Mysteries of rosary focus on all major events that led to our salvation

Published: August 13, 2005

By Charles T. Sullivan

Along with several friends, my youngest daughter helped organize an informal Catholic girls’ Bible study group in her dorm at the University of Arkansas. She asked me recently if I knew of any “quick and easy” way to keep the timeline of the Gospels in proper chronological order and was surprised when, after a moment’s pause, I told her to look to the rosary. “Just remember that Jesus is Lord, the Son of God,” I told her, “and you’ll have no trouble keeping the events of Christ’s life in sequential order” — Joyful, Luminous, Sorrowful, Glorious (JLSG): the mysteries of the rosary. The rosary is perhaps the most common and best loved of all the Catholic devotional prayers. The word itself is derived from the Latin rosarium (rose garden); a term used beginning in the late Middle Ages to describe a collection or compilation of devotional prayers and scriptural passages. While the custom of counting prayers on beads reaches well back into the first millennium of the Christian era, the introduction of the rosary is generally attributed to St. Dominic of Spain, founder of the Order of Preachers (Dominicans) late in the 12th century. A papal bull in 1569 firmly and authoritatively established the practice of praying the rosary in the Church. In its modern form, the rosary is a prayer of great beauty and nuance, but the basic structure and arrangement is always the same. The complete rosary now consists of 200 Hail Marys arranged in groups of 10 called “decades.” For each decade recited, Catholics meditate on one specific mystery in the life of Jesus and Mary, pray one Our Father, and close with a doxology (Glory be to the Father …). The core or “essence” of the rosary lies in contemplating the mysteries of our redemption, treasuring them in our hearts like Mary who watched in wonder two millennia ago as the actual events unfolded before her eyes. The repetition of the vocal prayers is the “body” of the rosary, much like subtle “background music” that sets the tone. For the past five centuries, the rosary has been sub-divided into three five-decade groupings: the Joyful, Sorrowful and Glorious mysteries. In October 2002, in his apostolic letter “Rosarium Virginis Mariae” (the Rosary of the Virgin Mary), Pope John Paul II recommended a fourth group: the Luminous mysteries. Taken as a whole, the four categories give us a chronological outline of our salvation. These include: Joyful: the Annunciation, Visitation, Nativity, Presentation and Finding the Lost Child Jesus in the Temple Luminous: the Baptism of Jesus, Miracle at Cana, Proclamation of the Kingdom of God and Call to Conversion; Transfiguration and Institution of the Holy Eucharist Sorrowful: the Agony in the Garden, Scourging at the Pillar, Crowning with Thorns, Way of the Cross and Crucifixion Glorious: the Resurrection, Ascension, Descent of the Holy Sprit, Assumption and Crowning of Mary as Queen of Heaven and Earth. These 20 mysteries of the rosary present the Gospel “in miniature” by covering, in sequential order, the major events in the life of Jesus and Mary. Jesus is Lord, the Son of God. JLSG. Charles T. Sullivan, a member of St. Bernard Catholic Church in Bella Vista, has a master’s degree in theology from the University of Dallas.

This article was originally published in Arkansas Catholic August 13, 2005. Copyright Diocese of Little Rock. All rights reserved. This article may be copied or redistributed with acknowledgement and permission of the publisher.