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The Rosary is one of the most beautiful, most profitable and most popular of all devotions. It is a combination of mental prayer, or meditation, with vocal prayer. The meditation is made by the consideration of the most memorable and touching events, or mysteries, in the life, suffering, death and glory, of our most holy Redeemer and His blessed Mother. The vocal prayer consists of the recitation, on the beads, of the Lord's Prayer, the Hail Mary and the Glory be to the Father, etc. The mysteries to be meditated on are fifteen in number; they are divided into three parts, which are named the joyful, the sorrowful, and the glorious mysteries.

The mysteries on which we are to meditate while we say

In the first joyful mystery we consider how the Archangel Gabriel announced to the most holy Mary that she was to conceive and bring forth our Lord Jesus Christ.