Opening
Act of Contrition
The rosary opens with an Act of Contrition — a prayer of repentance that disposes the soul to enter the meditation with humility. It is one of the oldest prayers of the Western Church, asking God not merely for forgiveness but for a genuine hatred of sin and a firm purpose of amendment.
O my God, I am heartily sorry for having offended Thee, and I detest all my sins because I dread the loss of heaven and the pains of hell; but most of all because they offend Thee, my God, Who art all good and deserving of all my love. I firmly resolve, with the help of Thy grace, to confess my sins, to do penance, and to amend my life. Amen.
For Each Sorrow
Our Father
One Our Father is prayed at the beginning of each sorrow. Jesus taught this prayer to his disciples when they asked him how to pray — recorded in Matthew 6 and Luke 11 — and it has stood ever since as the model of all Christian prayer. Its address to God as Father was understood by the early Church as an intimacy without precedent.
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.
For Each Sorrow
Hail Mary
Seven Hail Marys are prayed in meditation on each sorrow — one for each sword that tradition says pierced Mary's soul. The first half of the prayer comes almost word for word from the Gospel of Luke: the Angel Gabriel's greeting at the Annunciation and Elizabeth's greeting at the Visitation. The second half — Holy Mary, Mother of God, pray for us sinners — developed gradually in the Church's tradition and was in widespread use by the fifteenth century, formally standardized in the Roman Breviary by the sixteenth.
Hail Mary, full of grace, the Lord is with thee; blessed art thou among women, and blessed is the fruit of thy womb, Jesus. Holy Mary, Mother of God, pray for us sinners, now and at the hour of our death. Amen.
Closing
Three Hail Marys
The rosary concludes with three Hail Marys prayed in honor of the tears of Our Lady — an ancient act of devotion that unites the one praying with Mary's grief and asks for the gift of true contrition. Use the same prayer above, repeated three times.
When you are ready, return to the rosary and begin with the first sorrow.
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