .who know that a man is not justified by works of the law but through faith in Christ Jesus, even we have believed in Christ Jesus, in order to be justified by faith in Christ and not by works of the law, because by works of the law shall no one be justified" (Galatians 2:15–16).

Faith is so important. (Rom 3:28, John 3:16, 1 John 4:15), bus so is forgiving the sins of others (Matt 6:14-15); caring for one’s family (1 Tim 5:8); feeding the hungry, clothing the naked, visiting the sick and imprisoned (Matt 25:31-46); keeping the Commandments (Matt 19:17 and 1 John 2:3-4); loving our brothers (1 John 2:10); denying ourselves and picking up our crosses daily (Luke 9:23); doing the will of the Father (Matt 7:21); eating the flesh and drinking the blood of the Son of Man (John 6:51-58); giving a return for the talents the Master has given us (Matt 25:14-30); being baptized (John 3:3-5, 1 Ptr 3:20-21); confessing our sins (1 John 1:9)...all by the grace of God.   These are  just a few of examples of what Catholics mean by good works.   But again, without faith all the good works in the word are useless.

Hope this helps you understand the Catholic understanding of Faith and Works a little better.

voice_in_d..., I'd gladly ask your grandmother to pray for me. : )  I guess I can't really give you an example of when a person has put Mary against Christ.  I might have been exaggerating the fact that many people, when they hear the name Mary (in context to the Virgin who gave birth to our Lord) cringe.  I do however believe that Christ does hear his mother's prayers as well as the prayers of the saints in Heaven.  I'm thinking that I read in the book of Revelation that the prayers of the saints are taken up to the heavenly alter or that our prayers are taken up to the alter by heavenly saints or something like that.  I'll skim through Revelations when I get home.  God Bless.

The passage crosses three very different Gospel writers. Must be pretty important, huh?

Speaking of Questions for Catholics, does anyone know what happened to our friend ali?  I've messaged her a couple of times in the past to see how she is doing and haven't heard back from her.  I hope that she is okay...

Wow Dennis are you filled with hate! Did you come up with all that stuff on your own or did you Google, Copy, then Paste?  Sorry for my sarcasm, but you come off as someone who has been brought up in a stark anti-Catholic home.  What denomination are you again?  Just curious.  I'd love to hear where it is you think we (by we, I mean Christians) got the Bible.  It couldn't have been councils of the Catholic Cult Church who declared which books are inspired Scripture and which are not.  Enlighten me please (start by going to G-O-O-G -- I digress).  I still love ya man and Rock-on Randy Stonehill!

I am sorry Holly, but I disagree with you. You state that "Jesus was basically saying that we cannot be perfect." Yet, that is not what Christ himself states. He says, If thou wouldest be perfect....

So was Christ a liar? Or did he mean what he said? I prefer to think the latter and not the former. He was. Should people give of themselves to others? Help those in need. And in this sense "be like Christ" . You don't think that we can do that? It makes our salvation manifest.

And there MD is the crux of this discussion....language....