The Rosary
The Rosary is two things:
- A style of praying popular in the Catholic faith
- A set of prayer beads, used when reciting the prayers (these might be called “rosary beads”)
The purpose of prayer beads, in general, is to help the person praying to concentrate by providing a physical token to represent a subject.
The rosary beads are a ring of beads and a crucifix in a specific configuration. The crucifix hangs from a string of five beads, and the remainder is a ring of five sets of 10 beads, separated by a larger bead.
The five sets of 10 beads represent the five “mysteries” of Jesus’s life. A “mystery” is a reference to a specific period of Jesus’s life.
- The Joyful Mystery
- The Luminous Mystery
- The Sorrowful Mystery
- The Glorious Mystery
The 10 beads represent 10 Hail Marys, which is a specific prayer to be recited.
To complete the rosary, a person says specific prayers as they physically move their fingers from bead to bead (or, more accurately, move the beads between their fingers). It apparently takes 15-20 minutes to complete a full rosary.
Several videos embedded on this page are of a woman praying the rosary. She describes the rosary in this video.
Why I Looked It Up
I always knew it was something to do with Catholicism, but wasn’t clear on specifics.
On Minnesota Highway 169 South, just past Jordan, there’s a billboard that says “Pray for America, Pray the Rosary.” It was placed there by the local Knights of Columbus council, which is a Catholic service organization.