Traditional Prayers After Each Joyful Mystery of the Rosary
Saturdays belong in a special way to Our Lady, and the Joyful Mysteries are customarily prayed on Saturday. In this month of the Rosary, here are two old customs from the 1889 Manual of Prayers of the Third Plenary Council of Baltimore that can deepen the way you pray them.
First, on the three small beads at the start of the Rosary, the Manual greets Mary in her relationship to each Person of the Trinity and asks for faith, hope, and charity. Second, after each decade it offers a short prayer drawn from the mystery just contemplated. Pray the salutations before the first decade and one prayer after each decade, or pray the five prayers slowly on their own as a meditation on the childhood of Christ.
The Prayer
On the three small beads (a Hail Mary after each): I salute thee, Daughter of God the Father: obtain for us the gift of a firm faith. I salute thee, Mother of God the Son: obtain for us the gift of constant hope. I salute thee, Spouse of God the Holy Ghost: obtain for us the gift of an ardent charity. The Annunciation: O holy Mary, Queen of Virgins, through the most high Mystery of the Incarnation of thy beloved Son, our Lord Jesus Christ, wherein our salvation was begun, obtain for us, through thy most holy intercession, light to understand the greatness of the benefit He hath bestowed upon us, in vouchsafing to become our Brother, and in giving thee, His own beloved Mother, to be our Mother also. Amen. The Visitation: O holy Virgin, spotless Mirror of humility, by that exceeding love which moved thee to visit thy holy cousin St. Elizabeth, obtain for us, through thine intercession, that our hearts being visited by thy divine Son, and freed from all sin, we may praise and give thanks to Him for ever. Amen. The Nativity: O pure Mother of God, through thy virginal and most joyful delivery, whereby thou gavest to the world thine only Son, our Saviour, obtain for us, we beseech thee, through thine intercession, the grace to lead such pure and holy lives in this world that we may become worthy to sing, without ceasing, the mercies of thy Son, and His benefits to us by thee. Amen. The Presentation: O holy Virgin, most admirable example and pattern of obedience, who didst present the Lord of the Temple in the Temple of God, obtain for us, of thy blessed Son, that, with holy Simeon and devout Anna, we may praise and glorify Him forever. Amen. The Finding in the Temple: O most blessed Virgin, more than martyr in thy sufferings, and yet the comfort of such as are afflicted: by that unspeakable joy wherewith thy soul was filled when at length thou didst find thy dearly-beloved Son in the Temple, teaching in the midst of the Doctors, obtain of Him that we may so seek Him and find Him in His holy Catholic Church as never more to be separated from Him. Amen.
Queen of the Most Holy Rosary, pray for us.
See also: Joyful Mysteries and How to Pray the Rosary.
Sources: A Manual of Prayers for the Use of the Catholic Laity, prepared by order of the Third Plenary Council of Baltimore (1889), "A Method of Reciting the Rosary." Public domain.
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