The Mystery of the Rosary
Word Rosary comes from Latin word “rosaria” which means a crown of roses in anthology, a prayer or verse. In the fifth century the Angelic Salutation from the greatest moment of the beginning of salvation when God humbled himself and became man (Luke 1:28) and Elizabeth’s greeting to Mary (Lk 1:42) have been joined together and followed by invocation to Mary.
Rosary is a pattern of prayer and its constant repetition like breathing that is strictly linked to the Liturgy of the hours and daily prayer of 150 psalms. Those who were illiterate or did not have access to books, quickly adapted the Lord’s Prayer as devotion to Jesus and created The Marian/ Angelic Psalter, which was a prayer of repetition of 150 Aves.
In 1214 Mother Mary appeared to St Dominic and explained how The Angelic Psalter was to be developed into The Rosary and how it was to be prayed “providing a compendium of the entire Gospel” (Pope Pius XII). It became a real exercise of powerful meditation bringing us closer to God.
By praying The Rosary our Mother Mary takes us into contemplation on life of her Son, our Lord Jesus Christ. The mysteries marked by the beads, summaries the stories of how God reviled himself, his love and his will to mankind. In each of the mysteries we meditate on a different event from the life of Jesus and at the same time the Gospel, life, death, the resurrection and the Ascension of Jesus.
Sr Lucia of Fatima, whom Our Lady of Fatima continuously asked to pray the Rosary daily, said, “there’s no problem, I tell you, no matter how difficult it is, that we cannot resolve by the prayer of the Holy Rosary”