Many have heard mention of the Rosary (both here and elsewhere), and may wonder what it is... it is many hundreds of years old, and is not just for catholics.
It consists of the following scriptural prayers:
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The Apostoles Creed https://billygraham.org/answer/what-is-the-apostles-creed/
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The Lord's Prayer (Matthew 6:9-13) https://www.praywithme.com/the-lords-prayer.html
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Hail Mary (Luke 1:28, Luke 1:42, +petitioning Mary to pray for us, both now and while we are dying)
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Glory Be (Doxology/Praising of the Triune God) Glory to the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit; as it was in the beginning, in now and will be forever, amen.
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Fatima Prayer (optional) Oh my Jesus, forgive us our sins and save us from the fires of hell. Lead all souls into heaven, especially those in most need of your mercy.
The above is the "Body" of the Rosary.
The "Soul" of the Rosary is, during prayer, meditating upon a set of 5 scriptural stories. These are grouped into 4 sets, with focus on Jesus' infancy and childhood, his public ministry, his passion, and his glory. Scriptural Meditation is not easy, but consists of bringing yourself into the scene being meditated on. What is little realized, is Jesus, being God, is aware of every one visiting him in this way -- even at the time of the original event (!)
The rosary is a most powerful prayer against the devil and all enemies of God. Two historical examples (there are others) where the tide was turned by praying the rosary:
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The 1571 Battle of Lepanto - where Christian forces, greatly outnumbered by Muslim naval forces, turned to the spiritual weapon of the rosary, and a powerful wind and storm caused the Muslim ships to be defeated. This staved off Muslim expansion into Europe, keeping Europe Christian, and lasting (arguably), until recent times and the current loss of Christian faith there. https://www.catholiceducation.org/en/culture/history/how-the-1571-battle-of-lepanto-saved-europe.html
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Austria Saved from Communist Rule - in the early 1950's, Austria was occupied, by communist forces, and every indication was they would suffer the same fate as other iron curtain countries. A priest, recalling the Lepanto victory, roused up Austrians -- at least 10% of them, to pray the rosary for deliverance, and on May 13th, 1955, the Russians packed up and left Austria, without a shot being fired. https://choosing-him.blogspot.com/2018/07/the-rosary-frees-austria-from-communist.html
It's for physical feedback, so you don't lose track where you're at in the prayer-chain and so you can focus on the meditation.
Thank you for asking -- historically, the rosary began as the "layman's psalter" -- as the monks would every day chant all 150 psalms, and meditate, the lay people (many of whom could not read the psalms) were able to use the 150 repetitions of the Angelic Salutation/Elizabeth's greeting (Hail Mary prayer), with each group of 10, called a decade, ending with the Lord's prayer and doxology (Glory to the Father...).
In order to not worry about counting the intervals of prayers (to facilitate meditating), the beads were introduced.
Originally, there were 3 sets of 5 scriptural scenes, or 15 "mysteries" used for this meditation, so it took 150 beads (plus those for decade markers) for one complete set.
More recently, a 4th set of meditations (on Jesus public ministry) was added, so a full set of beads for all 20 scriptural scenes or "mysteries" would be 200, plus the bead between each 10, for the doxology and Lord's prayer.
However, for convenience, more often a set of just 5 decades (or 50) beads is used, or even just a rosary ring, which contains a single decade of bumps on a wearable ring -- the device used is not so important, mainly the idea is to meditate on Jesus life, his teaching, his death, resurrection and glory, with the vocal (or silent) "word prayers" helping focus our prayer and attention.