Pints With Aquinas - Yes, Protestants Can Pray the Rosary. Here's How.

Episode Date: October 7, 2026

Interested in praying the Rosary but wary of the theology behind it? Start here. Matt Fradd All Access Ep. 25 This is a sneak peak! I post video essays like this every Friday, exclusively to DailyWire for All Access members. Hope to see you there! https://get.dailywire.com - - - 📚Resources Mentioned: Theotokos Rosaries: https://dwplus.shop/TheotokosRosaries "Pocket Guide to the Rosary" is available here: https://a.co/d/0cGASjCB - - - Become a Daily Wire Member and watch all of our content ad-free: ⁠⁠https://www.dailywire.com/subscribe⁠⁠ 📲 Download the free Daily Wire app today on iPhone, Android, Roku, Apple TV, Samsung, and more. - - - 📕 Get my newest book, Jesus Our Refuge, here: https://a.co/d/bDU0xLb 🍺 Want to Support Pints With Aquinas? 🍺 Get episodes a week early and join exclusive live streams with me! Become an annual supporter at 👉 ⁠⁠⁠⁠https://mattfradd.locals.com/support⁠⁠⁠⁠ - - - 💻 Follow Me on Social Media: 📌 Facebook: https://facebook.com/mattfradd 📸 Instagram: https://instagram.com/mattfradd 𝕏 Twitter/X: ⁠⁠⁠https://twitter.com/Pints_W_Aquinas⁠⁠⁠ 🎵 TikTok: ⁠⁠⁠https://tiktok.com/@pintswithaquinas⁠⁠⁠ 📚 PWA Merch – ⁠⁠⁠https://dwplus.shop/MattFraddMerch⁠⁠ 👕 Grab your favorite PWA gear here: https://shop.pintswithaquinas.com - - - Privacy Policy: ⁠⁠⁠⁠https://www.dailywire.com/privacy⁠⁠⁠⁠ Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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So, first and foremost, what is the rosary? The rosary is essentially 150 Hail Mary's or Aves that are prayed in groups of 10. A group of 10 is called a decade. And every decade you meditate on a scriptural mystery. This arose gradually because the monks would pray or 150 Psalms either over the course of a week or even in the course of a day. And so lay people who wanted to participate in that, but who could maybe not afford a Bible or couldn't read or perhaps didn't have the time, would pray 150 Arvays instead, Hail Mary's. And so by about the 10th century, we see this in full swing. All right.

Here are the five stumbling blocks I think a Protestant has to praying the rosary. First, just this physical object seems weird or superstitious or something, and I don't want to do that. The second is the idea that the rosary constitutes vain repetition, and you don't want to do that. The third is calling Mary the mother of God, which is said in the Hail Mary. The fourth is the idea of intercession of the saints. Like right now, you do not accept that Mary and the saints in heaven pray for the saints on earth. So you're unwilling to accept that. And the fifth obstacle is two of the 15 mysteries, namely the assumption of the Virgin Mary and the coronation. That's all I can think of. I don't think

there is another objection you can give to the rosary as a Protestant. Now, I want to be clear, obviously, I would rather you just become Catholic and adopt these beliefs and pray the rosary as a Catholic. But in this video, what I want to do is sort of like stoop to conquer. I want to be like, All right, you're a Protestant. You've told me you want to pray the rosary. You're interested in it. You find it interesting to pray a devotion that is very, very old. Okay. How could you do it? All right. Well, here's how you can do it. So let's overcome those one at a time. Number one, a physical object. You don't like it. Maybe it seems superstitious or something. I mean, I think that's something you could easily get over. This is just, there's nothing magical about this object. I think what it does is it recognizes that we are, body, soul composites, and we like physical things because we're physical things ourselves. This is why as a Protestant you probably prefer, maybe not, but maybe, a beautiful leather-bound Bible to a Bible app. And you go, well, why? Well, because you're an incarnational being and you want the Bible to be incarnate. And not just do you want a Bible instead of an app,

all things considered. I mean, apps can be useful, don't get me wrong, but you also want a beautiful Bible, don't you? Like, if you could have the choice, like, yeah, I'd like a beautiful Bible. because it befits the word of God better. So that's all this is. Now, if this is still a stumbling block to you, I guess you don't even have to use the beads to pray the rosary, but I don't think that should be an objection. The second objection is the idea of vain repetition and why? Well, even though there are 150 Hail Mary's in the rosary that we break up to 50 Rosary, sorry, 50 Hail Marys, by the way, this is not going to be a full explanation of how to pray the rosary. You have to go to another video for that. That's going to be too time consuming. Okay.

So I'm just going to assume that you know some of these things already. Praying 10 Hail Marys in a row, like isn't that vain repetition or something? Well, the first thing to recognize is that our blessed Lord and Savior Jesus Christ did not condemn repetition. He condemned vain repetition. That is to say, empty mechanical words spoken as though sheer quantity is going to force God to listen. And that's not what we're doing in. the rosary. Because scripture itself contains repeated prayer, right? The angels continue to cry holy, holy, holy in Revelation 4 verse 8. In Psalm 136 we see repeated again and again. I think it's 26 times the same thing. We see in Getzenemi Christ praying the same words again in Matthew 26.

So the rosary uses repetition as a framework for sustained meditation on the life, death and resurrection of Christ. So, yes, repetition can become mindless, but it isn't necessarily mindless. So in other words, if I speak to a Catholic and he says, the reason I pray the rosary is I know that if I say a lot of Hail Mary's, then he'll finally listen to me. I too would correct him and say it sounds like you're falling into vain repetition. but repetition in and of itself is not vain. Okay, the third problem people have is calling Mary the mother of God. So I should explain to you the Hail Mary. Hail Mary, full of grace, the Lord is with thee.

