“The angel came to her and said, This is the basis of the 'Hail Mary'!
…it is the greeting of an angel and that of a woman “filled with the Holy Spirit”.
The 'Hail Mary' is as Biblical as the ‘Our Father’!!!
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The Church today celebrates the feast of Our Lady of the Rosary, asking us to pray the same prayer (i.e. Rosary)
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It seems that the Rosary is a very very very old prayer whose origins go back to before the year 800!! (that looks ancient actually! ;-)
Monks in manasteries, would recite and pray the 150 Psalms on a daily basis and people, though they liked the idea and prayer, could not quite do the same.
Printing had not yet been invented in those days (that came over 600 years later!) and hence the only copies of Sacred Texts were hand written and quite rare. Furthermore many people could not read …so even if they did manage to get hold of the Psalms most likely they wouldn’t be able to read them! :-( …and think about it, remembering 150 Psalms is not quite as easy as saying the Alphabet! So bottom line was: it was basically impossible to pray the same prayer that these monks prayed! :-(
“Ok, so there’s 150 Psalms right? …which we can’t quite pray and recite… :-( …but we can do something else instead! We’ll recite and pray another prayer! We’ll recite and pray it for 150 times! …and each time we say and pray it we’ll offer it instead of the Psalm! …sure it’s not exactly the same thing …but well we don’t have much choice do we? …and after all I bet God, who sees our intentions would be pleased! :-) ”
(well it wasn't the lady up there who said that and I’m not sure it was said in quite the same words but you get the picture! ;-)
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Well, to cut a long story short, the people decided it was a good idea and chose to pray the ‘Our Father’ or the ‘Hail Mary’ for 150 times and it became know as the 'Psalter'.
Now that’s a very looooooooong prayer!!!! :-O How on earth do you keep count of 150 ‘Hail Mary’ or ‘Our Father’ ?!?! …well they sure figured a way!
"We'll carry a bag filled with a 150 pebbles!!" ...which they did, but I guess that might have been ?just a little? heavy ;-) …so they decided to replace that bag of pebbles with little wooden cuttings or some other lighter material. Eventually they decided to bind them up with a piece of string or something …you know …its easy to lose loose pebbles and/or wooden cuttings… ;-)
And that very simply is the origins of the Rosary and the Rosary beads. :-)
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…but well the Rosary today is not 150 ‘Hail Mary’ or ‘Our Father’ …right?
Well… that’s almost right …the Psalter, though in essence has remained the same, has, through the centuries taken a slightly different form :-) :
Around the 1200s, when the 'Albigensian Heresy' was in full swing, a monk by the name of Domnic Guzman ...who is now St.Domnic... had an (or a few more than one actually) apparition. Our Lady appeared to Domnic asking him to teach and encourage the people to pray the “Our Lady’s Psalter”. (That’s the ‘Hail Mary’ Psalter) He was told, by the Queen of Heaven, that “prayer and penance are the only way to win souls” and that “that prayer [ie: the 'Hail Mary Psalter'] will never fail”.
From hence, the Church started appreciating further the same prayer, preaching and praying it all the more.
…and today we have the Rosary! :-)
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“Rosary” cames from the latin word “rosarium” which means rose garden. On Valentine’s day, people usually give roses to them whom they hold dear and love and that is what Catholics do on a more regular basis when praying the Rosary!
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Mary was God’s mother. She bore Jesus in her womb, bringing Him to the world! All through His life on earth she’d care for Him : cooking Him meals, washing His dirty clothes etc etc… Mary loved Jesus and stood by Him till His very last day when He died on the cross for our sins.
God in the Old Testament had demanded that we honour our fathers and mothers (see Exodus 20:12) and Jesus, being God Himself was sure to obey this command! He’d love his mother! He would honour Mary by being obedient and respectful towards her …and that is what we too do through the Rosary!
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It is often said that Jesus, when taking His last breaths on the cross, noticed that He still had something which was His …and His alone!... Mary, His mother. So, He who wanted to give ABSOLUTELY everything, gave Her to us too! (See Jn 19:27)
And hence, Mary has become Our Mother too! :-)
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Like Jesus, we are called to honour Mary. And what better way to honour Mary than greeting her with the same words the Angel and Elizabeth proclaimed?!?!?!?!?!
Each Hail Mary is like a beautiful rose which we give to Mary. It is a ‘rose’ to say ‘thank-you’ for bringing, loving and caring for Jesus! …it is a ‘rose’ with which Jesus too would be pleased! …He too loves Mary!!!!!!! :-)
...So today we pray the Prayer of the Rosary, which is split into four (sort of) 'semi-prayers':
The ‘Joyful’, ‘Sorrowful’, ‘Luminous’ and ‘Glorious’. Each of these is made up of five posts having: an ‘Our Father’, ten ‘Hail Mary’ and the ‘Glory Be’ and during each post we reflect upon a ‘mystery’. That means we think and reflect upon an event in the life of Jesus.
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…so, amongst other things, through the Rosary:
-We pray as Jesus taught us to. (the Our Father: Mt 6:9-15)
-We honour Mary by greeting her as the Angel and Elizabeth did. (Lk 1:28,41,42)
and
-We reflect upon the events which occurred in the Life of Jesus. (Spread throughout all of the Bible ;-)
…that makes the Rosary a VERY BIBLICAL prayer and one which is helpful to us whilst being pleasing both to Mary AND Jesus! ;-)
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There is plenty of other information one can find or read. The following links are a few of related readings and/or audio which I have found and enjoyed. :-)
For those who are not quite sure how the Rosary is prayed:
http://www.worland.com/magdalen/rosary.htm
For those who'd like to listen to and pray the Scriptural Rosary using their MP3: (free download)
http://www.rosaryarmy.com/?page_id=22
Plenty of information about the Rosary: http://rosarycreations.com/rosaryhistory.htm
Rosarium Virginis Mariae (An Apostolic Letter written by Holy Father Jonh Paul 2): http://www.vatican.va/holy_father/john_paul_ii/apost_letters/documents/hf_jp-ii_apl_20021016_rosarium-virginis-mariae_en.html
Scriptural Rosary (An EXCELLENT tool to reflect on Biblical Truths while praying the Rosary …available for free download too!!!!! :-) : http://www.virtualrosary.org/dload.php
‘Hail Mary; Gentle Woman’ (A beautiful song!) : http://www.stumbleaudio.com/#jonniven/5
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Please note also that today’s Mass readings too are very related to Mary! (click the ‘Emmaus’ Picture on the right hand panel :-)
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Please Note that whilst care has been taken to provide correct information inclusion of errors remain possible! :-( All pictures were found on the internet and remain property of their rightful owners :-)
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