It is a compendium of the Gospel. It brings us back and again to the most important scenes of Christ’s life, almost as to let us “breathe” His mystery.

The Rosary, though clearly Marian in character, is at heart a Christocentric prayer in the sobriety of its elements, it has all the depth of the Gospel message in its entirety of which it can be said to be a compendium. With the Rosary all Christians are led to contemplate the beauty on the face of Christ and to experience the depths of His love while sitting at the school of Mary. 

Today we propose the Rosary as an effective spiritual weapon against the evils afflicting society while emphasizing its evangelical character and its christocentric inspiration. We encourage the frequent recitation of the Rosary by everyone through moments of joy and in moments of difficulty entrusting to it any number of concerns. We will always find comfort.

To recite the Rosary then is nothing other than to contemplate with Mary the face of Christ.

The Rosary is sometimes wrongly devalued as being somehow unecumenical because of its distinctly Marian character yet it is a devotion directed to the Christological center of the Christian Faith in such a way that “when the Mother is honored, the Son…..is duly known loved and glorified.” When properly understood the Rosary is an aid and certainly not a hindrance to Christian Unity but a most effective means of fostering among all the faithful that commitment to the contemplation of the Christian mystery, the One Lord! Many non-Catholics have already adopted the Rosary in compilation and worship of the Lord as well as honoring His Mother.

In contemporary culture and due also to the influence of other religions, it is more urgent than ever, that all Christian communities should become “genuine schools of prayer” for the cause of peace by learning Christ who “is our peace,” a most effective aid to countering the devastating effects of this crisis typical of our age, the threat to Christian Families.

In contemplating Christ face we become open to receiving the mystery of Trinitarian Life, experiencing ever anew the love of the Father and delighting in the joy of the Holy Spirit.

The role of Mary, totally grounded in that of Christ and radically subordinated to it “in no way obscures or diminishes the unique mediation of Christ, but rather shows its power.” 

The whole Rosary is composed of twenty decades. Each decade is recited in honor of a mystery of Our Lord’s life and that of His Blessed Mother, beginning with the Annunciation to Mary of the Incarnation and ending with Mary’s triumphal Coronation in Heaven. A decade consists of one Our Father, ten Hail Mary’s and a Glory be to the Father. When praying one rosary you say five decades, since it is customary to recite five decades at a time while meditating on one set of mysteries.