What is a rosary?

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stillsmallvoice

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Hi all!

The father of a very good friend of mine back in the USA is very ill. My friend is Roman Catholic (his wife is a lay Franciscan). I went into the Armenian Quarter of the Old City of Jerusalem yesterday & bought a hand-carved olivewood rosary (the shopowner assured me it was a proper Catholic rosary) & mailed it to my friend’s Dad as a token of my wishes for his continued recovery.

Could one of my Catholic friends here at CAF please explain to me what exactly a rosary is?

Thanks!

ssv 👋
 
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stillsmallvoice:
Hi all!

The father of a very good friend of mine back in the USA is very ill. My friend is Roman Catholic (his wife is a lay Franciscan). I went into the Armenian Quarter of the Old City of Jerusalem yesterday & bought a hand-carved olivewood rosary (the shopowner assured me it was a proper Catholic rosary) & mailed it to my friend’s Dad as a token of my wishes for his continued recovery.

Could one of my Catholic friends here at CAF please explain to me what exactly a rosary is?

Thanks!

ssv 👋
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Dear Still – you are one heck of a Mensch! What a generous and kind thing to do for your friend.

I still cherish the rosary my Jewish boyfriend’s father brought back from Rome for me (No, we didn’t marry). I wasn’t Catholic at the time, but Joe’s dad thought I would appreciate that it had been blessed by Pope John XXIII.

Did I!
 
You know how at the Seder Meal you recount the passage of God’s people from the bonds of slavery into the promised land? It’s kinda’ like that, but even more so. Rather than “Dayenu”, we say the Hail Mary, the Glory Be, the Our Father, and the O My Jesus. Rather than the story-telling of each act of God to free His people from slavery to the Egyptians, we recount the acts of God on earth as Jesus Christ to free us from sin. Each day is given a set of “mysteries” to recount, which is just a fancy way of saying stories with divine significance. The links edward_george gave you explain what these mysteries are, and which days you’re supposed to pray them. By praying the Rosary, just like the Seder Meal, we bring ourselves into the story and contemplate what it means for us now. Oh, and another difference is that (1) there are no required days to say the Rosary and (2) this means we can say it as much as we want, whenever we want. Isn’t that great?

I hope that helps.

Shalom,
RyanL
 
The rosary is one of the devotions that sprang up from the laity and found its present form in the 12th and 13th centuries, if memory serves me right.

The rosary itself is made up of beads for reciting the Hail Mary and beads for reciting the Our Father or Lord’s Prayer. The number of beads was determined by the number of Psalms, which the religious recited every day, but the laity, who couldn’t read Latin wanted to join in doing, so they came up with the rosary.

The original rosary had 150 beads for reciting the Hail Mary. The Our Father beads between decades of the Hail Mary beads were added later. Most modern rosaries have 53 Hail Mary beads (3 of which are recited as a prelude to the main body of the rosary) and 6 Our Father beads (one being recited along with 3 extra Hail Mary beads in the prelude part–this was also added later), and 6 Glory be to the Father, Son and Holy Spirit beads (one recited in the prelude, as well). Those who want to recite all 15 original mysteries (events from the lives of Jesus and Mary) just go around the shorter beaded rosary three times, you see.

While praying with the beads we meditate on the lives of Jesus and Mary as described in the Bible, both OT and NT but mostly straight from the Gospel accounts. It is a prayer of peace and love asking for the intercession of the Virgin Mary for many blessings for ourselves and the peoples of the world, mostly spiritual in nature, but also more practical when needed.

That’s just a very quick explanation and a bit of history. Thank you for being so kind in buying a rosary from the Holy Land for your friend, and for asking your question. God bless you and yours!
 
One more thing. The 150 beads originally represented the 150 Psalms – people who could not read prayed the Rosary as a way of joining their prayer to that of the choir monks, who chanted the entire Psalter through in a week.
 
I am so touched by your kindness, stillsmallvoice. May our G-d bless you and keep you for such generosity of heart. Just to add a note here on what Fr Corapi said about the Rosary at the conference: it is praying the gospel!
 
I’d like to quote our late Holy Father JPII in describing the rosary. He said “Let us come to Jesus in the school of Mary.” (that’s just a paraphrasing). That’s the rosary.

Who else better to teach us about our Lord than His very own Mother. She knew Him very well. He was in her for 9 months.

Thanks Still for this thread.
 
Hi all!

Wow, thank you all very much for your informative replies. I knew that the rosary was something that Catholics (only?) use to pray with but that was about it. I suppose that the closest thing that we have would be the Book of Psalms itself. Any bookstore here (secular or religious) will sell little paperback (or hardcover) Psalms, which we divide up in such a way that you can finish the whole book in either a week or a (Hebrew) month (there are also short prayers to be said before and after the readings). If you do the finish-it-in-a-month readings, it takes only a few minutes a day. You’ll often see people here reading the daily Psalms on the bus, while waiting for the bus, etc. When someone passes away, the body may never be left alone. Until the burial society comes to take the body (for washing & wrapping in shrouds), someone sits with it & recites Psalms (Tehilim in Hebrew) continuously. During the first Gulf War when Saddam the Wicked was lobbing his SCUDs at us, there were bumper stickers which read: Tehilim neged Tilim or “Psalms against Missiles.”

Be well & thanks again!

ssv 👋
 
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Della:
The rosary is one of the devotions that sprang up from the laity and found its present form in the 12th and 13th centuries, if memory serves me right.
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The use of the rosary beads themselves dates from around this time, prior to which pieces of wood or clay or even knotted rope were used by worshippers.

