What is the Holy Rosary?
The Holy Rosary is a set of prayers that are organized in a way that helps Christians to meditate upon the mysteries of the Catholic faith. In the Rosary – literally, “crown of roses” – we proceed along the same path taken by Christ, beginning with the Annunciation of His birth and traveling thence through His miracles, mission, suffering and death on a cross.
Each set of prayers is designed to draw us closer in to these mysteries, to aid us in contemplating and worshiping the Holy Trinity, and to appropriately venerate Our Holy Mother. (Catholics do not “worship” Mary; worship is for God alone, but we do honor her and recognize her unique role in salvation history).
Where did the Rosary come from?
Rosary beads
Since ancient times, devout Christians chanted and prayed the Psalms. Particularly for those in religious service, all 150 Psalms (also called the Psalter) would be prayed in sequence, using a string of beads to count the prayers. When the Virgin Mary appeared to Spanish priest St. Dominic Guzman (founder of the Dominican Order of Preachers) in the 12th century A.D. instructed him to use the Rosary as a means of combating heresies and promoting devotion to her, it was only natural that he would adopt the beads for this purpose. Under her guidance, he spread the practice of the Rosary as a powerful tool for prayer and evangelization.
The structure of the Rosary has changed over time. The Hail Mary, as we know it, did not exist at that time; instead, it developed in conjunction with the Rosary, originating with the recitation of the Archangel Gabriel’s greeting “Hail Mary, full of grace, the Lord is with thee”, and other parts were gradually added over the centuries.
Originally, the Rosary consisted of 150 Hail Marys prayed in place of the Psalms, with the Our Father in between every 10 Hail Marys. Mary also revealed which mysteries to contemplate to mediate upon the life of Christ. As time progressed the Apostles’ Creed, the Glory Be, and, eventually, the Fatima Prayer, was added to the Rosary. In October, 2002, Pope St. John Paul introduced the Luminous Mysteries of the Rosary, five new mysteries to add Christ’s miracles and preaching to the existing 15 mysteries.
Do you need to use rosary beads?
Rosary beads are considered a “devotional article” in the Catholic faith. Rosary beads may be blessed, in which case they do carry the blessing with them and become what is known as a “sacramental“. Sacramentals, in and of themselves, do not produce sacramental grace, either by their existence or by their use. And while a sacramental is not a “talisman” against evil, the use of sacramentals as an aid to prayer may certainly have the “remarkable effect” of keeping evil (demonic or the physical actions of men) at bay.
So the easy answer is: you should use a blessed, sacramental set of rosary beads to pray. It can’t hurt, and it really does help keep track of where you are in the prayer cycle so you can keep your mind focused on the mysteries and not on keeping a number in your head.
That said, most people do carry a natural set of rosary beads with them at all times in the form of their own ten fingers. They’ll do in a pinch.
Do rosary beads need to be blessed?
This is not a trick question, but it is a loaded one. It would be easy to overstate the effect of a blessing upon a devotional article like a set of rosary beads. But blessed or not, the power of the prayer is in the one doing the praying, not in any aid that may be used in prayer, blessed or not. The prayer of a saint praying using a set of pebbles on the ground is far more powerful than a person using a set of rosary beads that had been blessed by St. Dominic himself, but is simply going through the motions. It is the prayer, not the rosary, that counts.
Can a blessed sacramental aid in making that sincere prayer even more powerful? Absolutely.
Can a blessed sacramental aid in making an insincere prayer even more powerful? Absolutely not.
What else do I need to get started?
Just a sincere desire to contemplate the mysteries of Christ’s life on earth, to praise and worship Him for his sacrifice for us, and to please Him through the veneration of His Holy Mother. Ready? How To Pray The Holy Rosary.
