"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.
- Use the Online Presentations on this page. Each presentation is dedicated to one of the mysteries of the rosary.
- Identify a Prayer Leader and two Readers each day.
- Start with the sign of the cross.
- Each day the focus is on a different element of the mystery. The first three slides of each day are reflective, and the children will need time to pause and reflect in silence before moving on to pray, starting with the Our Father.
- Click through the remaining slides; the Prayer Leader says the first half of the prayer and the rest of the children say the second half.
- There is only one Hail Mary slide each day so stay on this for the number of times you will say this prayer.
- End the prayer with the sign of the cross.
KS1 Variation
You could ask the children what is happening in the picture for each day.