I started attending a Catholic church a few months ago and bought a rosary to use in my prayer time. I was just wondering whether I need to have it blessed by my parish priest or if it’s all right just to pray with it as I have been doing.
SACRAMENTALS
CCC 1667 “Holy Mother Church has, moreover, instituted sacramentals. These are sacred signs which bear a resemblance to the sacraments. They signify effects, particularly of a spiritual nature, which are obtained through the intercession of the Church. By them men are disposed to receive the chief effect of the sacraments, and various occasions in life are rendered holy.”
The characteristics of sacramentals
CCC 1668 Sacramentals are instituted for the sanctification of certain ministries of the Church, certain states of life, a great variety of circumstances in Christian life, and the use of many things helpful to man. In accordance with bishops’ pastoral decisions, they can also respond to the needs, culture, and special history of the Christian people of a particular region or time. They always include a prayer, often accompanied by a specific sign, such as the laying on of hands, the sign of the cross, or the sprinkling of holy water (which recalls Baptism).
CCC 1669 Sacramentals derive from the baptismal priesthood: every baptized person is called to be a “blessing,” and to bless. Hence lay people may preside at certain blessings; the more a blessing concerns ecclesial and sacramental life, the more is its administration reserved to the ordained ministry (bishops, priests, or deacons).
CCC 1670 Sacramentals do not confer the grace of the Holy Spirit in the way that the sacraments do, but by the Church’s prayer, they prepare us to receive grace and dispose us to cooperate with it. “For well-disposed members of the faithful, the liturgy of the sacraments and sacramentals sanctifies almost every event of their lives with the divine grace which flows from the Paschal mystery of the Passion, Death, and Resurrection of Christ. From this source all sacraments and sacramentals draw their power. There is scarcely any proper use of material things which cannot be thus directed toward the sanctification of men and the praise of God.”
I’ll attempt to tackle this question.
No. The rosary beads are merely a way to keep count of the prayers, you concentrate on the prayer and are not distracted about which “Hail Mary” you’re on.
There is nothing magical about the rosary itself, it is the prayers that it symbolizes that are powerful.
Having it blessed I’m sure is a great bonus and I suspect wouldn’t hurt, but not having it blessed doesn’t diminish the validity of the prayers
I hope I explained this correctly.
… That being said, blessed or not, I still treat the rosary beads with great respect.
I think that this was a fine post. 
It is certainly not necessary, just as it is not necessary to even have rosary beads to pray the rosary (you could count on your fingers, for example).
But it is beneficial, so you should ask a priest to bless yours as soon as it is convenient (you can do this at RCIA, if not before–the priest will be happy to do it). But there’s certainly nothing ‘wrong’ with using your rosary in the mean time!
There is a partial indulgence granted for saying the rosary with blessed rosary beads, though, so you should not neglect to get it done by the time you are received into the church. Besides which, having them blessed provides a link between your devotion and the entire Catholic Church, which helps reinforce the fact that even when you pray alone, you are not praying alone!
I am glad you asked this question. I was wondering this myself but was a bit afraid to ask.
I always have any religious medals or rosaries blessed by a priest.
Thanks everyone for your answers. It’s nice to have people to ask when I still have so much to learn!
It doesn’t hurt to have them blessed at all. I am blessed to have 3 rosaries, 1 blessed by deceased priest friend of mine (God rest him) I use that one all the time, 1 I had blessed by Pope Benedict XVI at World Youth Day 2005, and 1 blessed by Blessed John Paul II.
Pax Christi,
:highprayer: TemplarJPN :knight2:
I always have mine blessed, but then I almost never use a Rosary. I instead use my fingers! Only a small proportion of my rosaries have been said on actual rosaries! I never have on in hand when I go to pray a Rosary. . . .
I probably end up doing a lot of 11, 12, 13 Ave’s but I figure it’s OK!
Got my rosary blessed yesterday and had no idea how I was supposed to hold it. The priest ended up holding himself. Talk about awkward!
So how is one supposed to hold the rosary? Never even thought about this aspect of the blessing!
Nothing to worry about! Either the priest will take it himself (often holding it in one hand and holding the other over it in blessing), or, you just hold it out, however feels natural.
Sort of like the blessing at the end of mass: there’s no particular way you have to stand. As long as what the priest intends to bless is there, his blessing will “hit its target” just fine 
Ah. It’s a year later. When I made that post, I was but 4-month old fetus in the Church.
I just hold them out these days. I don’t even think about it.
I just had one blessed today before Mass. I gave it to him to hold, because it seems more special to me, to have him hold it in his anointed hands while blessing it
purely my opinions:
I prefer to have and use unblessed rosaries, because that precludes the problem of what to do with a broken blessed rosary.
In my parish church, somebody provides blessed cheap rosaries, that are made out of plastic and string. These are very durable, more so than some traditional rosaries made out of expensive materials and basically wired together. I have one or two rosaries where the wire got stretched out or broken, and so a broken expensive rosary just gets put in a drawer.
It is not impossible to find very expensive rosaries for sale online, costing hundreds of dollars. They’re out of my price range and interest.
It is not necessary to bless a rossary. The rossary is used to pray and keep count of how many hail mary’s you did. But if you want to you can get your rossary blessed by a local priest.
As I make and sell rosaries for funding for overseas work, at craft fairs and street markets, I get asked often “!s it blessed?” Then I explain that it is illegal to sell blessed items, that they need to take it to the priest if they seek a blessing for it, but that I pray as I make it. I would never ever use plastic. Simple wood is better, olive wood even better, on sturdy cotton thread. My bead rosaries are on 10 or 20 lb fishing line, threaded through as many times as the beads will allow. To honour God… Nothing cheap and plastic…
Well rosary beads are special, and the evil one has recently been using fashion items like chains to promote a culture of death and rebellion eg those you’ve seen with inverted crosses and skull icons.
I’ve seen also some rosary beads with symbols that are mocking the cross…finally,my small experience in deliverance makes me convinced that it’s very important to have your rosary beads blessed. This priestly blessing deals with any possible curses or evil impartations meant to tie up even more those who are not spiritually vigilant. You’ve seen how some are involved in black masses in mockery of Holy mass, Satan knows who he’s fighting, don’t give him a chance whatsoever especially with your prayer items…have them blessed!