The Mysteries of the Rosary
The Rosary has twenty mysteries in four sets of five: the Joyful, prayed on Monday and Saturday; the Luminous, on Thursday; the Sorrowful, on Tuesday and Friday; and the Glorious, on Wednesday and Sunday. Today is Saturday, so the Joyful Mysteries are prayed. Each mystery is a scene from the Gospel, listed below with its verse.
Today’s mysteries
Today is Saturday, so The Joyful Mysteries are prayed.
The mysteries by day of the week
The pattern St. John Paul II proposed in 2002, and the one it replaced. Only Thursday and Saturday changed.
| Day | Mysteries (since 2002) | Before 2002 |
|---|---|---|
| Sunday | Glorious Mysteries | Glorious Mysteries |
| Monday | Joyful Mysteries | Joyful Mysteries |
| Tuesday | Sorrowful Mysteries | Sorrowful Mysteries |
| Wednesday | Glorious Mysteries | Glorious Mysteries |
| Thursday | Luminous Mysteries | Joyful Mysteries |
| Friday | Sorrowful Mysteries | Sorrowful Mysteries |
| Saturday | Joyful Mysteries | Glorious Mysteries |
The Joyful Mysteries
Prayed on Monday and Saturday
The childhood of Christ, from the angel's word to Mary to the boy found teaching in the Temple.
1.The Annunciation
Read: Luke 1:26-38
Mary said, “Behold, the servant of the Lord; let it be done to me according to your word.” Then the angel departed from her.
Gabriel is sent to a small town and a young woman already promised in marriage. She asks one honest question, how this can be, and then consents without being told what it will cost her. The Word becomes flesh because a creature said yes.
Fruit traditionally associated: Humility
Lord Jesus, you came to us through Mary’s yes. Give me her humility, to say yes to you before I know where it leads. Amen.
2.The Visitation
Read: Luke 1:39-56
She called out with a loud voice and said, “Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the fruit of your womb!
Newly pregnant herself, Mary hurries into the hill country to be with her elderly cousin. Elizabeth’s greeting becomes the second half of the first line of the Hail Mary, and Mary answers with the Magnificat.
Fruit traditionally associated: Love of neighbour
Lord, Mary carried you to someone who needed her. Make me quick to go where I am needed, and glad to serve. Amen.
3.The Nativity
Read: Luke 2:1-20
She gave birth to her firstborn son. She wrapped him in bands of cloth and laid him in a feeding trough, because there was no room for them in the inn.
The Son of God is born away from home, because of an emperor’s census, and laid in an animals’ feeding trough. The first to hear are shepherds working the night shift.
Fruit traditionally associated: Poverty of spirit
Lord Jesus, you chose poverty for your first bed. Free my heart from needing more, and make room in it for you. Amen.
4.The Presentation
Read: Luke 2:22-38
for my eyes have seen your salvation, which you have prepared before the face of all peoples; a light for revelation to the nations, and the glory of your people Israel.”
Mary and Joseph keep the Law and bring the child to the Temple with the offering of the poor. Old Simeon takes him in his arms and sings; then he tells Mary that a sword will pierce her own soul.
Fruit traditionally associated: Obedience
Father, Mary and Joseph kept your law with the offering of the poor. Teach me to obey you in small things as well as great. Amen.
5.The Finding in the Temple
Read: Luke 2:41-52
He said to them, “Why were you looking for me? Didn’t you know that I must be in my Father’s house?”
Three days of searching Jerusalem for a lost twelve-year-old, and they find him with the teachers, listening and asking questions. His answer is the first word of his we have: he must be about his Father’s business.
Fruit traditionally associated: Piety
Lord Jesus, when I lose sight of you, let me search until I find you again, and love your Father’s house. Amen.
The Luminous Mysteries
Prayed on Thursday
The public ministry. Added by Pope John Paul II in 2002, so many older Catholics were never taught them.
