The prayers recited with the beads honor the Virgin Mary, and the person praying meditates on the life of Christ and His mother while saying the prayers. The word "rosary" derives from the idea that a rose symbolizes perfection, and reciting the rosary prayers creates a spiritual garden of perfected prayer.
Smaller beads form groups of 10, or decades, with a larger bead between the sets, for praying the prayers for the mysteries, or meditations, of Christ's life. Typically, a pendant of a crucifix with three small and one large bead completes the circle. When using a rosary, worshippers recite either the Apostles' Creed or the Nicene Creed while holding the crucifix.
The large beads between the decades of the rosary count the recitations of the Pater Noster, or Our Father prayer, sometimes called the Lord's Prayer. The Catholic version of the prayer differs slightly from that used in Protestant churches, with the words, "Our Father who art in heaven; hallowed be Thy name.
Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread and forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. But where did the ritual of the rosary come from?
And what exactly is the significance of rosary beads? The rosary in simplest terms is a tool used to aid prayer and meditation.
The beads of a rosary count the prayers as they are recited out loud or in the mind. Most commonly recognized in the United States as a symbol of Catholicism, other religions including Buddhism, Hinduism, Paganism and Islam employ rosary bead traditions as well. History of Rosary Beads The earliest records of the practice of counting prayers among religions of Western culture can be traced to the 11th and 12th centuries.
It is believed that people carried small stones or pebbles in their pockets with which to count prayers. However, there is evidence that Buddhism, Hinduism and Islam all had traditions of prayer counting that predate this pebble counting, and these faiths had incorporated a string of beads for this counting.
Roman Catholic Rosary In the Roman Catholic tradition, the term rosary refers to both the string of beads and the prayer said using that string of beads. To pray the rosary is to recite specific prayers corresponding with particular beads on the string.
A rosary is a made up of a crucifix, one larger bead, three small beads, another larger bead and then a medal. After the medal comes a larger bead again, followed by a group of 10 smaller beads. Around the rosary chain there are five sets of each of these beads one large, 10 small. The larger bead is separated from the smaller beads, signifying the different prayers recited while holding the bead. These sets — one bead followed by a group of 10 — are called decades.
A more complex Hail Mary is recited while holding the medal. The prayers are recited around the whole of the rosary with each decade signifying a meditation on one of the mysteries of Redemption. The thoughts during the prayer are directed to focus on a different mystery for each decade that corresponds with a specific time of year.
These mysteries represent the significant events in the life of Jesus Christ. The history of the rosary in Catholicism can be traced back to the time of St.
Dominic in the south of France in the early s. It is said that St. Dominic was shown a string of beads by the Virgin Mary and instructed to preach the rosary among his people to battle against sin.
This makes Rosaries a simplistic, yet effective device for keeping track of where you are up to. Their primary purpose is to help indicate when and where to recite Our Father, or another specific prayer. Sometimes these Our Father beads are larger then the Hail Mary beads, of a different color or material, or spaced further apart from the rest of the beads. Other times the Our Fathers are medallions instead, or in the case of the Rosary Ring, absent all together, making the cross an Our Father bead the second time it is touched.
Most looped Rosary beads have a tail at the beginning. This is designed to allow the user to continue with their prayers without having to touch the cross again. The tail also has its own set of prayers depending on which beads are present. This means that as part of the prayer cycle, the following prayers are said before commencing with the prayers on the loop. Most other looped Rosaries do not have the first four beads, instead having just the one Our Father bead.
We hope that this article was able to answer any questions that you may have had regarding why Rosaries are designed the way they are. Your email address will not be published.
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