Some people believe that doubting is the antithesis of faith, and that to express doubts in God after a long practice of faith, or God’s all-powerful ability, or the manner in which God displays His love for one and all, is a sign the person has little or no faith. But these critics could not be more wrong. Any continuous development of faith over time will inevitably lead to this truth: doubt forces a continuous reexamination of one’s faith, and thus doubting is the dialectical partner of increasing and perfecting one’s faith.

When have you ever heard a preacher on a Sunday morning religious program ever say “I want to encourage you to have doubts. I want you to reexamine your faith. Don’t believe everything I say or that you hear anyone else say. Use your mind and your heart to determine what is right.” I suspect most readers would answer “never.” Yet it is essential to cultivate one’s ability to doubt if a person is to have faith in God. One suspects the reason these tele-evangelists don’t want viewers to start doubting is that some of them have a tenuous foundation for the message they are preaching.

We can learn about doubting from some of our role models for practicing the Christian faith: the saints. When asked during an interview if it was assumed that all the saints doubted at one point or another, the British essayist and lay apostle of Christianity Malcolm Muggeridge offered the following brilliant comment. “If it’s not assumed, it’s certainly true that they did, and I would agree absolutely with that. The only people I have met in this world who never doubt are materialists and atheists. I think they have a sort of ludicrous certainty that there is nothing transcendental to know. But for me, at any rate, doubt has been an integral part of coming to have faith.”

As a Catholic, I wonder why doubt and the role of doubting as reinforcement for faith was never expressed in any homily that I heard in Sunday masses, nor was it ever a part of the Catholic catechism. If anyone had encouraged me to have a degree of doubt or skepticism when learning about religion, it would have spared me much confusion and disappointment with church teaching on prayer life. One of the prayers I learned early in life is called “The Memorare.” The opening sentence of that prayer goes “Remember O most gracious Virgin Mary, that never was it known that anyone who fled to thy protection, implored thy help, or sought thy intercession was left unaided…” Although this prayer, created by the Cistercian (Trappist) monk St. Bernard of Clairvoix, has been exalted by the Catholic Church, it’s wording leads to unfounded expectations. The opening sentence of this prayer contains a seemingly false promise: pray The Memorare and you will not be left unaided. Before we show where to find seeds for faith in this seemingly misleading prayer, let us examine another instance where Church teaching — this time on devotion to the Rosary — may have led people to doubt or question their faith.

The origins of the Rosary are generally attributed to Saint Dominic de Guzman (1170-1221 A.D.), a Spaniard who founded the religious Order of Preachers, better known as the Dominicans. As depicted in the picture on the left, St. Dominic received the concepts of particular prayers that form the Rosary as a gift of religious inspiration from the Blessed Virgin Mary.

From the fifteenth century forward, the Dominicans were the foremost promoters of the Rosary. Over the next 250 years the devotion spread across Europe, reaching the laity via voluntary confraternities and rosary picture-books. There were numerous competing versions, advocating as few as five Mysteries and as many as 200. The matter was not settled until 1569. In that year St. Pope Pius V, himself a Dominican, issued an apostolic letter establishing the fifteen-Mystery form of the Holy Rosary as the official, Church-authorized version. This was the format in use for the next four and a half centuries. In the year 2002, Pope John Paul II published an apostolic letter that added five new “Luminous” Mysteries, making a total of twenty authorized Mysteries.

The Roman Catholic Church teaches there are 15 promises made by the Blessed Virgin to St. Dominic in favor of those who faithfully recite the Rosary.

1. To all those who shall pray my Rosary devoutly, I promise my special protection and great graces.
2. Those who shall persevere in the recitation of my Rosary will receive some special grace.
3. The Rosary will be a very powerful armor against hell; it will destroy vice, deliver from sin and dispel heresy.
4. The rosary will make virtue and good works flourish, and will obtain for souls the most abundant divine mercies. It will draw the hearts of men from the love of the world and its vanities, and will lift them to the desire of eternal things. Oh, that souls would sanctify themselves by this means.
5. Those who trust themselves to me through the Rosary will not perish.
6. Whoever recites my Rosary devoutly reflecting on the mysteries, shall never be overwhelmed by misfortune. He will not experience the anger of God nor will he perish by an unprovided death. The sinner will be converted; the just will persevere in grace and merit eternal life.
7. Those truly devoted to my Rosary shall not die without the sacraments of the Church.
8. Those who are faithful to recite my Rosary shall have during their life and at their death the light of God and the plenitude of His graces and will share in the merits of the blessed.
9. I will deliver promptly from purgatory souls devoted to my Rosary.
10. True children of my Rosary will enjoy great glory in heaven.
11. What you shall ask through my Rosary you shall obtain.
12. To those who propagate my Rosary I promise aid in all their necessities.
13. I have obtained from my Son that all the members of the Rosary Confraternity [those who pray the Rosary daily] shall have as their intercessors, in life and in death, the entire celestial court.
14. Those who recite my Rosary faithfully are my beloved children, the brothers and sisters of Jesus Christ.
15. Devotion to my Rosary is a special sign of predestination.

