The Rosary

Close friends of mine would know that I've always loved saying the Rosary the most, many also asked regarding the origins... Maybe this can help to clear up some misunderstandings....

The Rosary: Where did it come from?
Praying the Rosary well is more important than knowing its history, yet knowing the origins of the Rosary can teach us much about this great prayer.

The beginnings of the Rosary are found in the early Christian practice of reciting the 150 psalms from the Bible, either daily or weekly, as a way of prayer. Those unable to recite the psalms began to recite 150 prayers, mainly the Our Father, 150 times often using the beads to count the prayers. By medieval times the custom of saying "Paternoster" beads(the latin for Our Father) was common in many countries of Europe. While saying the prayers it was customary to meditate on the mysteries of the Life of Jesus, from his birth to his resurrection.

In the Rosary today, the Our Father is still said before each decade of Hail Marys and meditation on the mysteries of Jesus's Life and resurrection remains at the heart of the prayer.

The Rosary in its present form arose in late medieval Christianity.

The Hail Mary
The Hail Mary evolved as a prayer from the devotion of medieval men and women who saw Mary, the Mother of Jesus, as the great witness to His Life, Death and Resurrection. Its earliest form was the greeting made to Mary by the Angel Gabriel:

Hail Mary,
Full of Grace,
the Lord is with you [Luke 1:28]

Overtime, the greeting given to Mary by her cousin Elizabeth was added:

Blessed are you among women
and Blessed is the fruit of your womb [Luke 1:42]

Finally by the 15th century, the remainder of the prayer appeared:

Holy Mary, Mother of God,
Pray for us sinners
Now and at the hour of our death.

The prayer calls upon Mary, full of grace and close to her Son, to intercede for us sinners now and at the time of our death. We share her as a mother with St. John to whom Jesus entrusted her, when on Calvary He said," Behold your Mother." She will always bring Christ into our life. We trust her to care for us as she cared for the newly married couple at Cana in Galilee. We can go to her in our need.

By the end of the 16th Century, the practice of saying the 150 Hail Marys in series or decades of 10 was popular among many ordinary Christian people. The mysteries of the Life, Death and Resurrection of Jesus, contained in the Joyful, Sorrowful and Glorious Mysteries were remembered during these prayers.

Source: The Rosary with Scriptural Reflections and Prayers
Edited by: Rev Victor Hoagland, C.P
The Regina Press: New York.