The Holy Rosary
The complete rosary consists of twenty decades. But ordinarily only the rosary of five decades is said at one time. There are four sets of mysteries upon which one meditates while saying the rosary: the joyful, sorrowful, glorious and luminous mysteries. The joyful mysteries commemorate the chief events in the lives of Jesus and Mary before the Passion. The sorrowful commemorate the chief events of the Passion, the glorious recall the principal happenings after the Passion while the luminous focus on the divinity and ministry of Christ: they thus serve as an epitome of the lives of Jesus and Mary. The joyful mysteries are customarily prayed on Monday and the Sundays during Advent, the sorrowful on Tuesday and Friday and the Sundays during Lent, the glorious on Wednesday, Saturday and the remaining Sundays of the year and the luminous mysteries on Thursdays.

The Joyful Mysteries
The five joyful mysteries include all the events mentioned in the gospels concerning the birth and the childhood of Christ. The first is the Annunciation. This brings before our minds the scene in the humble home of the Blessed Virgin in Nazareth, when the angel Gabriel brought to her the wonderful message from on high: “Hail, full of grace, the Lord is with you; blessed are you among women…. Behold you shall conceive in your womb, and you shall bring forth a Son; and you shall call His name Jesus. He shall be great and shall be called the Son of the Most High; and the Lord God shall give unto Him the throne of David His father; and He shall reign in the house of Jacob forever. And of His kingdom there shall be no end. And Mary said to the angel: How shall this be done, because I know no man? And the angel answering, said to her: The Holy Spirit shall come upon you, and the power of the Most High shall overshadow you.
And therefore also the Holy Child which shall be born of you shall be called the Son of God. And behold your cousin Elizabeth, she also has conceived a son in her old age, and this is the sixth month with her that is called barren: Because nothing shall be impossible with God. And Mary said: Behold the handmaid of the Lord; be it done to me according to your word.”
When the humble Virgin bowed obediently to the will of God and uttered the word, “Be it done to me according to your word, “at that moment Christ became incarnate in Mary.

The second joyful mystery, the Visitation, directs our thoughts to the meeting of the Blessed Virgin with her cousin St. Elizabeth, the mother of St. John the Baptist. When Mary entered the home of Elizabeth, and saluted her, “the infant leaped in her womb. And Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit: And she cried out with a loud voice and said: Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the fruit of your womb. And whence is this to me that the mother of my Lord should come to me? For behold as soon as the voice of the salutation sounded in my ears, the infant in my womb leaped for joy. And blessed are you that has believed, because those things shall be accomplished that were spoken to you by the Lord. And Mary said: My soul magnifies the Lord. Any my spirit rejoices in God my Savior. Because He has regarded the humility of His handmaid; for behold from henceforth all generations shall call me blessed. Because He that is mighty has done great things for me; and Holy is His name.

The third mystery, the Nativity, brings before us the familiar scene at the stable of Bethlehem where Jesus was born, as the angels sang, “Glory to God in the highest; and on earth peace to men of good will.

In the fourth mystery, the Presentation, we behold Mary presenting Jesus in the Temple and offering Him to Him to the Eternal Father as the Victim that is to be sacrificed in atonement for the sins of the world. When Mary placed Him in the arms of the holy Simeon, the latter uttered the prophetic words that revealed the sublimity of her sacrifice: “Behold this Child is set for the fall and the resurrection of many in Israel, and for a sign which shall be contradicted; and thy own soul a sword shall pierce, that, out of many hearts, thoughts may be revealed.

In the fifth mystery, the Finding of Jesus in the Temple, we contemplate first the desolation that filled the hearts of Mary and Joseph when for three days they were separated from Jesus, and then the ineffable joy and peace that filled their hearts upon finding the Child in the temple, hearing the learned doctors of the law and asking them questions. Whereupon,” He went down with them and came to Nazareth and was subject to them.”