First let’s examine whether there is any basis for doubt as concerns “The Memorare,” and then we will look at whether the Church teaching on the Rosary is accurate. Now everyone knows that people have sought help and protection from the Blessed Virgin Mary, even when reciting The Memorare, and been left completely unaided — at least as far as our earthly visision can perceive. We can even go so far as to say that some of these poor people would attest that they received no unexpected consolation either. Being told then that this particular form of prayer leaves no one unaided can result in a spiraling cascade of doubt in which all Catholic Church teaching on prayer life becomes suspect. All Catholics know at various times they have prayed for the intercession of Mary and been left unaided. How can doubting help us out of a dilemma?

First, religious devotion and religious practice that directly contradicts one’s reasoning or rationale is not the practice of the Christian religion. Reasoning goes hand-in-hand with the practice of faith. It turns out there are certain questions and issues to which reasoning provides no answers, and there faith may take you one or two steps closer to the truth. But reasoning also helps us discern valid from errant teaching particularly for the phrase “no one is left unaided” in the “The Memorare.” This doubting is spiritually healthy and it also ensures that Christians do not embark on prayers or practices that would not give glory to God. If Jesus is the truth, the way, and the light, then it follows that something untrue or false would not and could not form a part of worship for God.

We know with absolute certainty that petitioners exist who have never received on earth those intentions for which they prayed by reciting “The Memorare.” In fact, many readers of this book may fall into that category, depending on what prayers they were taught and learned on their own through self-discovery. While there are many reasons to appeal to Mary, the Mother of God, as an intercessor, the promise that no one is left unaided is not one of them. Honest people would have to question whether the Church teaching on “The Memorare” is misleading at best, and mistaken at worst.

Note that it my discussion I used the phrase “at least as far as our earthly visision can perceive,” and this is a key concept that will help us out of our dilemma. If by the phrase “left unaided,” we mean perceived and tangible aid, then the words seem devoid of meaning and raise doubts about the entire prayer itself. However, if by “left unaided” we mean to imply some trust that although we may not see the tangible benefit here on earth, the petitioners will find they received some benefit or assistance when their knowledge is more complete in the afterlife, then we cannot say whether there is anything false or inaccurate about that prayer.

The problem with the Catholic Church teaching on this topic is that it contains no qualifications of the type “you might not witness that aid or assistance from Mary on earth.” If the church teaching included these qualifications, then it would no longer be misleading as it now reads. Catholics are sometimes scared to express doubts concerning “The Memorare” or another aspect of Marian devotion for fear that their words will somehow be twisted into aiding and abetting the Protestant doctrine that any prayers to Mary as an intercessor are intrinsically wrong.

Surely in this day and age, Catholics have strong enough convictions to say “Devotion to Mary, YES; Expectations that Aid Will Be Fully Realized on Earth, NO.” The Church has unwittingly confused and turned away faithful Catholics from prayer by setting up false expectations for the consequences of praying, in general, and “The Memorare,” in particular. Disappointments stemming from those false expectations about prayer only reinforce the perception that the Church (leadership) is misguided.

The Church has plenty of good and accurate messages to share about God and about Mary as an intercessor to God. It does not have to resort to fanciful wording that is slightly deceptive to inspire the faithful to pray. Doubting in this instance plays a pivotal role in discerning truth and even rejecting a literal interpretation of the opening sentence in the “The Memorare.” Catholic clergy should not blame doubting by the laity for a decline in popularity of “The Memorare.” Instead they should focus internally on what caused seven centuries of silence that failed to correct the misperceptions created by “never was . . . anyone left unaided” in that prayer.

Give thanks to God for giving us the intelligence and freedom to doubt. God wants his people to seek Him with their brains switched to “on,” not switched to “automatic pilot.”

Next we turn to questions about the Church’s teaching on the Fifteen Promises associated with faithful recitation of the Rosary. My mother was very devoted to praying the Rosary. I recall one time when she was first feeling the effects of Alzheimer’s disease, I returned home from running errands and found her lying on the couch in the living room, praying the rosary, with tears coming down her cheeks. I asked her immediately what was wrong. She said she called out to the grandchildren playing in the backyard, but no one answered her, and she was scared that she did not know where the grandchildren were. (In fact they were at their homes a thousand miles away and had not come for a visit). But it remains a poignant memory for me that in time of bewildering despair when my mother felt she had lost her grandchildren, she turned to the Rosary to help her out of this terrible circumstance. When she was able to attend church on her own, my mother regularly joined a small group of friends in praying the Rosary following the weekday 8 AM morning masses.

