rosary
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rosary
rosary [rose garden], prayer of Roman Catholics, in which beads are used as counters. The term, applied also to the beads, is extended to Muslim, Hindu, and Buddhist prayers that use beads. The traditional Catholic rosary is a series of 15 meditations on events (mysteries) in the lives of Jesus and Mary. The joyful mysteries are (Luke 1–2) the Annunciation, the Visitation, the birth of Jesus, His presentation at the Temple, and the finding of the child Jesus among the doctors. The sorrowful mysteries are (Mat. 26–27) the agony of Jesus in the garden, His scourging, the crowning with thorns, the carrying of the Cross, and the Crucifixion. The glorious mysteries are the Resurrection (Luke 24), the Ascension (Acts 1.1—11), the descent of the Holy Ghost (Acts 2), the assumption of the Virgin, and her coronation as Queen of Heaven. In 2002, Pope John Paul II proposed the addition of five “mysteries of light” drawn from Jesus' public life: his baptism in the Jordan, his self-manifestation at the wedding at Cana, his proclamation of the kingdom of God, the Transfiguration, and his institution of the Eucharist.
As one dwells on a mystery in thought one recites prayers—the Lord's Prayer (or Our Father; Paternoster) once, Hail Mary (Ave Maria) 10 times, and Glory Be to the Father (Gloria Patri) once. Count is kept by slipping beads through the fingers; the beads have no other significance. The usual string—formerly called the chaplet—has five sets of 10 beads (decades); between the decades a single bead is set apart, for the Glory of one mystery and the Our Father of the next. There is a pendant with crucifix and beads for introductory prayers.
The rosary is often said in common, but it remains an individual prayer. Its popularity is often ascribed to the combination of simplicity of method with solidity of subject matter. In one form or another it has been in use some 600 years. There is a feast of the rosary, Oct. 7, on the anniversary of the victory of the Christians over the Turks at the battle of Lepanto. According to tradition, St. Dominic received the rosary from the Virgin Mary in a vision.
Bibliography
See F. B. Thornton, This Is the Rosary (1961).
Rosary
(religion, spiritualism, and occult)Roman Catholic tradition has developed prayers and meditations designed to immerse the believer in the mysteries of the faith. Sometimes various devices are used to aid in memorization. Perhaps the best-known prayer and memory device is the rosary and rosary beads.
John Renard, author of The Handy Religion Answer Book, summarizes the rosary meditation with these words:
A "decade" of the rosary corresponds to each of the fifteen mysteries commemorated in the rosary. Ten Hail Marys are said for each decade; they are preceded by an Our Father and followed by a Glory Be to the Father. While reciting a decade of the rosary, one is to meditate on the particular mystery for that decade and on its meaning for life. The entire rosary is divided into three chaplets: the joyful, the sorrowful, and the glorious mysteries. To "say a rosary" commonly means to pray one such chaplet of five mysteries. Commonly a chaplet is preceded by the recitation of the Apostles' Creed and of an Our Father and three Hail Marys. The Roman Catholic Church has long recommended this form of prayer as a convenient and effective way of meditating on the Christian mysteries of salvation.
The mysteries to be reflected on are the following.
The Joyful Mysteries The Annunciation The Visitation of Mary to her Cousin Elizabeth The Birth of Jesus Christ The Presentation of Jesus in the Temple in Jerusalem The Finding of the Child Jesus in the Temple in Jerusalem
The Sorrowful Mysteries The Agony of Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemane The Scourging of Jesus at the Pillar The Crowning with Thorns The Carrying of the Cross The Crucifixion
The Glorious Mysteries The Resurrection of Jesus from the Dead The Ascension of Jesus into Heaven The Descent of the Holy Spirit upon the Apostles The Assumption of Mary into Heaven The Coronation of Mary as Queen of Heaven
Rosary
(religion, spiritualism, and occult)The Rosary is both a form of repeated prayer very popular in the Roman Catholic Church and a designation of the string of prayer beads used to assist the counting of the prayers. The use of such prayer beads is by no means confined to Catholicism or Christianity. Their origin predates Christianity in the Middle East, and Muslims, Buddhists, and various Esoteric groups also use them. The Catholic Rosary generally consists of 50 beads, with a marker bead dividing them into groups of ten.
In Catholicism, the Rosary derived from devotional practices relative to the reciting of the biblical Psalms, of which there are 150. The saying of a brief prayer thrice around the Rosary models the repeating of the Psalms. In actual practice, the Rosary is generally said using the prayer known as the Hail Mary. After saying it ten times, the Lord’s Prayer (the “Our Father”) is repeated. In the modern world, a large number of variations on the Rosary have appeared.
The present practice of saying the Rosary derives from events attributed to Saint Dominic (c. 1170–1221). At that time, the Dominican Order had been placed in charge of the Inquisition, whose first task was the suppression of the Albigensians, a Christian Esoteric group that had grown in strength to challenge the Catholic hegemony in southeastern France. In the initial stages of the reconversion campaign, Dominic is said (there being no contemporary accounts) to have entered into a period of intense prayer and penance. At one point he became unconscious and was visited by the Blessed Virgin Mary, who told him to preach the Psalter (i.e., the Rosary). His subsequent opening sermon in the Cathedral at Toulouse was marked by a variety of “supernatural” signs, including the movement of the arms of the Virgin on a painting that hung in a prominent place in the church.
The Rosary was popularized on a wider scale by Alain de la Roche (1428–1475), who in 1470 founded the Rosary Confraternity. Pope Leo X gave his official commendation to the Rosary in 1520, and its spread over the next centuries followed the establishment of the Dominicans around the world. It subsequently became the most popular form of expression of Catholic piety—apart from attendance at mass—and is widely used in connection with other forms, such as the wearing of SCAPULARS.