This article gives an overview of how to pray the rosary. Except for the Fatima Prayer and the Hail Holy Queen, the words of the prayers to be recited are not provided, assuming the reader knows them as these are all common Catholic prayers.

• On the Crucifix, make the Sign of the Cross and say the ‘Apostle’s Creed’
• On the first bead, pray the ‘Our Father’ (or the Lord’s Prayer) and in the 3 consecutive beads, pray the ‘Hail Mary’
• Pray the ‘Glory Be’ afterwards.
• On the first large bead, recite and ponder on a mystery then pray the Our Father.
• On the following ten small beads, pray the Hail Mary’.
• After each set of 10 small beads, pray the Glory Be and the ‘Fatima Prayer’:

O my Jesus, forgive us our sins,
Save us from the fires of hell,
And lead all souls to heaven
Especially those in most need
of Thy Mercy

• Do the same from the second up to the last (5th) set. After the fifth decade, say the ‘Hail Holy Queen’.

Hail Holy Queen, Mother of Mercy, our life, our sweetness and our hope! To thee do we cry, poor banished children of Eve; to thee do we send up our sighs, mourning and weeping in this valley of tears. Turn then, most gracious advocate, thine eyes of mercy toward us, and after this our exile, show unto us the blessed fruit of thy womb, Jesus. O clement, O loving, O sweet Virgin Mary!

Leader - Pray for us, O Holy Mother of God.
Response - That we may be made worthy of the promises of Christ.

You could also pray the Litany of the Blessed Virgin Mary afterwards but usually, the above prayers will suffice. One can pray the Rosary alone or with a group.

Note that the rosary is primarily a prayer of meditation on the Life of Christ and the Hail Mary is prayed to ask for Mary’s intercession and to honor her as the mother of Jesus. Praying the Rosary is not a way of ‘worshipping’ Mary as some people think. To reiterate, the Rosary is a prayer, it is our way of recalling and pondering the life of our Lord Jesus Christ and asking His Blessed Mother to pray for us.

As Archbishop Fulton Sheen said, “The rosary is the book of the blind, where souls see and there enact the greatest drama of love the world has ever known; it is the book of the simple, which initiates them into mysteries and knowledge more satisfying than the education of other men; it is the book of the aged, whose eyes close upon the shadow of this world, and open on the substance of the next. The power of the rosary is beyond description.”