Forms of the rosary

The Dominican rosary

When we simply say “the rosary,” this is the one we mean: five decades of ten Hail Marys, prayed through the joyful, luminous, sorrowful and glorious mysteries. It is the form the whole Church prays, and the one laid out on these pages.

The Chaplet of Divine Mercy

Prayed on the same beads, but with different words: given to Saint Faustina Kowalska in Vilnius in 1935 and written down in her diary, it is a prayer of trust in God’s mercy. On the large beads one offers the Eternal Father the Body and Blood, Soul and Divinity of Christ; on the small beads, ten times, one asks that for the sake of his sorrowful Passion he have mercy on us and on the whole world. The Church receives Faustina’s diary as a private revelation — a gift offered to faith, not a new article of it; she was canonized in 2000.

The Franciscan Crown

A Franciscan tradition, also called the Seven Joys of Mary: seven decades that recall seven joyful moments in Our Lady’s life, from the Annunciation to her crowning in heaven. Where the Dominican rosary walks through the whole Gospel, this one lingers on her gladness.

And others

There are many chaplets — to the Sacred Heart, to particular saints, for the dead. The shape is always the same: beads to keep the count, a rhythm to still the heart, so the mind is free to pray.

Whichever you pray, you can begin with today’s mysteries.