Prayers to listen to.
The Rosary devotion was given to St. Dominic by the Mother of God in the thirteenth century, and the devotion to the Beads spread throughout the Christian world.
Pope John XXlll said “The Rosary is a very commendable form of prayer and meditation. The Rosary is a mystical garland of Ave Marias, Pater Nosters, and Gloria Patris. As we recite these vocal prayers, we meditate on the principal mysteries of our religion. The Incarnation of Jesus Christ and the redemption of the human race are proposed, one event after another, for our consideration.”
In October of 2002, Pope John Paull ll issued an apostolic letter, “Rosarium Virginis Mariae” addressed to the Bishops, Clergy, and Faithful.
“Simple yet profound, (the Rosary) still remains, at the dawn of the third millennium, a prayer of great significance, destined to bring forth a harvest of holiness. It blends easily into the spiritual journey of the Christian life, which, after two thousand years, hos lost none of the freshness of its beginnings and feels drawn by the spirit of God to “set out into the deep” in order to proclaim, and even cry out before the world that Jesus Christ is Lord and Saviour, “the way, the truth and the life.” (John 14:6)
“Without contemplation, the Rosary is a body without a soul, and its recitation runs the risk of becoming a mechanical repetition of formulas. By its nature, the recitation of the Rosary calls for a quiet rhythm and a lingering pace, helping the individual to meditate on the mysteries of the Lord’s life as seen through the eyes of her who was closest to the Lord. In this way, the unfathomable riches of these mysteries are disclosed.” Pope Paul Vl
Note: The Rosary meditations presented here are in the format suggested by Pope John Paul ll. The custom of adding a phrase specific to the mystery being contemplated at the center of gravity of each Hail Mary, after the name of Jesus, is incorporated as Pope Paul Vl suggests.