The mysteries of the rosary?

Question

I would like to know about the mysteries of the rosary. Sure, I have lists of them, but the problem is, for the most part, I don't even understand them! I know they're prayed on certain days, but I really and truly don't know what a lot of them reffer to, and therefor have nothing to meditate on! Can someone give me details about what each mystery means, and why I should think about it?

Answer 1

Meditate on the corresponding mystery for each decade (10 Hail Marys)


The Joyful Mysteries
(First Day)


First Joyful Mystery - The Annunciation

Archangel Gabriel appears to Mary to Announce that God has chosen her to be the Mother of Jesus. She consents.

Second Joyful Mystery - The Visitation

Mary leaves her home to go to care for her cousin, Elizabeth, who is soon to be the mother of John the Baptist. The moment she sees Mary, Elizabeth pronounces the famous words, "Blessed art thou among women and Blessed is the fruit of thy womb."

Third Joyful Mystery - The Nativity

Mary gives birth to Jesus miraculously yet still remains a virgin. Meditate upon the well-known story of the Birth of Christ.

Fourth Joyful Mystery - the Presentation at the Temple

Mary and Joseph take their first-born son (as was the custom) to the temple to present Him to God. There, Simeon recognizes Jesus as the Messiah and predicts that Mary's heart will be pierced with a sword of sorrow.

Fifth Joyful Mystery - The Finding of the child Jesus at the Temple

Twelve-year-old Jesus was lost after the annual trip to the Temple in Jerusalem. He was found three days later by His sorrowing parents; He was in the Temple talking to the learned doctors of the church and astounding them with His great knowledge. He said, "Know you not that I must be about my Father's business?" But He went with them and was subject to them. And Jesus grew in stature and in Grace before God.

(Note: This is the first third of the Rosary. It is said by going around the Rosary beads once. [See diagram] After announcing a Mystery, recite the "Our Father" before the "Hail Mary's" which are counted on the ten beads. On the larger bead say "Glory be" and the "Angel's Prayer." Announce the next Mystery, recite the "Our Father" all on the larger bead. Then pray ten "Hail Mary's" on the next ten beads and so on around the Rosary. Practice until the Meditation becomes a part of the prayer. Meditation is thinking about the events which are stated in the Mystery.)




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The Sorrowful Mysteries
(The Second Day)


First Sorrowful Mystery - The Agony in the Garden

Jesus leaves His disciples and enters the Garden of Olives to pray, the night before His death. As He prays, the weight of all the sins of Mankind press heavily upon Him. It is for sin He must die - your sin, too - and the knowledge of His suffering and death, added to the burden of the Sins He would die to atone, brought a bloody sweat which was the outward sign of the Agony within His soul.

Second Sorrowful Mystery - The Scourging [Whipping] at the Pillar

Pilate decreed that Jesus would be scourged, thinking in this way to appease the crowd's cry for Jesus' death. A Roman soldier whipped Him and stripped the flesh from His back. The Pain was greatly magnified, for Jesus had been up all night in the Agony of prayer. He could have stopped the whipping with a glance, but He bore it for your sins, because He loved you.

Third Sorrowful Mystery - The Crowning with Thorns

The soldiers put a purple cloak around His shoulders; then plaited a crown of sharp thorns and crushed it down upon his head. They put a reed in His hand, then bowed the knee and mocked Him as "King of the Jews." They spat upon His face. He did not speak out against them.

Fourth Sorrowful Mystery - The Carrying of the Cross

A heavy wooden cross was placed upon His bruised shoulder and He was forced to carry His own Cross to Calvary. He fell three times beneath its weight. The weight of sins for which He was to die was greater than the weight of the Cross.

Fifth Sorrowful Mystery - The Crucifixion

Nails were driven through His hands and feet. He lay upon His deathbed, the Crown of Thorns still on His head. He was lifted up and hung for three hours upon the Cross - for your sins - and then Jesus died. Weep for the death of the Sinless Son of God who died that you might live forever in Heaven.