Blessed art thou among women and blessed is the fruit of thy womb, Jesus. Holy Mary, Mother of God, pray for us sinners now and at the hour of our death. Amen. Okay, that's second part of the Hail Mary, Holy Mary of God, pray for us sinners now and at the hour of our death. that contains two stumbling blocks for you Protestants. Number one, you may not wish to call her the mother of God, and number two, as I've already said,

you don't believe in the intercession of the saints. First of all, I don't think you should object to calling Mary the mother of God. And here's why. When we call Mary the mother of God, we're not saying that she is the source of the triune God. Rather, what we're saying is, Mary is the mother of Jesus.

Jesus is God. Ergo, Mary is the mother of God. and many serious Protestants agree that we can call her that. But okay, let's say you don't want to, then you don't have to. Nor do you have to say, pray for us sinners now under the hour of our death. Why do I say that? Well, because when the rosary originally took shape and began to form, that second part of the Hail Mary wasn't even part of the rosary.

That second part didn't come into use until the 13th and 14th, centuries actually during the black plague. So I think it's a very beautiful thing to add to the Hail Mary, but it's not essential. So you could simply pray, Hail Mary, full of grace, the Lord is with thee. Blessed art thou among women and blessed is the fruit of thy womb, Jesus. That could be your, are they? And you say, well, why would I do that? Well, okay, so that first part of the Hail Mary comes from God, we could say God the Father, through the angel Gabriel. That second part is from Elizabeth who is filled with the Holy Spirit. Right, blessed art thou among women.

Blessed is the fruit of thy womb. So I think we could rightly say that this second part comes from the Holy Spirit. So you're praying a prayer that has the words of God and the words of God that you can find in the word of God. Now, suppose you say to me, fine, well and good, but why do I have to say, it still feels like I'm focusing on Mary? Why can't I pray something else? Like why can't I say Behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world and repeat that?

And my answer is you could and that's fantastic good for you, feel free to do it but that's not what the rosary is. So if you start changing this beautiful scripture verse and change it for something else, that's also a prayer and it might be praiseworthy

but if you're interested in praying the rosary then this is what you would have to say and you say well why why that? Well because this is called the angelic salutation and it is so powerful. You might say it's the cornerstone of the New Testament or the cornerstone of the Bible as a whole because those were the words that initiated the downfall of the kingdom of darkness and brought about the incarnation through Mary's fiat.

They are powerful words. And many saints have said that when we pray those words, we're reminding Satan and his sham kingdom. that they have lost. So that leaves us with one more stumbling block. I feel like I've done away with all these stumbling blocks. And here's what's funny. In the comments, I'm going to have so many people arguing against the intercession

of the saints. If you do that, you've misunderstood this whole video. Remember, what I'm doing in this video is going, fine. Okay, for the sake of argument, you don't have to do that. You don't even have to believe it. And you can still pray the Holy Rosary. So there's one more stumbling block. So there are 15 mysteries of the Rosary. I don't mean to confuse you, but Pope John Paul

the second added five more. They're very beautiful. He added them as optional mysteries. You could also pray them. They're very beautiful. But traditionally we have 15 mysteries. Now there were two of those mysteries that you won't want to pray. You won't want to pray the two final mysteries of the glorious mysteries, namely the assumption of the Theotokos and her coronation. Now we, we, think, think that this is found in Revelation chapter 12. Yes, the woman clothed with the sun with a moon under her feet, crown of 12 stars on her head. Yes, it represents Israel. Yes, it also represents the church. Yes, it clearly also represents the Blessed Virgin Mary. So that's what we think. That's what the Eastern Orthodox think. That's what the Coptic Orthodox think. This is what you find in the very first

Greek commentary on the book of Revelation. If I'm not mistaken, I think all of your Protestant reformers thought this. Can you think of one Protestant reformers thought this? Can you think of one Protestant reformer, I would call them revolutionaries, not to offend you, but just because I don't think they reform the church. Can you think of one that denied the assumption of the Theotokos? And you might say, well, that's fine. The Bible's our guide, not the reformers. And fine, but again, that's beside the point. I just said to you, you don't have to do those. So there you go. I feel like I have just given you advice on how to pray the rosary without adopting Catholic beliefs or without abandoning any of your Protestant beliefs or sensibilities.

Now, you might say, I still don't want to do it. Fine. You don't have to do it. I didn't say you had to do it. I'm responding to those of you who have reached out and have said, I want to pray the rosary, but I'm afraid of offending God or I'm afraid it's just wrong or something. There you go. I can't think of another objection you could possibly have to the rosary. If you can think of one, feel free to let me know, and I'm sure some of our Catholic viewers will respond to you, hopefully with kindness and charity, Catholics, please, in the comments below. Now, two more things. Where might you get a rosary? How might you learn more about the

rosary? We actually sell rosaries at the Daily Wire shop. We will link to them in the description below. These are very beautiful rosaries, by the way. These are like family heirloom kind of rosaries. This is the kind of rosary that you would keep forever. It's glorious. You don't have to get that rosary. You could get a cheap rosary. You could pray it on your fingers. I'm not saying you have to, but if you were interested, you could get that rosary. Also, I wrote a book of rosary meditations which I help you meditate on the rosary. And I forget the name of my rosary book. I'm just going to be honest,

but we're going to put it on the screen right now. So you get that. Or if you don't want to pay anything, you could also just go online and say, teach me how to pray the rosary. Okay, thank you, producer Maria. Catholic Guide to the Rosary, is that what it's called? Fuck.

You know, that's funny. I should call what she just said Catholic Guide. Pocket Guide to the Rosary. I called it a Catholic Guide to the Rosary, but this has been the Protestant Guide to the Rosary. Who answers America's call for more energy? Our people do.

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