1.The Baptism in the Jordan
Read: Matthew 3:13-17
Behold, a voice out of the heavens said, “This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased.”
The sinless one goes down into the water with sinners. The heavens open, the Spirit descends, and the Father names him beloved before he has preached a sermon or worked a miracle.
Fruit traditionally associated: Openness to the Holy Spirit
Holy Spirit, you came down on Jesus at the Jordan. Keep me open to you, and help me live as a child of the Father. Amen.
2.The Wedding at Cana
Read: John 2:1-11
His mother said to the servants, “Whatever he says to you, do it.”
A village wedding is about to run out of wine. Mary notices, tells her Son, and then tells the servants the last words of hers the Gospels record. Water becomes wine: the first of his signs.
Fruit traditionally associated: To Jesus through Mary
Lord Jesus, your mother told the servants to do whatever you say. Give me the grace to do it, and to come to you through her. Amen.
3.The Proclamation of the Kingdom
Read: Mark 1:14-15
and saying, “The time is fulfilled, and God’s Kingdom is at hand! Repent, and believe in the Good News.”
The whole public ministry in one sentence: the Kingdom is near, so turn around and believe. It is proclaimed in words, in healings, and in the forgiveness of sins he entrusted to the Church.
Fruit traditionally associated: Repentance and trust
Lord, your Kingdom is at hand. Turn my heart back to you, and give me faith in your Good News. Amen.
4.The Transfiguration
Read: Luke 9:28-36 (also Matthew 17:1-8)
While he was still speaking, behold, a bright cloud overshadowed them. Behold, a voice came out of the cloud, saying, “This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased. Listen to him.”
On the mountain, Peter, James and John see his glory for a moment, with Moses and Elijah beside him. The Father’s voice adds two words to what he said at the Jordan: listen to him.
Fruit traditionally associated: Desire for holiness
Father, you showed your Son’s glory on the mountain. Give me a desire for holiness, and the grace to listen to him. Amen.
5.The Institution of the Eucharist
Read: Luke 22:14-20 (also Matthew 26:26-29)
He took bread, and when he had given thanks, he broke and gave it to them, saying, “This is my body which is given for you. Do this in memory of me.”
On the night he was betrayed, he gives his disciples his Body and Blood under the signs of bread and wine, and tells them to do this in his memory. Every Mass since is that command obeyed.
Fruit traditionally associated: Adoration
Lord Jesus, you gave yourself to us in the Eucharist. Deepen my love for you in the Blessed Sacrament, and my adoration. Amen.
The Sorrowful Mysteries
Prayed on Tuesday and Friday
The Passion, from Gethsemane to the cross.
1.The Agony in the Garden
Read: Luke 22:39-46 (also Matthew 26:36-46)
saying, “Father, if you are willing, remove this cup from me. Nevertheless, not my will, but yours, be done.”
In Gethsemane he is afraid, and he says so to his Father, while his friends sleep. He asks for the cup to pass, and then gives his will over. Luke says his sweat became like great drops of blood.
Fruit traditionally associated: Sorrow for sin
Lord Jesus, you prayed in anguish for the Father’s will. Give me true sorrow for my sins, and the courage to say “your will be done.” Amen.
2.The Scourging at the Pillar
Read: Mark 15:1-15 (also John 19:1)
So Pilate then took Jesus and flogged him.
Pilate has found no case against him, and has him flogged anyway, to satisfy a crowd. John gives it one plain sentence. The body that healed the sick is beaten by soldiers doing their job.
Fruit traditionally associated: Purity
Lord, you were scourged for sins of the flesh that were not yours. Give me purity of heart and body, and keep me faithful. Amen.
3.The Crowning with Thorns
Read: Matthew 27:27-31
They braided a crown of thorns and put it on his head, and a reed in his right hand; and they kneeled down before him and mocked him, saying, “Hail, King of the Jews!”
The soldiers make a game of kingship: a cloak, a crown, a reed for a sceptre, a mock salute. They are more right than they know. He does not answer them.
