WE learned in Lesson II that praying the Rosary can be as simple as working one’s way around the Rosary beads, praying an Our Father for every “Our Father” bead and a Hail Mary for every “Hail Mary” bead; then repeating this process three times, until you have prayed a total of 15 decades of Hail Marys. This is a perfectly valid and very ancient method of praying the Rosary.
However, we must go farther if we wish to gain the full benefit of the Rosary prayer. We must learn to meditate upon the Fifteen Sacred Mysteries while praying our Rosary beads.
The Fifteen Mysteries
According to legend, the Virgin Mary appeared to Saint Dominic in a vision in A.D. 1208. It is said that the Holy Mother instructed Saint Dominic that the faithful should meditate upon Fifteen Sacred Mysteries while praying their Rosaries — one Mystery for each of the fifteen decades.
The Fifteen Sacred Mysteries are stories from the Gospels illustrating important moments in the lives of Jesus and Mary. Each Mystery teaches a particular Christian virtue.
The legend of Saint Dominic is commemorated above in the 1539 oil painting by Lorenzo Lotto, “Madonna of the Rosary“, which today resides in the Church of San Nicolo in Cingoli, Italy. The fifteen circular panels at the top illustrate the Fifteen Sacred Mysteries.
They include five Joyful Mysteries, five Sorrowful Mysteries and five Glorious Mysteries. 1
Traditionally, we meditate upon the Five Joyful Mysteries on Monday; the Five Sorrowful Mysteries on Tuesday; and the Five Glorious Mysteries on Wednesday, at which point we start the process all over again, meditating upon the Joyful Mysteries on Thursday; the Sorrowful Mysteries on Friday and the Glorious Mysteries on Saturday and Sunday, two days in a row. The full schedule for a week looks like this:
| Monday | Tuesday | Wednesday | Thursday | Friday | Saturday | Sunday |
| Joyful | Sorrowful | Glorious | Joyful | Sorrowful | Glorious | Glorious |
The Order Never Changes
The order in which we contemplate the Mysteries always remains the same; first Joyful, then Sorrowful, then Glorious. Whether we decide to contemplate all Fifteen Mysteries in a single day, by praying three chaplets that day, or whether we stretch out the Fifteen Mysteries over three days, as most people do, the order never changes. The Joyful Mysteries always come first, the Glorious Mysteries last.
Set forth below are the Joyful Mysteries, the Sorrowful Mysteries and the Glorious Mysteries, listed and numbered in their proper order, from one to fifteen. To learn more about each Mystery, click on the picture.
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THE FIVE JOYFUL MYSTERIES Contemplated Monday and Thursday |
ANNOUNCEMENT: |
ANNOUNCEMENT: |
3. The Nativity ANNOUNCEMENT: |
ANNOUNCEMENT: |
ANNOUNCEMENT: |
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THE FIVE SORROWFUL MYSTERIES Contemplated Tuesday and Friday |
ANNOUNCEMENT: |
ANNOUNCEMENT: |
ANNOUNCEMENT: |
ANNOUNCEMENT: |
10. The Crucifixion ANNOUNCEMENT: |
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THE FIVE GLORIOUS MYSTERIES Contemplated Wednesday, Saturday and Sunday |
11. The Resurrection ANNOUNCEMENT: |
12. The Ascension ANNOUNCEMENT: |
13. The Descent of the Holy Ghost ANNOUNCEMENT: |
14. The Assumption ANNOUNCEMENT: |
15. The Coronation ANNOUNCEMENT: |
How to Contemplate the Mysteries
You contemplate the Mysteries silently while praying the Rosary beads. Here’s how it works.
As you know, there are five decades on your Rosary. Each of the five decades is assigned one of the five Mysteries you intend to contemplate that day. As you begin the first decade, you announce the Mystery you intend to contemplate while praying that decade. Then as you pray the decade, you meditate silently upon that Mystery.
Suppose, for instance, that you are praying your Rosary on Monday. That means you will meditate on the Five Joyful Mysteries as you pray.
You begin your Rosary, as always, at the Crucifix. When you get to the “Our Father” bead immediately preceding the First Decade, you are ready to begin contemplating the Mysteries.
Before praying the Our Father, announce the First Joyful Mystery; the Annunciation. You should announce the Mystery aloud, or at least move your lips while saying it. The Announcement appropriate for each Mystery is shown above.
Announce the Mysteries at the “Our Father” Beads
In our example, we are praying on Monday, and therefore contemplating the Five Joyful Mysteries. The Annunciation comes first. While holding the “Our Father”, you say: “In the First Joyful Mystery, let us contemplate the Annunciation of the Blessed Virgin Mary and seek humility.”
After making the announcement, proceed to do exactly as it says. Meditate silently on the Annunciation of the Blessed Virgin Mary as you pray the Our Father bead and the ten Hail Mary beads which follow it, and pray silently for the virtue of humility, like the humility Mary showed to the Archangel Gabriel, when she said, ”
When you reach the next Our Father bead, repeat the process, announcing the Second Joyful Mystery, and meditating upon it until you finish the Second Decade of Hail Marys.
Continue in this manner until you have announced and meditated upon all Five Joyful Mysteries, while praying all five decades of your Rosary.
The diagram below indicates the points on the Rosary where you should announce the Mysteries:
This concludes our lesson on the Fifteen Sacred Mysteries of the Rosary. Please proceed to Lesson IV.
NOTES
1. Some readers may be aware that five additional Mysteries exist which I excluded from this lesson; the Five Luminous Mysteries. Pope John Paul II introduced this new set of Mysteries in an Apostolic Letter of October 16, 2002 and recommended that people use them when praying the Rosary. Many people do.
However, the Luminous Mysteries are considered optional, not mandatory. Like many other Catholics, I have chosen to keep using the traditional Fifteen Mysteries exclusively — at least for the time being.
After two years of studying the Rosary and one-and-a-half years of praying the Rosary daily, I have not yet mastered the prayers and meditations of the traditional three-chaplet Rosary to my satisfaction. Perhaps when I have done so, I will consider adding the Luminous Mysteries as well.
In the meantime, readers curious about the Luminous Mysteries can find more information below:
The Luminous Mysteries
Naturally, the addition of the Luminous Mysteries changes the traditional order in which the Mysteries are to be contemplated. The new order is: Joyful, Luminous, Sorrowful, Glorious.
As noted above, most people pray only one chaplet (or five decades) per day, and thus contemplate only one set of Mysteries per day. For this reason, certain days of the week have long been reserved for the contemplation of certain Mysteries.
The addition of the Luminous Mysteries requires some changes to the traditional schedule. Pope John Paul II recommended the new schedule shown in the chart below:
| Monday | Tuesday | Wednesday | Thursday | Friday | Saturday | Sunday |
| Joyful | Sorrowful | Glorious | Luminous | Sorrowful | Joyful | Glorious |
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THE FIVE LUMINOUS MYSTERIES Contemplated Thursday |
ANNOUNCEMENT: |
ANNOUNCEMENT: |
III. The Proclamation of the Kingdom, with the call to Conversion ANNOUNCEMENT: |
ANNOUNCEMENT: |
V. The Institution of the Eucharist ANNOUNCEMENT: |
This concludes our lesson on the Sacred Mysteries. Please proceed to Lesson IV.