The Holy Rosary Of The Blessed Virgin Mary | Catholic Devotion
The word Rosary means “Crown of Roses”. Our Lady has revealed to several people that each time they say a Hail Mary they are giving her a beautiful rose and that each complete Rosary makes her a crown of roses. The rose is the queen of flowers, and so the Rosary is the rose of all devotions and it is therefore the most important one. The Holy Rosary is considered a perfect prayer because within it lies the awesome story of our salvation. With the Rosary in fact we meditate the mysteries of joy, of sorrow and the glory of Jesus and Mary. It’s a simple prayer, humble so much like Mary. It’s a prayer we can all say together with Her, the Mother of God. With the Hail Mary we invite Her to pray for us. Our Lady always grants our request. She joins Her prayer to ours. Therefore it becomes ever more useful, because what Mary asks She always receives, Jesus can never say no to whatever His Mother asks for. In every apparition, the heavenly Mother has invited us to say the Rosary as a powerful weapon against evil, to bring us to true peace. With your prayer made together with Your heavenly Mother, you can obtain the great gift of bringing about a change of hearts and conversion. Each day, through prayer you can drive away from yourselves and from your homeland many dangers and many evils.
It can seem a repetitive prayer but instead it is like two sweethearts who many times say one another the words: “I love you”…
The Blessed Holy Father John Paul II on October 16th, 2002 with the Apostolic Letter Rosarium Virginis Mariae on the Most Holy Rosary has added 5 new mysteries of the Rosary: The Mysteries of the Light.
The whole Rosary is composed of twenty decades. Each decade is recited in honor of a mystery in Our Lord’s Life and that of His Blessed Mother.
It is customary to recite five decades at a time while meditating on one set of mysteries.
The decades may be separated, if the entire chaplet is completed on the same day.
Each Mystery may be meditate “bead by bead” for every Hail Mary of the decade.
The Rosary is made up of twenty “mysteries” (significant events or moments in the life of Jesus and Mary), which, following the Apostolic Letter Rosarium Virginis Mariae, are grouped into four series.
The first contains joyful mysteries (recited on Mondays and Saturdays); the second, the mysteries of light (Thursdays); the third, the sorrowful mysteries (Tuesdays and Fridays); and the fourth, the glorious mysteries (Wednesdays and Sundays).
“This indication is not intended to limit a rightful freedom in personal and community prayer, where account needs to be taken of spiritual and pastoral needs and of the occurrence of particular liturgical celebrations which might call for suitable adaptations” (Rosarium Virginis Mariae, 38).
As an aid to the meditative and contemplative journey of the Rosary, two texts are given for each ‘mystery’: one from Sacred Scripture, the other from the Catechism of the Catholic Church.
The Holy Rosary (pronunciation: /ˈrəʊz(ə)ri/, Latin: rosarium, in the sense of “crown of roses” or “garland of roses”[1]), also known as the Dominican Rosary,[2][3] refers to a form of prayer used in the Catholic Church and to the string of knots or beads used to count the component prayers. When used for the prayer, the word is usually capitalized (“the Rosary”), as is customary for other names of prayers, such as “the Lord’s Prayer”, and “the Hail Mary”; when referring to the beads, it is written with a lower-case initial letter (“a rosary”).
The prayers that comprise the Rosary are arranged in sets of ten Hail Marys, called decades. Each decade is preceded by one Lord’s Prayer and followed by one Glory Be. During recitation of each set, thought is given to one of the Mysteries of the Rosary, which recall events in the lives of Jesus and Mary. Five decades are recited per rosary. Other prayers are sometimes added before or after each decade. Rosary beads are an aid towards saying these prayers in the proper sequence.
A standard 15 Mysteries of the Rosary, based on the long-standing custom, was established by Pope Pius V during the 16th century, grouping the mysteries in three sets: the Joyful Mysteries, the Sorrowful Mysteries, and the Glorious Mysteries. During 2002 Pope John Paul II said that it is fitting that a new set of five be added, termed the Luminous Mysteries, bringing the total number of mysteries to 20. These mysteries had been used by Holy Cross father Patrick Peyton during the 20th century.[citation needed] The Glorious mysteries are said on Sunday and Wednesday, the Joyful on Monday and Saturday, the Sorrowful on Tuesday and Friday, and the Luminous Mysteries are said on Thursday. Usually five decades are recited in a session.
Nelson MCBS 