I’ve mentioned here before several times that I became Catholic a year ago at Easter. And as I’ve told many of my friends, I’ve never been happier about my faith and have seen it grow tremendously over the last year. It’s been amazing!
Just a little background. I grew up in a conservative Assemblies of God church, but had been going to a non-denominational church and then a small Presbyterian church (PCA) since I moved away from home for college. After the pastor left the PCA church around 2010, I became churchless for about 6 or 7 years. I didn’t go to church at all because I just didn’t no where to go. Along that time a good friend of mine became Catholic and after having many discussions with him, I started my own journey to the Catholic faith which led me to an RCIA class in my local parish in 2017.
I tell you all of that just to give you some of where I’m at with my new faith. While it’s been an amazing ride thus far, it’s still new to me. There are aspects of my Catholic faith that I just haven’t focused on yet, as there is literally so much to focus on. Whether it’s gaining a deeper understanding of God’s love and mercy, the Eucharist, or simply reading the narrative of the Bible in a Bible Timeline class, that’s just the tip of the iceberg. And yes, that’s what I’ve been focused on in the last year.
But now I am turning my focus toward understanding more about the Blessed Virgin Mary and her role as queen mother of the church, as well as praying the Rosary. I have done some study on the Virgin Mary already, on her assumption, her immaculate conception and her role as Queen Mother of the church (Fun fact: Who was the queen in the Davidic Kingdom? It was the King’s mother!) But the one thing I haven’t studied yet is praying the Rosary.
Quick side note, I have recently found a great radio show that airs every morning from 9am to 12am east coast time on Relevant Radio. It’s called the Patrick Madrid Show, and every day for three hours Patrick Madrid answers all manner of questions from people regarding the Catholic faith. I’ve heard him take calls from protestants, atheists, and many Catholics. He’s a Catholic apologist and a very deep thinker from whom I’ve already learned a great deal.
Back to the rosary. This week Madrid took a phone call from a Catholic man who had some questions he needed answered about the rosary, specifically addressing criticism from some of his protestant friends. Madrid spent the next 10 or more minutes giving a biblcal defense of praying the rosary and the repetitious nature of its prayers — and it’s something I wanted to share with you.
Now I understand that many of you aren’t Catholic and that’s great. But if you decide to weigh on this topic, I would ask at the very least you listen to the audio, as that is the purpose of this post. Seriously. I think conversation about this topic is wonderful, but arguments are not. Civility is the law here and I will be keeping an eye on comments to ensure the law is upheld.
Henceforth you can look forward to more of these audio clips from Madrid’s show as I find new ones I want to share. Scoop’s Catholic Corner will hopefully be a permanent addition to our political website.
Lastly, if you did listen to the audio and want to read the article Madrid referenced called Any Friend of God’s is a Friend of Mine, you can read it here.