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The Glorious Mysteries
(Third day)


First Glorious Mystery - The Resurrection

On the third day Jesus rose from the dead. The heavy stone was rolled away from the tomb and He came forth gloriously for He had conquered death forever. He had opened the gates of Heaven which had been closed since the fall of Adam and Eve. It is because of His death and resurrection that you have an opportunity to be saved from hell and to enter Heaven where you will live forever.

Second Glorious Mystery - The Ascension

At last Jesus was reunited with His Father in Heaven, but now He has a human form for He has forever taken the body of Man. His body and soul were both taken into Paradise, and He sits at the right hand of His Father. He shall come again in glory to judge the living and the dead.

Third Glorious Mystery - The Descent of the Holy Ghost upon the Apostles
and Mary

Jesus had promised His disciples that when He went back to Heaven He would send the Holy Spirit to be with them. The Holy Spirit (Ghost) descended upon them and upon His mother in tongues of flames seen above their heads. They were filled with enthusiasm and went about converting many souls. The Holy Spirit has lived upon the earth to give comfort and understanding and help to man, but men have scorned the third Person of the Holy Trinity. Pray to the Holy Spirit in reparation for your neglect of His help.

Fourth Glorious Mystery - The Assumption of Mary into Heaven body and Soul

Mary's body became glorified after her death. Her soul and body were reunited and she was taken or "assumed" into Heaven because her body had created the body of Christ and it could not be allowed to decay. Nothing of Christ must be destroyed. His Mother is with Him in Heaven, body and soul.

Fifth Glorious Mystery - The Coronation of the Blessed Virgin Mary,
Queen of Heaven

As Christ is King so Mary is Queen, and rules with Him in Heaven. All the Saints and Angels bow before her beauty and she who is dearest to Jesus is also dearest to God and the Holy Spirit. Her power is not her own - It comes from God.

You may find the following sites useful too. You may find meditating on the various mysteries a little difficult in the beginning but as time passes and you are faithful to the recitation of the Holy Rosay more graces will be given to you to meditate better. Dont forget to ask the Virgin for graces before meditating each Mystery

http://www.fatimacrusader.com/cr72/cr72pg29.asp

http://www.fatimacrusader.com/cr72/cr72myst.asp

http://www.fatimacrusader.com/cr72/cr72pg42.asp

http://www.fatimacrusader.com/cr72/cr72pg35.asp

Answer 2

They follow the gospel story so just take out your bible and read.

Joyful mysteries:
1 Annunciation. Luke 1:26-38
2 Visitation. Luke 1:39-56
3 Birth of Jesus. Luke 2:1-20
4 Presentation in the temple. Luke 2:22-35
5 Finding of Jesus in the temple Luke 2:41-52

Luminous Mysteries:
1. Baptism of Jesus Matthew 3:13-17
2. The wedding at Cana John 2:1-11
3. Jesus preaches repentance and the kingdom of God.
Matthew 4:17 and the following chapters 5-7
4. The Transfiguration of Jesus on Mount Tabor. Matthew 17:1-8
5. In Institution of the Holy Eucharist. Matthew 26:26-29

The sorrowful mysteries:
1 The agony in the garden. Matthew26:36-46
2. The flagellation of Jesus. Matthew 27:26
3 The crowning with thorns Matthew 27:27-31
4. The carrying of the cross. John 23:26-31
5. The crucifixion. John 23:33-49

The glorious mysteries:
1.The resurrection of Jesus Luke 24:36-40
2. The ascension into heaven Luke 24:50-53
3. The outpouring of the Holy Spirit Acts 2:1-13
4. The assumption of Mary into heaven Revelation 12:1
5 The coronation of Mary in heaven Psalm 45:10

Sometimes a picture of the gospel scene can help with focusing.

God bless you.