Fruit traditionally associated: Moral courage
King of kings, you were mocked and did not return it. Give me the courage to be faithful when I am laughed at for your sake. Amen.
4.The Carrying of the Cross
Read: Luke 23:26-32 (also John 19:17)
He went out, bearing his cross, to the place called “The Place of a Skull”, which is called in Hebrew, “Golgotha”,
Through the streets to Golgotha, with Simon of Cyrene pressed into carrying the cross behind him and the women of Jerusalem weeping. The Stations of the Cross walk this road one stop at a time.
Fruit traditionally associated: Patience
Lord Jesus, you carried the cross to the end. Give me patience with the crosses of my own life, and help me carry them with you. Amen.
5.The Crucifixion
Read: Luke 23:33-46 (also John 19:17-30)
Jesus, crying with a loud voice, said, “Father, into your hands I commit my spirit!” Having said this, he breathed his last.
He forgives the men crucifying him, promises paradise to a thief, gives his mother to the disciple he loved, and entrusts his spirit to the Father. Three hours on the cross, and the work is finished.
Fruit traditionally associated: Perseverance
Lord Jesus, you persevered to the end for love of us. Give me perseverance, and let me die, when my hour comes, in your friendship. Amen.
The Glorious Mysteries
Prayed on Wednesday and Sunday
The Resurrection and what followed from it.
1.The Resurrection
Read: Luke 24:1-12 (also Matthew 28:1-10)
Becoming terrified, they bowed their faces down to the earth. The men said to them, “Why do you seek the living among the dead? He isn’t here, but is risen. Remember what he told you when he was still in Galilee,
The women come at dawn with spices for a body, and find the stone rolled away and the tomb empty. Everything in the faith rests on this morning; St. Paul says that without it our faith is in vain.
Fruit traditionally associated: Faith
Risen Lord, you have conquered death. Strengthen my faith in you, and let me live as one who knows the tomb is empty. Amen.
2.The Ascension
Read: Acts 1:6-11 (also Luke 24:50-53)
When he had said these things, as they were looking, he was taken up, and a cloud received him out of their sight.
Forty days after Easter he blesses them and is taken up. Two men in white ask why they stand looking at the sky: he will come back, and in the meantime there is work to do.
Fruit traditionally associated: Hope
Lord Jesus, you have gone ahead of us to the Father. Keep my hope fixed on heaven while I do your work on earth. Amen.
3.The Descent of the Holy Spirit
Read: Acts 2:1-13
They were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak with other languages, as the Spirit gave them the ability to speak.
At Pentecost, wind and fire come on the disciples gathered with Mary. Men who had locked themselves in go out and preach, and a crowd from every nation hears them in its own language.
Fruit traditionally associated: Love of God
Come, Holy Spirit. Fill my heart with the love of God, and give me courage to speak of him. Amen.
4.The Assumption
Read: No Gospel narrative; the Mass of the feast reads from Revelation 11-12 and Luke 1:39-56
for he has looked at the humble state of his servant. For behold, from now on, all generations will call me blessed. For he who is mighty has done great things for me. Holy is his name.
At the end of her earthly life Mary was taken up body and soul into heavenly glory (CCC 966). She is the first to receive what is promised to all who belong to her Son: the resurrection of the body.
Fruit traditionally associated: Grace of a happy death
Father, you took Mary body and soul into glory. Through her prayers, give me the grace of a holy death and the hope of the resurrection. Amen.
5.The Coronation of Mary
Read: No Gospel narrative; Revelation 12:1 is the traditional image
A great sign was seen in heaven: a woman clothed with the sun, and the moon under her feet, and on her head a crown of twelve stars.
The Catechism says she was “exalted by the Lord as Queen over all things” (CCC 966). Her queenship is a mother’s, exercised in intercession: she still does what she did at Cana.
