"The month of May, dedicated to Mary, is a fitting time to begin to recite the Rosary daily."

- Pope Francis

What is The Rosary?

The Rosary is a set of prayers to God, Our Lady and the Holy Spirit. As we repeat the familiar words, we allow our minds to think about a wonderful part of Jesus’ life here on earth - a mystery.

The Mysteries

There are four parts to the rosary, known as “mysteries”:

• The Joyful Mysteries
• The Sorrowful Mysteries
• The Glorious Mysteries
• The Luminous Mysteries

Each set of mysteries is divided into five elements (known as 'a decade') which allow for reflection on different passages from Scripture.

A decade is a set of prayers including the Our Father, ten Hail Marys and a Glory Be.

You could say the entire rosary over a period of 4 weeks as follows:

• Each week you could choose one of the 'mysteries' of the Rosary.
• Each day you could say one ‘decade’ of the rosary.

Decide for yourself how many times to say the prayers each day, for example:

• Option 1: 1 x Our Father, 10 x Hail Marys, 1 x Glory Be (this is ‘a decade’)
• Option 2: 1 x Our Father, 3 x Hail Marys, 1 x Glory Be
• Option 3: 1 x Our Father, 1 x Hail Mary, 1 x Glory Be

If the children are saying 10 Hail Marys, they can use their fingers to count.