g with knots or beads. However that may be, the Rosary, as we now
have it, comes down to us from St. Dominic. He instructed the people by
it, and converted many heretics. In the rosary beads here are
fifty-three small beads on which we say the "Hail Mary" and six large
beads on which we say the "Our Father." In saying the Rosary, before
saying the "Our Father" on the large beads, we think or meditate for a
while on some event in the life of Our Lord, and these events we call
Mysteries of the Rosary. There are fifteen of these events taken in the
order in which they occurred in the life of Our Lord; and hence there
are fifteen Mysteries in the whole Rosary. First we have the five Joyful
Mysteries. (1) The Annunciation--that is, the angel Gabriel coming to
tell the Blessed Virgin that she is to be the Mother of God. (2) The
Visitation, when the Blessed Virgin went to visit her cousin St.
Elizabeth--the mother of St. John the Baptist, who was six months older
than Our Lord. Elizabeth said to her, "Blessed art thou amongst women,
and blessed is the Fruit of thy womb"; and the Blessed Virgin answered
her in the beautiful words of the Magnificat, that we sing at Vespers
while the priest incenses the altar. (3) The Nativity, or birth of Our
Lord, which reminds us how He was born in a stable, in poverty and
lowliness. (4) The Presentation of the child Jesus in the Temple.
According to the law of Moses, the people were obliged to bring the
first boy born in every family to the temple in Jerusalem and offer him
to God. Then they gave some offering to buy him back, as it were, from
God. The Blessed Virgin and St. Joseph, who kept all the laws, took Our
Lord and offered Him in the temple--although He Himself was the Lord of
the temple. Nevertheless others did not know this, and the Blessed
Virgin and St. Joseph observed the laws, though not bound to do so, that
their neighbors might not be scandalized in seeing them neglect these
things. They did not know, as she did, that the little Infant was the
Son of God, and need not keep the law of Moses or any law, because He
was the maker of the laws. We should learn from this never to give
scandal; and even when we have good excuse for not observing the law, we
should observe it for the sake of good example to others; or at least,
when we can, we should explain why we do not observe the law. (5) The
fifth Joyful Mystery is the finding of the child Jesus in the temple.
All the men and boys,