A little history of the Rosary…

Image via WikipediaIn the early centuries, the Church monks would recite the Psalms as part of their rule of life. However, this means only those who could read can do it. How about the illiterate brothers? Clearly there is a need for a simpler prayer for them. The Lord’s Prayer was adopted for this purpose; the brothers would recite 150 Our Fathers to correspond to the number of Psalms.

Small stones were used originally to count the prayers. Later, beads were strung as prayer counters. With the rise of widespread devotion to the Blessed Mother in the early second millennium, the Hail Mary gained popularity and was inserted into the prayer tradition.

The word rosary comes from Latin and means a garland of roses. Incidentally, the rose is one the flowers used to symbolize the Virgin Mary. The rosary is a devotion in honour of the Virgin Mary and it is a truly biblical form of prayer — after all, the prayers that comprise it come mainly from the Bible.

The rosary consists of a set number of specific prayers but they are NOT boring, uselessly repetitious, meaningless recitation of prayers. It is a form of meditation on the grace of God! It is the meditation on the scriptural based mysteries that gives the rosary its staying power. There are 5 Mysteries in each namely the Joyful Mysteries, the Sorrowful Mysteries and the Glorious Mysteries. All these are explicitly scriptural except for the last 2 in the Glorious Mysteries - the Assumption and Coronation of Mary which are not explicitly stated in the Bible, but they are not contrary to it.

Pope John Paul II has proposed five new mysteries to be used during the saying of the Rosary known as the "mysteries of light" or the "luminous mysteries."

These mysteries are as follows:

1. The Baptism in the Jordan
2. The Wedding at Cana
3. The Proclamation of the Kingdom
4. The Transfiguration
5. The Institution of the Eucharist

Although the repeated Hail Mary is addressed directly to Mary, it is to Jesus that the act of love is ultimately directed. Far from being unbiblical, it is actually a beautiful scriptural way of praying that leads us closer to him. By reciting the Hail Mary throughout the rosary, we participate over and over again in the wonder-filled response of Gabriel and Elizabeth to the mystery of Christ. Bead after bead, we ask Mary to pray for us that we may be drawn closer to her Son.

And most of all, prayer after prayer, we affectionately speak the name of our Beloved at the very center of each Hail Mary: "Blessed is the fruit of thy womb, Jesus." The holy name of Jesus, repeated with tender love, is the heartbeat of the entire rosary.

Once you understand the essence of the rosary and you know that meditating the rosary will help you have an intimate, personal relationship with Jesus Christ.