The device itself also shows up in Islam as the “sabha” (sometimes called “tasbih”, although this is more strictly the name of the prayer), and as “mala” in Buddhism. It probably originated in Buddhism and was brought to the Mediterranean by traders early in the Christian Era, reaching the Islamic world shortly after the arrival of Islam itself (but no one seems to know from which side).

This is one of many examples of earlier Christians being much less afraid than modern ones to borrow ideas from other faiths and adapt those ideas to Christian ends.
 
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Mystophilus:
This is one of many examples of earlier Christians being much less afraid than modern ones to borrow ideas from other faiths and adapt those ideas to Christian ends.
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While I’m not sure that the rosary is the logical conclusion of the resemblance, I can agree with your conclusion that some ideas were borrowed from other faiths. The timing of holidays and the solstices, for example. Keep the distinction, however, this is about a practice and not about a belief. Too many Christians died because they would not accept pagan beliefs to be mingled with theirs - out of respect for their sacrifices, maintain the distinction. I think this is what you were saying, but I just wanted to pipe in and be sure.

God Bless,
RyanL
 
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stillsmallvoice:
Hi all!

Wow, thank you all very much for your informative replies. I knew that the rosary was something that Catholics (only?) use to pray with but that was about it. I suppose that the closest thing that we have would be the Book of Psalms itself. Any bookstore here (secular or religious) will sell little paperback (or hardcover) Psalms, which we divide up in such a way that you can finish the whole book in either a week or a (Hebrew) month (there are also short prayers to be said before and after the readings). If you do the finish-it-in-a-month readings, it takes only a few minutes a day. You’ll often see people here reading the daily Psalms on the bus, while waiting for the bus, etc. When someone passes away, the body may never be left alone. Until the burial society comes to take the body (for washing & wrapping in shrouds), someone sits with it & recites Psalms (Tehilim in Hebrew) continuously. During the first Gulf War when Saddam the Wicked was lobbing his SCUDs at us, there were bumper stickers which read: Tehilim neged Tilim or “Psalms against Missiles.”

Be well & thanks again!

ssv 👋
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I do so love it when things come together like this…That “little Book of Psalms” would have been what the monks/nuns who could read would have been praying in those monasteries & convents of old, and the rosary was what the ones who could not read would be praying at the same times that the others were praying the Psalms.

(By the way, I agree that that was a great gift to give…Coming from the Holy Land makes it that much more special.)
 
Hi ssv,

Please check out en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rosary.

Beads used for prayers date back to as early as the 1st century I believe, but the rosary in its current form was (I believe) founded in Ireland. It is mainly a Catholic devotional, but there are some of the more “liturgical” protestants that do.

Catholics are not required to pray the rosary, but it is a good way to meditate on the life of Jesus Christ.
 
Semper Fi:
Hi ssv,

Please check out en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rosary.

Beads used for prayers date back to as early as the 1st century I believe, but the rosary in its current form was (I believe) founded in Ireland. It is mainly a Catholic devotional, but there are some of the more “liturgical” protestants that do.

Catholics are not required to pray the rosary, but it is a good way to meditate on the life of Jesus Christ.
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I love how you describe how the beads in Catholic devotion date back to the first century. It orginates with our Jewish roots. As the Jewish people prayed the psalms so did our early Christian fathers. Our liturgy has it’s roots in Jewish liturgy. In the Chaldean rite they still use the Arimaic languge to celebrate the liturgy.
 
Hi all!

Well, it’s 23:25 on Saturday evening here in the Jerusalem 'burbs. Da Boyz are :sleep: & DW is watching about Rita on TV. I’ve gotta be awake at least for another 1.5 hours. Ashkenazi Jews like myself start saying special penitential/confessional prayers (jewfaq.org/elul.htm#Selichot) tonight ahead of our 2-day New Year holyday (jewfaq.org/holiday2.htm) that starts at sunset on October 3. They’re usually said before morning prayers but on the first night (as on the night before the first day of the New Year holyday) the custom is to say them at midnight (i.e. when the dark hours are half over; here that’s 00:20). So, I thank you all for helping to keep me awake & semi-coherent.

I thank you all once again for your informative replies. I have seen Muslims here with prayer beads but I don’t know of prayer beads being a Jewish practice.
Semper Fi:
Catholics are not required to pray the rosary, but it is a good way to meditate on the life of Jesus Christ.
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Neither are we required to say Psalms but they are a good way to meditate on the glories & works of God. See torah.org/learning/basics/primer/torah/psalms.html. See? We do have much in common! 🙂

Be well!

ssv 👋
 
stillsmallvoice said:
I know that the Rosary started with a small schatel of stones move from one schatel to another.

May you have blessed Holydays and may you be safe.

May G-d bless your family and your friends.
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Shabbat Shalom!
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stillsmallvoice:
See? We do have much in common! 🙂
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I would expect as much! I would also liken a scapular to the tzitzi, but I’m not sure if this is “kosher” according to the Church.😛

If you’ve never heard of a scapular, we could talk about that…

Shalom,
RyanL(eChaim)
 
I’d also like to mention that there is an Eastern ‘version’ of the Rosary which is called the Chotki which is said by Eastern Catholics & the Eastern Orthodox.
 
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stillsmallvoice:
I have seen Muslims here with prayer beads but I don’t know of prayer beads being a Jewish practice.
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Yes, Muslims got the practice from us and we got the practice from Jews. 😉
 
The rosary is literally “praying the bible.” We just don’t read the bible we pray it through meditative reflections on the different parts of Christ’s life.

in XT.
 
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