Hello there Rosary Lovers! It seems a lot of people on the internet are asking: What is the Rosary about?

We’ve all seen rosaries in shops, in cars, around necks and so forth. But why is the Rosary such a big deal?

The Rosary is a series of meditations on Christ

The first thing to say is that the Rosary is a meditation on Jesus and the Gospel.

It’s an incredibly concise and yet stunningly comprehensive extended meditation on all key aspects of the Gospel.

When reciting the Rosary, we meditate on the conception of Christ in the womb of Mary, the birth of Christ, the teachings of Christ, the Eucharist of Christ, the Crowning with thorns, the Crucifixion and the Resurrection of Christ – just to name a few examples.

The Rosary contains many other meditations, but these are just a small selection.

As such, those who pray the Rosary find that it draws them closer to Jesus Christ, and gives them a better and deeper understanding of the Gospel.

The Gospel becomes something much richer, and more broad than previously thought. The Gospel is understood by the Rosary to be the entire life of Christ, not just his death and/or resurrection.

Christ is our life, the Scriptures say, and yet it is the whole Christ and his whole life which is our life.

As St Theresa of Avila said, everything that Jesus ever did is for our salvation.

When we meditate on the birth of Christ, we meditate on the fact that Jesus was born for us.

When we meditate on the baptism of Christ, we remember it was for our salvation that he was baptised.

Christ was transfigured for our salvation.

Christ was found in the temple at the age of 12 for our salvation.

Christ was scourged at the pillar for our salvation.

The Rosary reminds us that no aspect of Jesus’ life can be overlooked as a crucial part of the Gospel of the Kingdom.

The Rosary is devotion to Mary

It has to be admitted that one of the main reasons for the popularity of the Rosary has to do with the centrality of Mary and the Hail Mary.

The Hail Mary is the second most popular prayer in the Catholic Church. A multitude of Catholics which no-one can number adore the Hail Mary and recite it daily, many constantly throughout the day.

The Rosary is jam-packed full of Hail Marys. Every meditation on the life of Christ includes 10 Hail Marys as part of the meditation method.

Mary takes centre-stage with the Rosary and Catholics love Mary. Catholics adore Mary. Anything that focuses on Mary to such a great extent as the Rosary will always be a popular devotion amongst Catholics.

Mary is our Mother, our Lady. We adore her because she is the Mother of our Saviour, the Mother of our Lord and God.

Catholics believe that it is impossible to be Christian and not to love the Mother of Jesus.

Catholics talk to Mary and they tell her that they love her. They look to her as their Mother who cares more for us than anyone, with the sole exception of God.

The bond between a mother and her child or children is a unique one. Mothers are in many ways the most important types of people in the world. It is through mothers that all of us come into this world.

We all take our first moments of existence within the wombs of our mothers. We all are nurtured for 9 months in our mother’s bodies.

We are born from the body of our mother. We are fed at our mother’s breasts.

This is an exceptional relationship and many of us sense instinctively that to have a heavenly Mother is of this kind of nature.

Yes we have a heavenly Father. But we also have a heavenly Mother. And it is with the profound sense of being her needy child that we turn again and again to Mary throughout life.

The Rosary is the main way that Catholics do this all over the world.

The Rosary is a prayer to God

But it’s easy to forget that the Rosary is a prayer to God. It is a form of worship to God.

God loves it when we meditate on his Son. God also loves it when we pray the Our Father, the prayer Jesus taught us.

The Rosary contains many Our Father prayers. Every meditation on Christ begins with an Our Father. So this is a prayer to God.

Even when we pray the Hail Marys, we are still glorifying God because God was glorified in and through Mary.

When the Angel Gabriel came to Mary and said, ‘Hail full of grace, the Lord is with thee,’ the Angel was also glorifying God.

When we say with St Elizabeth, ‘Blessed art thou among women and blessed is the fruit of thy womb Jesus,’ we are also blessing and praising the God of Mary and the Father of her Son, Jesus.

And then, every meditation of the Rosary finishes with a Glory Be: ‘Glory to the Father and to the Son and to the Holy Spirit, as it was in the beginning, is now and ever shall be, world without end. Amen.’

This is a Glorification of the Holy Trinity.

So the whole Rosary is one giant, superlative prayer to Almighty God: Father, Son and Holy Spirit.

The Our Fathers are prayers directly to God the Father.

The meditations are prayers focused on the incarnate life of the Son.

And the Hail Marys are inspired by the Holy Spirit, because these are the words of Scripture.

Also, Mary is the Spouse and Temple of the Holy Spirit. So any focus on her is a focus on that precious Gift within her and upon her forever: the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit fills Mary more than any other creature.

The Rosary is a proven path to sainthood

It is little wonder, really, why the Rosary has brought so many people to sainthood. So many Catholics have become saints, reigning in heaven, by praying the Rosary everyday.

Pope Leo XIII said: ‘The Rosary is the most excellent form of prayer and the most efficacious means of attaining eternal life.’

St Dominic was the founder of this idea. Mary visited him and told him to preach nothing but her Rosary. St Dominic did this and saw many conversions to the Church.

St Dominic realised that the Rosary makes people saints. The Rosary makes people Christ-loving, God-intoxicated and Holy Spirit filled.

The reason for this is because Mary is the channel of all our blessings from God.

God came to us through a Woman: Mary. And the only way for us to get to God is through this Woman, through Mary.

We receive no gift or blessing unless it comes to us from God, and through Mary.

The proof of this is that the greatest blessing in all the universe – Jesus – came to us from God through Mary.

Jesus could have come to us through someone else, or through nobody at all. God is God and can do as he wishes.

But in his infinite wisdom, God chose Mary as the everlasting channel by which he comes to us and gives us all his grace, love and even his Son.

For these reasons, the Rosary has a very special place in the Catholic Church. It is accessible, can be prayed anywhere, is easy to learn, and yet takes a life-time to master.

I never get tired of praying it or talking about it, and that is why I built this site.

If you don’t own a rosary and wish to buy one, check out this post for some help

And if you want help learning to pray the holy Rosary, see our many posts on this site.

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If you have anything you would like to ask or say, please add to the comments below, we would love to hear from you.

God bless, through Mary immaculate and full of all grace.