THE ROSARY FOR CHILDREN

WHAT IS THE HOLY ROSARY?
Part 2:
LONGER EXPLANATION
BAR

The Rosary is a devotion in honor of the Blessed Virgin, combining vocal with mental prayer. It is composed of fifteen decades, a decade consisting of the Our Father, ten Hail Marys, and the Glory be to the Father and Fatima Decade Prayer. These 15 decades are divided into three parts with the recall of Our Lord's Life, Passion, and Glory in 15 mysteries. The first five mysteries are called Joyful because they brought joy into the hearts of men, showing us the Virgin Mary as Mother of the Child Jesus. The second five are called Sorrowful because these tell the suffering Our Divine Lord underwent for our Redemption. The third five are called Glorious because they present Our Lord in triumph over death, and Our Lady as our Queen, crowned in Heaven. [See First Part for explanation of the correspondence between 15 decades, 15 Mysteries and 15 Promises, and the Psalms.]

Ordinarily, only five decades of the Rosary are said. Five decades make up the chaplet of beads. While we recite the prayers of a decade, we should meditate upon the mystery which it is meant to honor. The mysteries of the Rosary are the most salient points of the Gospel.

The Rosary as we now know it comes from St. Dominic, the founder of the Order of Friars Preachers. In his time, the 13th century, heresies, which are the truths of the Faith mixed with error, were rampant, chief among them was one that denied the efficacy of the Sacraments. St. Dominic strove to combat this heresy and he never missed a chance to enter a church to pray. One day, about the year 1206, he was in the church of Notre Dame de la Dreche in Toulouse, France, when he was very sad about the bad times. Our Lady appeared to him there, to comfort him and she gave him the prayer of Rosary with the instruction that it should be prayed to overcome heresy, which he did in obedience to her: To him we owe also the spread of the devotion which for many centuries has produced the most marvelous results in the Christian world: heresies have been uprooted, morals reformed, fortunes averted, wars ended. St. Dominic is sometimes pictured with a dog, one of his symbols because:

Before his mother conceived him, she saw in a vision that a dog with a burning torch in its mouth would come forth from her womb and set the world aflame. This, of course refers to his preaching, and the Order he founded, the Order of Preachers or Dominicans.

Some form of the Rosary had always been said. Tradition teaches us that from the very beginning Christians were devoted to our Lady, using the words of the Gospel to formulate the Hail Mary, which was approved of by the Church for official use many many years before St. Dominic. Pious people had already become in the habit of meditating on the events in the life of Our Lord and Our Lady. But there was no set universal form until the instructions of Our Lady to St. Dominic.

The Rosary is the prayer which is most pleasing to Our Lady. The word, Rosary, means a garland or wreath of roses. Each prayer said in the Rosary is a spiritual rose offered to our Blessed Mother.

Between February 11th and July 16th in 1858 Our Lady appeared 18 times to St. Bernadette Soubirous at Lourdes in France.

In every apparition she was seen holding a Rosary in her hands. She had come to teach us once again how to say the Rosary and meditate on its mysteries, and so help her to save souls. Lourdes now has become a place of pilgrimage, a place of grace and prayer.

In 1917, the Blessed Virgin appeared to three little shepherds at Fatima, a Portuguese village. She asked for penance and prayer, and for the Rosary to be said. She asked the three children to recite the Rosary daily with great devotion for the peace of the world. She taught them to say this aspiration after the Glory Be of each decade: "O my Jesus, forgive us our sins. Save us from the fires of Hell. Lead all souls to Heaven, help especially those who are in most need of Thy mercy." Our Lady also urged upon the children the practice of mortification, saying: "Pray much and make sacrifices for sinners, very many souls go to Hell because there is no one who sacrifices himself and prays for them."

At the last apparition on the 13th October 1917, she said that she wanted to be called Our Lady of the Rosary. She said, "I AM the LADY OF THE ROSARY, and I have come to warn the faithful to amend their lives and ask pardon for their sins; they must not continue to offend Our Lord who has been so deeply offended. They must say the Rosary." Our Lady also promised to assist at the Hour of their death those who on the first Saturday of five consecutive months 1. Go to confession; 2. Receive Holy Communion; 3. Say five decades of the Rosary; 4. Keep her company for a quarter of an hour by meditating on the mysteries of the Rosary in order to make reparation.

Customarily, on Mondays and Thursdays, we say the Joyful Mysteries; on Tuesdays and Fridays, we say the Sorrowful Mysteries; on Wednesdays, Saturdays and Sundays, we say the Glorious Mysteries.

During special Church seasons, the Glorious Mysteries are not said on Sunday: During Christmastide-----that is from Advent until Lent, the Joyful Mysteries are Said instead. And from lent until Easter, the Sorrowful Mysteries are honored, not the Glorious.

FORWARD FOR WHY WE SHOULD SAY THE ROSARY