Fruit traditionally associated: Trust in Mary's intercession
Lord Jesus, you crowned your mother Queen of heaven. Give me trust in her prayers for me, and bring me with her to you. Amen.
Which mysteries are prayed on which day, and why
The weekly pattern most Catholics follow today comes from one paragraph of St. John Paul II’s apostolic letter Rosarium Virginis Mariae, dated October 16, 2002. Before that letter, he explains, the custom was the Joyful Mysteries on Monday and Thursday, the Sorrowful on Tuesday and Friday, and the Glorious on Wednesday, Saturday and Sunday.
To make room for the new Luminous Mysteries he proposed a small change (RVM 38). Because Saturday “has always had a special Marian flavour,” the second day of Joyful Mysteries could move from Thursday to Saturday, and Thursday would then be free for the Mysteries of Light. So the week now runs: Monday and Saturday, Joyful; Tuesday and Friday, Sorrowful; Wednesday and Sunday, Glorious; Thursday, Luminous.
Notice the word proposed. The same paragraph says the pattern “is not intended to limit a rightful freedom in personal and community prayer.” Nobody sins by praying the Sorrowful Mysteries on a Wednesday. The weekly rhythm is a help, a way of walking through the whole life of Christ each week, not a rule. Many families pray the set that fits the day’s feast or their own need.
Why were the Luminous Mysteries added in 2002?
For centuries the Rosary had fifteen mysteries: five Joyful, five Sorrowful and five Glorious. The number came from the psalter. Fifteen decades make 150 Hail Marys, one for each of the 150 psalms, and the Rosary grew up as the layman’s psalter. The Catechism notes that medieval piety in the West developed the Rosary “as a popular substitute for the Liturgy of the Hours” (CCC 2678).
The fifteen went straight from the child Jesus in the Temple to the Agony in the Garden, and passed over his whole public life. In Rosarium Virginis Mariae John Paul II called this a gap worth filling, so as “to bring out fully the Christological depth of the Rosary” (RVM 19). He singled out five moments of the public ministry and called them the “mysteries of light” (RVM 21): the Baptism in the Jordan, the Wedding at Cana, the Proclamation of the Kingdom, the Transfiguration and the Institution of the Eucharist.
He was careful about how he added them. The addition is “left to the freedom of individuals and communities” (RVM 19). Nobody is obliged to pray the Luminous Mysteries, and the traditional fifteen remain a complete Rosary. In practice the twenty are now printed in almost every Rosary booklet. The same letter proclaimed a Year of the Rosary from October 2002 to October 2003.
The fruit of each mystery: where the list comes from
Most Rosary guides give each mystery a “fruit,” a virtue to ask for while you pray it: humility for the Annunciation, love of neighbour for the Visitation, and so on. The idea is sound and has papal support. John Paul II suggested closing each decade “with a prayer for the fruits specific to that particular mystery” (RVM 35).
But the lists themselves are traditional, not official. No document of the Church defines them, and the lists that circulate in prayer books differ in places. The Crowning with Thorns is given as moral courage in one book and contempt of the world in another. The fruits on this page are the ones traditionally associated with each mystery, the same list as our step-by-step Rosary guide. If your prayer book says something different, it is not wrong. Pray for what you find there.
The short petitions under each mystery above are our own, written as that closing prayer for the fruit. Say one after the Glory Be, or leave it and pray in your own words.
How to meditate on a mystery while praying the Hail Marys
This is the part beginners find strangest, and it is the whole method. The Catechism puts the Rosary beside lectio divina as a way of meditating: “Christian prayer tries above all to meditate on the mysteries of Christ, as in lectio divina or the rosary” (CCC 2708). The words of the Hail Mary keep your lips and hands busy so your mind is free to look at the scene.
- Announce the mystery. “The third Joyful Mystery, the Nativity.” John Paul II compares this to opening up a scene on which to focus our attention (RVM 29).
- Read or recall the Scripture. Even one verse. He recommends following the announcement with “a related Biblical passage, long or short” (RVM 30). That is why each mystery above carries a verse and the passage to read.
