Rosary

Feast of Our Lady of the Rosary

Excerpted from Butler's Lives of the Saints:

The Rosary is a series of prayers through which Catholics honor Christ by meditating on 15 principal mysteries or events from His life and that of His mother. While contemplating each mystery, one begins with an Our Father, follows with ten Hail Marys, and concludes with one Glory Be.

This devotion is an epitome of the Gospel -- a history of the life, sufferings, and triumphant victory of Jesus Christ and an exposition of what He did for our salvation when He walked the earth. The topics of the meditations are as follows.

Joyful Mysteries
(1) The Annunciation of the Archangel Gabriel to the Blessed Virgin Mary
(2) The Visitation of the Blessed Virgin Mary to her cousin St. Elizabeth
(3) The Nativity of Christ in Bethlehem
(4) The Presentation of the Holy Infant at the temple in Jerusalem
(5) The Finding in the Temple of the young Jesus teaching

Sorrowful Mysteries
(1) Christ's Agony in the Garden on the night of His betrayal
(2) The Scourging at the Pillar
(3) The Crowning with Thorns
(4) The Bearing of the Cross
(5) The Crucifixion

Glorious Mysteries
(1) The Resurrection of Christ from the dead
(2) His Ascension into Heaven
(3) The Descent of the Holy Ghost on the Blessed Virgin Mary and the Apostles at Pentecost
(4) The Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary into Heaven at the end of her earthly life
(5) The Coronation of the Blessed Virgin Mary, Queen of Heaven and Earth

The three prayers used have their own significance.
* The Our Father is the perfect prayer given by Christ directly to His Apostles.
* The Hail Mary does honor to the Incarnation.
* The Glory Be declares the Divinely revealed truth of the Holy Trinity.

The principal objectives of the devotion are:
* to bear in mind these mysteries,
* to return to God an homage of love, praise, and thanksgiving for them,
* to implore His mercy through them,
* to make them the subject of meditation, and
* to mould one's affections, regulate his life, and form his spirit by the impressions they make on his soul.

The Rosary is a simple prayer to recite and can be performed by anyone regardless of age or ability. It is also sublime and faithful in the exercise of all the highest acts of prayer, contemplation, and interior virtues.