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Meditated Rosary
by Father John Gregory of the Trinity
Prayers before the Rosary
- We start by making piously the Sign of the Cross, which is the Sign of the Christian:
In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost, and of the Mother of God. Amen.
- Offering of the Rosary
I unite myself to all the Saints and holy Angels who are in heaven, to all the righteous who are on earth, to all the faithful souls who are in this home. I unite myself to You, my Jesus, to praise Your holy Mother with dignity and to praise You in and through Her. I renounce all the distractions that will come to me during this Rosary that I want to say with modesty, attention and devotion, as if it were the last of my life. Amen.
- The Symbol of the Apostles
I believe in God, the Father Almighty, Creator of heaven and earth; and in Jesus Christ, His only Son, our Lord; who was conceived by the Holy Ghost, born of the Virgin Mary, suffered under Pontius Pilate, was crucified, died and was buried; He descended into hell; the third day He arose again from the dead; He ascended into heaven, sitteth at the right hand of God, the Father Almighty, from thence He shall come to judge the living and the dead. I believe in the Holy Ghost, the Holy Church of Jesus Christ, the Communion of Saints, the forgiveness of sins, the resurrection of the body, and life everlasting. Amen.
- One Our Father (Prayer taught by Jesus Christ to His Apostles)
Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be Thy name; Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread, and forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us; and lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. Amen.
- Three Hail Mary’s (Angelical Salutation)
Hail, Mary, full of grace, the Lord is with Thee; blessed art Thou among women, and blessed is Thy Son, Jesus. Holy Mary, Mother of God and our Mother, pray for us, sinners, now and at the hour of our death. Amen.
- One Glory Be to the Father
Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Ghost, and to the Mother of God. As it was in the beginning, is now and ever shall be, world without end. Amen.
Sorrowful Mysteries
First Mystery: The Agony of Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemane.
Let us ask for a sincere contrition of our sins.
LET US ASK for the grace to understand all the malice of sin; it is the cause of Our Lord’s mortal Agony and sorrowful Passion. Let us ask for the fear of offending God, contrition over our faults, regret for our sins, compunction of heart.
Let us pray for the conversion of sinners and especially our own conversion. Let us implore God to grant us the grace of conversion. May He have us understand that the only great misfortune that can befall a human being is to lose God’s grace and divine friendship. The rest is nothing: losing your health, losing your fortune, or even life itself… We will all have to die someday. Sooner or later, death will take each one of our lives, and at that moment we will lose everything we possess here below. We will not take anything with us to the grave. The only thing that will not disappear is our soul, called to eternal beatitude. It will possess this endless happiness if it is united to God through grace. On the other hand, if the hour of death finds it separated from divine grace, it will lose the eternal happiness for which God had destined it. Let us ask for the grace to realize the primary importance of the salvation of our soul, that soul which has cost the Blood of God.
Let us pray for the dying, and for all those who will appear before God on this day. Prayers of the decade
We recite one Our Father.
Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be Thy name; Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven.
Give us this day our daily bread, and forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us; and lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. Amen.
We recite ten Hail Mary’s.
Hail, Mary, full of grace, the Lord is with Thee; blessed art Thou among women, and blessed is Thy Son, Jesus.
Holy Mary, Mother of God and our Mother, pray for us, sinners, now and at the hour of our death. Amen.
We recite one Glory be to the Father.
Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Ghost, and to the Mother of God.
As it was in the beginning, is now and ever shall be, world without end. Amen.
At Fatima, Our Lady requested that we recite the following Prayer after each decade:
O my Jesus, forgive us our sins, save us from the fires of hell, and lead all souls to heaven, especially those who are in the most need of Thy Mercy.
Second Mystery: The Flagellation of Jesus.
Let us ask for the grace of mortification of our senses.
LET US CONTEMPLATE our Saviour torn from head to foot by the torturers’ whips. By this mystery, let us ask for the grace of mortification, the spirit of penance. Saint Paul says, They who belong to Christ have crucified their flesh with its passions and desires. That is the indispensable path if we want to be Christians, true disciples of Jesus Christ. Let us ask, for ourselves and all our brothers and sisters, for the grace of the spirit of prayer and penance, by which the world will be saved. Prayer and penance purify our souls and sanctify them. Let us ask for these graces through the merits of the holy Wounds of Our Lord, through the painful scourging He suffered to expiate our sins.