- Pause. A moment of silence before the Our Father, so the scene can settle.
- Pray the decade looking at the scene. One Our Father, ten Hail Marys, one Glory Be. Put yourself in it: a servant at Cana, a shepherd at the manger, a face in the crowd on the road to Golgotha.
- Close with the fruit. Ask for the grace of that mystery, then announce the next one.
If you notice you have said ten Hail Marys thinking about the shopping, that is normal. Announce the next mystery and carry on. The bead-by-bead order, and every prayer in full, is in how to pray the Rosary.
October, the month of the Rosary
October is dedicated to the Rosary because of Pope Leo XIII. In his encyclical Supremi apostolatus officio of September 1, 1883, he asked that “the whole of the month of October” that year be consecrated to the Queen of the Rosary, with five decades and the Litany of Loreto prayed in every parish. He returned to the Rosary in many later letters, and the custom of the October Rosary stuck.
The month also holds the memorial of Our Lady of the Rosary on October 7. John Paul II signed Rosarium Virginis Mariae on October 16, 2002, at the start of the twenty-fifth year of his pontificate, and opened the Year of the Rosary with it.
A simple way to keep the month: pray one decade a day, the first mystery of the day’s set on the first day, the second on the next, and so on. By the end of October you have prayed through all twenty more than once, with a verse of Scripture for each.
Is the Rosary a Marian prayer or a Gospel prayer?
Both, and the mysteries are why. Fifteen of the twenty are scenes from the life of Christ, and the other five have Mary’s part in his life at their centre. The Catechism calls the Rosary “an ‘epitome of the whole Gospel’” (CCC 971), and John Paul II’s summary of it is short: to recite the Rosary “is nothing other than to contemplate with Mary the face of Christ” (RVM 3).
That is also the honest answer to the worry some Christians have that the Rosary puts Mary in Christ’s place. Look at the list. The “centre of gravity” of every Hail Mary is the name of Jesus (RVM 33), every decade opens with the prayer he taught, and every mystery ends in him. Mary is the one who shows you where to look. As she said at Cana: “Whatever he says to you, do it.”
Pray a decade now
New to the beads? The bead diagram, the order from the crucifix to the medal, and every prayer in full are on how to pray the Rosary. This page prints as a plain sheet, all twenty mysteries with their verses, for a parish Rosary group or a family’s October.
The fourth Glorious Mystery is also a holy day of obligation in many countries, kept every August 15: the Assumption — what the Church defined in 1950, and what it left open.
The fourth Sorrowful Mystery is walked one stop at a time in the Stations of the Cross — fourteen stations from Pilate’s court to the tomb.
Pray the mysteries aloud with the app
A narrated, guided Rosary in the app — the full five decades, meditations included.
More free tools
- Liturgical calendarToday’s season and feast, and ten years of movable dates.
- Easter countdownDays until Easter, and the paschal moon it is reckoned from.
- How to pray the RosaryA bead diagram, every prayer in full, and today’s mysteries.
- Chaplet of Divine MercyOn ordinary rosary beads, in about eight minutes.
- Stations of the CrossAll fourteen in order, with the prayers at each.
- The MemorareThe full prayer, and the Flying Novena: nine in a row, plus one.
- Litany of HumilityThe full prayer, traditionally attributed to Cardinal Merry del Val, with each response.
- The Advent wreathWhich candle, which Sunday, and why the third one is rose.
- What to give up for LentTwelve with a reason and a cost, and the other two thirds of Lent.
- How to become CatholicThe steps, how long it takes, and whether your past disqualifies you.
- How to go to confessionThe words in order, how long it takes, and what if it has been years.
- Examination of conscienceFor confession, by the Ten Commandments.
- Prayers for the deadEternal Rest and others, for a graveside or an anniversary.
All free, no sign-up, and nothing to keep updated — the dates are computed rather than typed. See all 14 tools.