Rosary: Hail Mary 'decades' longer and shorter

[ccmcmg]

I attended a parish where we said the Rosary before Mass. The first decade was 10 Hail Marys; the 2nd and 3rd were 15 Hail Marys each; the 4th and 5th had 5 Hail Marys each.

Is this common, and why would they do this? I thought I wasn’t paying attention the first time, but there was no way I missed FIVE beads; but maybe, I thought, that I touched and moved on the beads on each part (leader/congregation) of the prayer by accident. But then it happened on the 3rd set. On the last 2 mysteries, only 5 Hail Marys were prayed.

All the prayers were said, but the order of things threw me off.

Anyone else have an answer or experience with this?

Thanks!
Christina

 

[otjm]

Nope. There is probably some sort of thought behind it, but I have not heard of it.

 

[St_Francis]

When I first started praying the Rosary, I would sometimes move to the next bead in the middle of the Hail Mary, and sometimes forget to move along. Maybe the person leading the Rosary was just making a mistake, and the last two decades may have been to make up for it so the Rosary would be completed before Mass?

 

[ccmcmg]

When I first started praying the Rosary, I would sometimes move to the next bead in the middle of the Hail Mary, and sometimes forget to move along. Maybe the person leading the Rosary was just making a mistake, and the last two decades may have been to make up for it so the Rosary would be completed before Mass?

I don’t think it was accidental, when it was exactly 15 on both, and then 5 on both. I would have thought it had something to do with ‘time crunch’ but that wouldn’t have saved any time. I’m not upset, just curious, of course. Fortunately, that isn’t my only time praying the Rosary, so I knew even if it wasn’t my perfect, my intentions were (Papal Intentions) and that my indulgence requirements were met.

 

[Lormar]

I attended a parish where we said the Rosary before Mass. The first decade was 10 Hail Marys; the 2nd and 3rd were 15 Hail Marys each; the 4th and 5th had 5 Hail Marys each.

Is this common, and why would they do this? I thought I wasn’t paying attention the first time, but there was no way I missed FIVE beads; but maybe, I thought, that I touched and moved on the beads on each part (leader/congregation) of the prayer by accident. But then it happened on the 3rd set. On the last 2 mysteries, only 5 Hail Marys were prayed.

All the prayers were said, but the order of things threw me off.

Anyone else have an answer or experience with this?

Thanks!
Christina

I have never heard of anything like this.

 

[Rete]

It seems weird to me because the point of her assigning us ten aves for each mystery (in my opinion anyway) was to give us a certain period of time to meditate upon each mystery. To assign only five aves to one mystery, and fifteen to another, would imply that one mystery is somehow more important and deserving of further meditation.

Unless people are not meditating upon the mysteries, in which case they are just making repetitions of prayers, which I thought was considered a pointless exercise since Christ specifically mentioned that as not being very helpful. The real purpose of the rosary seems to be the mysteries, not repeating prayers.

For me, the individual prayers are sort of like a vehicle to fixate part of my mind so that I can focus on the mysteries without my mind wandering (at least, in theory).

 

[ccmcmg]

It seems weird to me because the point of her assigning us ten aves for each mystery (in my opinion anyway) was to give us a certain period of time to meditate upon each mystery. To assign only five aves to one mystery, and fifteen to another, would imply that one mystery is somehow more important and deserving of further meditation.

Unless people are not meditating upon the mysteries, in which case they are just making repetitions of prayers, which I thought was considered a pointless exercise since Christ specifically mentioned that as not being very helpful. The real purpose of the rosary seems to be the mysteries, not repeating prayers.

For me, the individual prayers are sort of like a vehicle to fixate part of my mind so that I can focus on the mysteries without my mind wandering (at least, in theory).

Hmm, maybe for some reason, people in the parish needed to meditate on the 2nd and 3rd mysteries more that day? Sometimes, we are drawn to things or to do things that we may not realize why, perhaps.

 

[holyfamily1]

I have never heard of this. But, in my parish and other Catholic friends Holy Rosary devotions, many prayers are added at the end including litanies which really add more time to it ~ which isn’t bad - prayer’s good!!

 

[Rete]

I have been considering adding a prayer with respect to ending abortion after the Oh My Jesus prayer. The news from this trial is really depressing me. I cannot usually read much about abortion because it disturbs me so much. But this stuff is all out there and fresh on my mind day after day. I might not be able to read too much into the details of these things because of the impact on me, but I can at least add a prayer to the rosary.

The thing that concerns me is that I joined the Confraternity of the Holy Rosary and I fear it might somehow invalidate the rosaries I pray. I have been trying to get at least seven of them done each week, with four at Church (two before mass, and two after). The rest I do when I hike every two to three days (which allows me to do another three to four).

If it does somehow invalidate them, I can set aside four to do in the official way I guess.

Does anybody know about this? Are we allowed to deviate by adding prayers?

 

[ccmcmg]

I have been considering adding a prayer with respect to ending abortion after the Oh My Jesus prayer. The news from this trial is really depressing me. I cannot usually read much about abortion because it disturbs me so much. But this stuff is all out there and fresh on my mind day after day. I might not be able to read too much into the details of these things because of the impact on me, but I can at least add a prayer to the rosary.

The thing that concerns me is that I joined the Confraternity of the Holy Rosary and I fear it might somehow invalidate the rosaries I pray. I have been trying to get at least seven of them done each week, with four at Church (two before mass, and two after). The rest I do when I hike every two to three days (which allows me to do another three to four).

If it does somehow invalidate them, I can set aside four to do in the official way I guess.

Does anybody know about this? Are we allowed to deviate by adding prayers?

Would you be adding prayers at the end or in the middle? I think after completing the last regular prayer you would be fine but I’m new to this.

 

[Rete]

I was thinking of doing it last, after the Oh My Jesus prayer. So it would come at the end of each decade, before announcing the subsequent mystery and praying the Our Father prayer. Thus I would pray each decade exactly the same, and simply append a prayer at the end before proceeding to the next mystery or the Hail Holy Queen. Or it could just as easily be stated that it’s a prayer separate from the mysteries which is prayed between each decade.