According to revelations made to Saint Bridget and other Saints, the body of Jesus was one gaping wound. The images we reproduce greatly diminish the reality. If we were to depict Jesus as He was, He would not look like a man. As the Psalm says, I am a worm, and not a man, the reproach of men and the outcast of the people… They have pierced My hands and My feet; they have counted all My bones. Jesus’ flesh was so torn, you could see His bones. Our Lord suffered such an atrocious scourging in atonement for our sins of the flesh.
Let us ask, through the merits of this cruel scourging, for the necessary mortification that will make us true Christians; let us ask Jesus, through the merits of His holy Wounds, to heal the wounds of our soul and to help us maintain great purity of body and mind. Prayers of the decade
We recite one Our Father.
Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be Thy name; Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven.
Give us this day our daily bread, and forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us; and lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. Amen.
We recite ten Hail Mary’s.
Hail, Mary, full of grace, the Lord is with Thee; blessed art Thou among women, and blessed is Thy Son, Jesus.
Holy Mary, Mother of God and our Mother, pray for us, sinners, now and at the hour of our death. Amen.
We recite one Glory be to the Father.
Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Ghost, and to the Mother of God.
As it was in the beginning, is now and ever shall be, world without end. Amen.
At Fatima, Our Lady requested that we recite the following Prayer after each decade:
O my Jesus, forgive us our sins, save us from the fires of hell, and lead all souls to heaven, especially those who are in the most need of Thy Mercy.
Third Mystery: Jesus is crowned with thorns
Let us ask for the grace of mortification of spirit and heart.
LET US CONTEMPLATE Jesus receiving the ignominious outrage of the crown of thorns: the soldiers turned Him into a theater king, they mocked and derided Him. Christ our Saviour was outraged and thwarted to the last degree. Onto His head the torturers pressed a cruel crown, whose thorns pierced His adorable head on every side. This was an unheard-of torture. Only the God Man could endure such atrocious pains; Jesus suffered beyond anything we can imagine.
He bore this dreadful torment of the crown of thorns to expiate all the sins of the human mind, of man who thinks he is wiser than God, who revolts, wants to analyze and weigh everything, wants to reason over everything. Let us ask Our Lord for humility, mortification of the mind, the sacrifice of our judgment in a spirit of faith; let us ask Him for the humility of which He gives us the example in this mystery. Today, “hard heads” want to understand everything, explain everything. To have faith means to believe without reasoning, to walk without understanding. As soon as things become clear and obvious, we stop walking on the path of faith.
Let us ask for this grace of mortification of the mind, the grace to be like little children through humility of mind and simplicity of heart, so as to be able to enter heaven: Unless you turn and become like little children, you will not enter into the kingdom of heaven. Let us ask for the grace to be ready to suffer anything — insults, humiliations, scorn — for the love of God. Prayers of the decade
We recite one Our Father.
Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be Thy name; Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven.
Give us this day our daily bread, and forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us; and lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. Amen.
We recite ten Hail Mary’s.
Hail, Mary, full of grace, the Lord is with Thee; blessed art Thou among women, and blessed is Thy Son, Jesus.
Holy Mary, Mother of God and our Mother, pray for us, sinners, now and at the hour of our death. Amen.
We recite one Glory be to the Father.
Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Ghost, and to the Mother of God.
As it was in the beginning, is now and ever shall be, world without end. Amen.
At Fatima, Our Lady requested that we recite the following Prayer after each decade:
O my Jesus, forgive us our sins, save us from the fires of hell, and lead all souls to heaven, especially those who are in the most need of Thy Mercy.
Fourth Mystery: The Carrying of the Cross
Let us ask to receive with much love the crosses which God sends us.
LET US FOLLOW our Saviour on the way to Calvary. Let us ask the Blessed Virgin to obtain for us the grace to carry our cross courageously, with love, as Jesus asks of every Christian: If anyone wishes to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow Me, let him walk in My footsteps. To deny yourself means to leave “me” aside, to go against natural tendencies. We must step on our carnal desires, that is, all the natural desires within us, which are not in conformity with the holy Will of God. Man seeks everything that might give him pleasure and runs from everything that might give him trouble. To take up your cross daily and follow Jesus means to live continually in the spirit of sacrifice and mortification.
Let us examine ourselves sincerely: Am I really a disciple of Jesus Christ? Am I not often a disciple of the world and its maxims? Am I not a disciple of myself, by following my tendencies, my little whims, my self will, rather than conforming my life to the demands of evangelical teaching?
