The holy rosary is one of the pious customs that most honours Our Lady, gathering together as it does the principal prayers of the Church

The rosary is certainly the most pleasing, complete and universal of Marian devotions. It gathers together into one prayer several of the main prayers of the Church: the Creed, Our Father, Hail Mary and the Glory be.

The Our Father, the social prayer par excellence, was given to us by the Divine Master Himself. The Hail Mary is mainly taken from several parts of the Gospel. There are the words of the angel when he announced to Holy Mary the Incarnation of the Word in her chaste womb ("Hail Mary full of grace, the Lord is with Thee, blessed art thou amongst women"). The next bit is the words of Mary's cousin St Elizabeth, when she was visited at her home in the high country and uttered: "blessed is the fruit of Thy womb!"

Another part is due to a decree of the 449 AD Council of Ephesus which proclaimed the divine motherhood of Mary ("Holy Mary, Mother of God, pray for us"). The final part was added a little later and seems to have been quickly accepted by the whole Church ("..sinners, now and at the hour of our death").

The Glory be is as short as it is exquisite. It could equally be said by both us mortals here on earth as well as the blessed in heaven who adore God, singing of His greatness and His goodness, of His glory and His wisdom.

While saying these prayers with our lips - vocal prayers, as they are called - mental prayer is also practiced by recalling episodes in the life of Our Lady during each 'mystery'. To do this is nothing less than piously remembering the life, passion, death, resurrection and triumph of Our Lord Jesus Christ, from His incarnation to His ascension into heaven.

Added to all this, we offer to Our Lady an exquisite necklace of pearls when we say the Litany of the Blessed Virgin at the end.

The saying of the rosary enables us to fulfil the duty of prayer. It inculcates and strengthens the Christian virtues necessary for happiness in this life and for salvation in the afterlife.

The rosary prayed together as a family has great social, moral and religious value. The family is united together around a crucifix or image of Our Lady that perhaps a mother or grandmother once prayed in font of. This was so common in more faithful times, and indeed as is still done in a number of Catholic homes today. The family members involved together in this intimate act of piety grow and are elevated with the blessings of heaven and with a deep, pure love that inspires a holy fear of God. This beautifies the Christian home and imbues it with a sweet and holy joy.

Saying the holy rosary produces in the soul of the faithful much sweetness and consolation. So the true devotees of Our Lady never neglect to say it.