Answer 3

Catholics are not Christians and the idols that Hazel mentioned is like this. Back in the olden days, they didn't have cameras to take pictures of the events so people carved the events out of stone plus hazel there is a major differnce between worshipping a golden cow than a statue of Jesus or Jesus on the cross. I have seen more Christians behave unholy and there Christianity usually stops at there pocket book. I've had Christians and Protestants preach to me for hours about God but ehen it came to do some thing for there fellow man,they didn't have the time of day for them. I'm not saying our church is perfect, what I'm saying is when we go to church we pray for our weaknesses and forgiveness for what we did or didn't do. In the end were only humans and regardless of our religion we all fall majorly short Gods grace.

Answer 4

thought you'd like an answer from an honest catholic.

Ok, the Mysteries of the Rosary are the Miraculous, the Luminous, the Glorious and the Sorrowful. As for the day you pray them, it's not a rule written in stone. I normally concentrate on one Mystery a week, otherwise I tend to mess up.

The Miraculous Mysteries are the fortelling of Jesus's birth and his early years. The overall message is humility. We are supposed to concentrate on the humility of Mary, the humble beginings of Christ.

The Lumionous Mysteries are all about Jesus's ministry. The message is for us to concentrate on his teachings and what they mean in our lives.

The Sorrowful Mysteries are his death. We concentrate on the sacrifice and love he had for us when he allowed himself to be nailed to that cross.

The Glorious Mysteries are his resserection and ascention into heaven. Here, we are filled with the hope of heaven and the coming of the Holy Spirit.

I hope this helps you.

Answer 5

All three Mysteries usually begin the week of meditation on Sunday.
Joyful on Monday,followed by Sorrowful on Tuesday and Glorious on Wednesday....Joyful on Thursday, Sorrowful on Friday and Glorious on Saturday.
Meditating on events in the lives of Jesus and Mary are recommended to focus your praying.

There are several links on the internet.
many religious organizations connected with the Catholic Church offer free booklets.
The Blue Army Shrine being one of them.

This is a link!
Good Luck!

Lily

http://www.vatican.va/special/rosary/documents/misteri_en.html

Answer 6

Click on the link for a complete explanation, and a step by step guide to praying a detailed scriptural rosary, including all the mysteries.

This site was originally done for children, but it works just fine for people of all ages.

And please ignore the crude and misinformed comments of many of the responders. They know not what they do.

http://www.cptryon.org/prayer/child/rosary/index.html

Answer 7

I agree with gebobs and many others. The Catholic church has been around for centuries. It can be studied under the heading of "mystery religions". Revelation 17 verse 5 describes it as, "MYSTERY BABYLON THE GREAT, the mother of harlots and abominations of the earth". Revelation 14 verse 6 describes its future destruction. For a further description see link below.

Answer 8

Maybe this site would explain more minutely what the mysteries mean.

http://www.vatican.va/special/rosary/documents/misteri_en.html

Answer 9

The rosary is not from the Bible. Says The Catholic Encyclopedia: “In almost all countries, then, we meet with something in the nature of prayer-counters or rosary-beads.” Rosaries were used in ancient Nineveh and are being used by Moslems and Buddhists. In fact, Catholic missionaries, upon their first visiting India, Japan and Mexico, have repeatedly been surprised to find the rosary being used by the people in those lands.

The repeating of fifty-three Hail Marys every time the rosary is recited flies in the face of Jesus’ express condemnation of saying the “same things over and over again.” Its widespread use outside of professedly Christian lands argues that its origin is pagan. And the same must also be said regarding its associated features, the exaltation of Mary, the offering of indulgences for saying the rosary, the crediting of victories to it and its claimed power to decrease purgatorial suffering. None of these find any support in the Scriptures, but they do find parallels in pagan religions.

In view of all these facts, can the rosary be said to be Christian? It cannot!

Answer 10

Not every woman could afford a silver cross or statue to bring to church so the Rosary came about.

Answer 11

Don't waist your time. Most things Catholic are invented to be mysterious and not easily understood. Do you think that your creator is so mysterious? Why would he make it so hard to know him? Don't give these people your power.