The Rosary (“Garland or Crown of Roses”) is a certain form of prayer wherein one recalls successively in pious meditation the mysteries of our Redemption found in the life of Our Lord Jesus Christ, lived in union His Blessed Mother, Mary the Theotokos.
Each time we say a “Hail Mary” we are giving the Blessed Virgin Mary 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 popular 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. Thus it has been called “a compendium of the Gospel.”
Tradition affirms that the Blessed Virgin Mary appeared to St. Dominic, the founder of the Order of Preachers (Dominicans), in the 13th Century to preach the Rosary among the people as an antidote to heresy and sin. This blessed formula of prayer unites to the repetition of the Angelic Salutation (“Hail Mary”), the Lord's Prayer (“Our Father”), and the Minor Doxology (“Glory Be”) as a devout commemoration of the principal events and mysteries of our Redemption. In 1917, Our Lady appeared to three children in Fatima, Portugal, and taught them to add the prayer “O my Jesus...” at the end of each decade of the Rosary after the “Glory Be”.
The traditional 15 Mysteries of the Rosary were standardized, based on the long-standing custom, by Pope St. Pius V in the 16th century. The mysteries are grouped into three sets of fifty Hail Mary’s: the Joyful Mysteries, the Sorrowful Mysteries, and the Glorious Mysteries, which correspond to the joyful, sorrowful, and glorious mysteries of Christ's life, death, and Resurrection. The Rosary is also called “The Psalter of Mary” as the 150 Hail Mary's also mirror the 150 Psalms in the Breviary for praying the Divine Office. Innumerable benefits have been conferred on mankind through the Rosary. “Whatever you ask through the Rosary shall be granted.” – Promise of Our Lady to St. Dominic
There are other rosaries and chaplets as well: The Franciscan Crown Rosary, The Mysteries of Light or Luminous Mysteries of Pope John Paul II, the Chaplet of Divine Mercy, the Chaplet of the Seven Dolors of Our Lady, etc.
THE MOST HOLY ROSARY
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