The term mystery is used to describe important events/parts of the Catholicism that cannot be confirmed outside of our religious faith. The 20 mysteries of the Rosary are categorized evenly into four general events - joyful, sorrowful, glorious, and luminous. While reciting the rosary, you are supposed to devoutly meditate on each specific mystery. Through meditation on events that rely on faith to understand, you open yourself to greater spiritual insight.
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Roman Catholic AnswerHow to pray the rosary: First of all, one of the most important things that we must do as Christians is to pray, and beginning prayer is meditation. Realize that Christian meditation has absolutely nothing in common with Eastern meditation. That are completely different things and that fact that they are called by the same word is an unfortunate happenstance. Christian meditation is recalling and thinking about the truths of the faith. Meditation using Sacred Scripture (the Bible) is called Lectio Divinia. The traditional rosary has Joyful, Sorrowful, and Glorious Mysteries, Pope John Paul II, of happy memory, added the Luminous.The rosary is a series of prayers based on the Bible - the Our Father, and the Hail Mary (the Angelic Salutation from the Gospel of Luke). But the vocal prayer is like the background music, if you will, to the meditation of the mysteries of the faith, which is the heart of the rosary.
The rosary meditations are:
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Joyful (usually prayed on Monday and Saturday)
Annunciation of angel Gabriel to Mary
Visitation of Mary to her cousin Elizabeth
Nativity of our Blessed Savior
Presentation in the Temple
Finding in the Temple
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Luminous (Thursday)
Baptism of Jesus in the Jordan
Self manifestation of Jesus at the Miracle of Cana
Proclamation of the Kingdom of God
The Transfiguration on the Mount
The Institution of the Blessed Eucharist
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Sorrowful (Tuesday and Friday)
The Agony in the Garden
The Scouring at the Pillar
The Crowning with Thorns
The Carrying of the Cross
The Crucifixion
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Glorious (Wednesday and Sunday)
The Resurrection
The Ascension
The Descent of the Holy Spirit
The Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary
The Crowning of the Bless Virgin Mary as Queen of Heaven and Earth.
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So we are praying by meditating on the mysteries of our Redemption. And this form of prayer was very ancient, but the form that we currently use was given by Our Blessed Mother to St. Dominic (who was founder of the Dominicans). As Catholics, we walk in our Savior's footsteps, and one of the ways in which we imitate Him is in His love and devotion to His mother.
So the rosary is important to us, as Catholic Christians, as fulfilling our Blessed Lord's command to pray always, as meditation on the events of His life, as a form of prayer that was given to us at the express wish of Our Blessed Mother, and as one of the forms of prayer, above most others that leads many saints to intimate union with God.
Below is the form that I made up for my students in Sunday school:
In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen
CRUCIFIX
L. I believe in God, the Father almighty,
creator of Heaven and earth.
I believe in Jesus Christ, His only Son, our Lord.
He was conceived by the power of the Holy Spirit
and born of the Virgin Mary.
He suffered under Pontius Pilate, was crucified, died, and was buried.
He descended into Hell. On the third day He rose again.
He ascended into Heaven and is seated at the right hand of the Father.
He will come again to judge the living and the dead.
R. I believe in the Holy Spirit, the holy Catholic Church,
the Communion of the Saints, the forgiveness of sins,
the resurrection of the body, and the life everlasting. Amen
Our Father (for the Pope). Three Hail Mary's (Faith, Hope, Charity) Glory be.
All. O my Jesus, forgive us our sins,
save us from the first of Hell.
Lead all souls to Heaven,
especially those who have most need of Thy mercy. Amen
For each decade:
L. Our Father, who art in heaven,
BIG BEAD
Hallowed be Thy Name,
Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done,
On Earth as it is in Heaven
R. Give us this day, our daily bread,
And forgive us our trespasses,
As we forgive those who trespass against us,
And lead us not into temptation,
But deliver us from evil.
L. Hail Mary, full of grace,
SMALL BEADS - 10 TIMES
The Lord is with thee,
Blessed are thou amongst women,
And blessed is the fruit of thy womb, Jesus.
R. Holy Mary, Mother of God,
Pray for us sinners, now and at the hour of our death.
L. Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit.
CHAIN
R. As it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be, world without end. Amen.
L. O my Jesus...
R. forgive us our sins,
save us from the first of Hell.
Lead all souls to Heaven,
especially those who have most need of Thy mercy. Amen
Final prayers:
Hail, Holy Queen
, Mother of Mercy! Our life,
our sweetness, and our hope! To thee do we
cry, poor banished children of Eve; to thee do
we send up our sights, mourning and weeping
in this valley of tears. Turn, then, most
gracious advocate, thine eyes of mercy toward
us; and after this our exile show unto us the
blessed fruit of thy womb, Jesus. O clement,
O loving, O sweet Virgin Mary!
L. Pray for us, O holy Mother of God,
R. that we may be made worthy of the promises of Christ. Amen.
All:O God, whose only-begotten Son, by His life, death, and Resurrection, has purchased for us
the rewards of eternal life, grant, we beseech
Thee, that meditating on these Mysteries of
the most holy Rosary of the Blessed Virgin
Mary, we may imitate what they contain, and
obtain what they promise, through the same
Christ our lord. Amen.
AnswerActually there are 20 mysteries in the rosary. 5 joyful, 5 sorrowful and 5 luminous. Each mystery is a meditation on an incident in the life of Jesus or Mary, i.e The Birthof Jesus, his crowning with thorns, the crucifixion, the Resurrection, the Beatitudes.... Each meditation is accompanied by prayers which are counted on the beads.Announce each mystery by its number, type, and name; as in: "First Joyful Mystery... The Annunciation of Gabriel to Mary..."
Each section of a rosary is called a decade as it contains ten beads for the ten Hail Mary's that you say while meditating on the mystery.
the sorrowful mystery
The four mysteries are joyful mysteries, glorious mysteries, sorrowful mysteries and the luminous mysteries.
In one way or another every mystery of the Rosary contains Our Blessed Lord.
The finding of Jesus in the temple
the joyful mysteries
Traditionally, the Rosary consisted of three mysteries concerning the life of Christ: The Joyful Mysteries, the Sorrowful Mysteries and the Glorious Mysteries. Each Mystery has five meditations assigned to it, during which the person prays an Our Father, 10 Hail Mary's and a Glory Be on the beads - this sequence is known as a "decade of the Rosary". If you pray an entire 15 decade Rosary that means you have pondered all 3 mysteries through the 5 meditations for each mystery which totals 15 decades. Recently, the pope added one more mystery, the Luminous Mysteries with 5 more meditations, so technically this now makes a full Rosary a 20 decade Rosary. The Rosary devotion dates back to the time of St. Dominic who was given it by the Blessed Virgin Mary as a powerful devotion to her for the asking of powerful graces, especially those of converting heretics.
The Annunciation is the first mystery of the Rosary. It commemorates the angel Gabriel's visit to Mary, announcing that she would conceive and bear a son, Jesus. This event is described in the Gospel of Luke.
The month of the Rosary is October each year.
pope john paul gave us the luminous mystery which is added to the rosary.
The Presentation is the fourth Joyful Mystery which remembers Our Blessed Lord's presentation in the Temple.