God does not expect us to be flawless; man is wretched, depraved because of original sin and inclined to every vice. But God wants man to humble himself and recognize his wretchedness, to lower himself and take up his cross daily. Our Lord fell several times on His way up to Calvary, precisely to show us that we can have the misfortune of falling but we must get up very quickly, take up our cross and courageously continue to follow Jesus. By this mystery, let us ask for patience and love of the cross.
Prayers of the decade
We recite one Our Father.
Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be Thy name; Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven.
Give us this day our daily bread, and forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us; and lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. Amen.
We recite ten Hail Mary’s.
Hail, Mary, full of grace, the Lord is with Thee; blessed art Thou among women, and blessed is Thy Son, Jesus.
Holy Mary, Mother of God and our Mother, pray for us, sinners, now and at the hour of our death. Amen.
We recite one Glory be to the Father.
Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Ghost, and to the Mother of God.
As it was in the beginning, is now and ever shall be, world without end. Amen.
At Fatima, Our Lady requested that we recite the following Prayer after each decade:
O my Jesus, forgive us our sins, save us from the fires of hell, and lead all souls to heaven, especially those who are in the most need of Thy Mercy.
Fifth Mystery: The Crucifixion and Death of Jesus on the Cross
Let us ask for the grace to die to ourselves in order to live only for God. Let us ask for the perseverance of the just, the conversion of sinners and the deliverance of souls in Purgatory.
LET US CONTEMPLATE our Redeemer nailed to the Cross and shedding unto the last drop of His Precious Blood to open the door of heaven for us. Let us ask Our Lady of Infinite Sorrows to obtain for us the grace to always bear in mind the thought of the Passion of Our Lord. The memory of our Saviour’s sufferings is a great comfort in the sorrows of this life, a stimulant to encourage us to sacrifice ourselves in our turn for the love of God. When we behold Jesus treated this way, we no longer feel like complaining, we who are wretched creatures. The sight of Jesus’ humiliations makes us accept scorn and abasement as our due. Let us unite our little earthly sufferings to those of Jesus, in order to give them merit and infinite value.
The cross makes either saints or reprobates. The good thief accepted his suffering, and he was saved. The bad thief was furious and blasphemed; his rejection of the cross led to his perdition. Suffering makes souls grow if they accept it with love and submission, but it is an occasion of perdition for those who revolt and murmur against God. Let us profit well from the contradictions, sufferings and humiliations God places on our path to have us make spiritual progress; sufferings are the pre-eminent graces of God.
Let us ask our good heavenly Mother to obtain for us from Her divine crucified Son, the grace to be on fire with His Infinite Love and to persevere in His Love to the end; may we be generous souls, ready for everything, despite our miseries and weaknesses. Prayers of the decade
We recite one Our Father.
Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be Thy name; Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven.
Give us this day our daily bread, and forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us; and lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. Amen.
We recite ten Hail Mary’s.
Hail, Mary, full of grace, the Lord is with Thee; blessed art Thou among women, and blessed is Thy Son, Jesus.
Holy Mary, Mother of God and our Mother, pray for us, sinners, now and at the hour of our death. Amen.
We recite one Glory be to the Father.
Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Ghost, and to the Mother of God.
As it was in the beginning, is now and ever shall be, world without end. Amen.
At Fatima, Our Lady requested that we recite the following Prayer after each decade:
O my Jesus, forgive us our sins, save us from the fires of hell, and lead all souls to heaven, especially those who are in the most need of Thy Mercy.
Prayers after the Rosary
Hail, Holy Queen!
Hail, Holy Queen, Mother of Mercy. our life, our sweetness and our hope! To Thee do we cry, poor banished children of Eve. To Thee do we send up our sighs, mourning and weeping in this valley of tears! Turn, then, O most gracious Advocate, Thine eyes of mercy toward us, and after this, our exile, show unto us the blessed fruit of Thy womb, Jesus. O clement, O loving, O sweet Virgin Mary.
- Pray for us, O holy Mother of God,
- That we may be made worthy of the promises of Christ.
Let us Pray. O God, whose only-begotten Son, by His life, death and resurrection, has purchased for us the rewards of eternal life, grant, we beseech Thee, that meditating on these mysteries of the most holy Rosary of the Blessed Virgin Mary, we may imitate what they contain, and obtain what they promise, through the same Christ our Lord. Amen.
In the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost, and of the Mother of God. Amen.