Recall Promise 3 above states that those who faithfully recite the Rosary will not die without receiving the sacraments of the Church. My dearly beloved mother died in September 2005 peacefully in her sleep, but she did not receive the sacraments of the Church prior to her death. It is possible that the promise applies to the prayerful person’s entire life. In that case, she did receive all of the sacraments of the church (except Holy Orders) in her lifetime. But the wording of the promise seems to imply that people devoted to the Rosary would receive the sacrament of the Annoiting of the Sick prior to death. Because of the Church’s teaching on the value of praying the Rosary, I had to confront the possibility that Promise 3 is inaccurate.

However, a friend explained to me that Promise 3 was meant to apply to those who needed the sacraments of the Church in order to reach some level of Heaven. She suggested that at the hour of my mother’s death, she may not have need the Annointing of the Sick. Alternatively, she received that sacrament on the other side, as her soul was born to eternal life. I can’t prove that what my friend said is true and accurate, but a little bell went off inside me that said she spoke the words of truth. Out of the total population on the earth, there are not many people who are devoted to the Rosary. I would like to think, and indeed I do believe, that the Blessed Virgin Mary would not forget those who had prayed the Rosary regularly. But doubt here helped me out of a dilemma created by the Church’s poorly crafted teachings on what one can expect from praying the Rosary. Doubt did not lead me away from Rosary devotion, doubt reinforced my devotion and caused me to seek a higher truth than what appears as the text of the Fifteen Promises.

Next, we turn to Promise 11. Our instincts tell us this promise contains too sweeping language and is probably misleading (some might use the stronger term “false”). It turns out every Catholic knows people who recite the Rosary but do not receive all they ask. Otherwise, everyone who had cancer or everyone who was unemployed would simply pray the Rosary and their crises would be solved. Prayers with the Rosary, just as all other forms of prayer, are not always answered. Again, we don’t have time to debate whether Promise 11 is correct. We know with absolute certainty that many people who with some special intention do not receive what they seek. That is not how prayer works. So why would the Church continually reinforce these Fifteen Promises without better qualifications on their wording?

Somehow, the Church, which goes through painful scrutiny to approve its catechism, has never had the common sense to qualify the sweeping language in the Fifteen Promises. In reality, those Fifteen Promises may have been the inspiration given to St. Dominic, but that is separate from saying the Church accepts and endorses each promise as accurate. The Church has commendable teachings about meditating on the life of Christ while reciting the Rosary. It is thus a shame that part of the language used by the Church to promote devotion to the Rosary contains wording that promotes doubt among the faithful, rather than confidence that the Church remains guided by the Holy Spirit.

I pray the Rosary with a group of women in our church, mostly widows, after a noon mass on Fridays. Despite having doubts about what the Rosary can accomplish, I remain convinced that the Rosary is indeed a very powerful prayer. I believe, but I cannot prove, that the Rosary achieves enormous consequences in the spiritual world, even if not in our earthly existence. We don’t know all the mysteries surrounding this form of prayer, or why it seems to be so important to God.

During my Friday afternoon group Rosary devotion, I am praying for the souls of my father and mother. I would do anything I could to help them now in the afterlife, just as they did what they so much to help me while living on earth. The love between us did not end with death, but it goes on in the afterlife. My continued group Rosary devotion, in the wake of obvious evidence on the limitations of the Rosary to affect events here on earth, is the best spiritual blessing that I know to provide them in the afterlife. As a sign given to me by my mother or possibly from the Blessed Virgin, the chain links on one of my Rosaries changed color from silver to gold. It is not a major miracle, but it reaffirmed my faith, ironically at a time when I did not need any sign and had emerged from mourning, and I had already resolved to pray the Rosary on Fridays for the rest of my life.

An atheist friend once told me he thought there are two types of religious people: those that intelligently consider and question their faith, and those that have never thought about it. He has no respect for the latter. He thinks most people in this country, sadly, are the second type. It just goes to show you that we can learn from all types of people, and even an atheist can shed light on the individual journey of faith.

In summary, to all those struggling with their faith, which should include everyone with a good heart, take comfort in knowing that doubt is not a sin to be avoided. Doubt, according to St. Augustine, an acclaimed Doctor of the Church for his theology, is like strips of metal in reinforced concrete. Doubt makes faith stronger when the person overcomes those doubts and returns to a more accurate and well-grounded faith. Do not believe everything you hear or are taught about religion; Christ told us there would be false prophets and teachers in our midst, and some would appear under the guise of teaching to His disciples: a wolf in sheep’s clothing. Matthew 7:12-21. Accept that some Church teaching may seem to be wrong, or they may even be wrong — it would not be the first time that happened. But move on in your journey of faith despite the obstacles in your path.

As the great 20th century theologian and Trappist monk Thomas Merton said, “In one sense we are always travelling, and travelling as if we did not know where we were going. In another sense we have already arrived.” Reexamine your faith continuously, and do not be afraid to express doubts. We will be in the company of great saints when we question and doubt our faith from time to time. And like them, hopefully, may we come to share in Christ’s resurrection and rebirth to eternal life in the same way that we have the privilege to unite our sufferings on earth with His cross and crucifixion.

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