The origin of the Rosary is most interesting.  From its early days the Church urged its faithful to recite the 150 Psalms of David from the Bible.  This custom still prevails today.  Priests and consecrated religious are obliged to pray the Liturgy of the Hours (Divine Office) each day which consists in a large measure of the Psalms of David.

In former days, before the printing press, it was not easy for anyone to memorize the 150 Psalms and hand inscribed scrolls of Scripture were a rarity.  The people who could not learn the 150 Psalms by heart, wanted to do something to make up for it.  So they substituted 150 “Hail Mary’s.” for the psalms.  They broke up these 150 Hail Mary’s into 15 decades, or series of ten.  Each 10 Hail Mary’s were said while meditating on different aspects of the life of Our Lord Jesus Christ.  We call them the mysteries.

To keep each decade separate, each series of 10 began with the “Our Father” and ended with the doxology or the “Glory Be” in praise to the Blessed Trinity.  They would meditate on some mystery of Jesus Christ for the length of time it took to say 10 Hail Marys, transporting little stones or beads from one pocket or hand to the other.

St. Dominic, who died in 1221, received from Our Blessed Mother the command to preach and to popularize the Rosary for the good of souls, conquest over evil, and the prosperity of Holy Mother Church.  Thus as early as the 13th century, the Rosary was given its present classical form, bound together by string or wire.  But the roots of the Rosary are traced to the Bible and practices of the early Christians.  Popes have called it a Gospel prayer.  It has been referred to as “an illustrated prayer book one can read in the dark.”  It is called, “a pocket edition of the New Testament.”

At Fatima, the Mother of God insisted that the Rosary be prayed properly.  That means - meditating on the Mysteries of the Rosary, the principle events of the life of Jesus Christ, the chief events of our redemption while praying the Hail Marys.  The Rosary properly prayed is centered on Jesus Christ.  

In praying the Holy Rosary, our whole being is employed.  The Rosary involves our fingers, our lips, our heart.  The body as well as the soul is employed.  Pope Benedict XV said that when we have meditated on the Joyful, Sorrowful and Glorious mysteries of the Rosary - we have meditated on all the chief events of our salvation.