The Living Rosary

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The Living Rosary was established in 1962 by the Guardians of the Holy House of the Shrine of Our Lady of Walsingham as part of The Order of Our Lady of Walsingham.  In 2000 the Guardians took the opportunity to open up the Living Rosary to any member of the Society of Our Lady of Walsingham or Priest Associate who wishes to participate in this important, often hidden, ministry.

The Rosary is said each day at 6pm as part of Shrine Prayers. (5.00 pm Saturdays during the pilgrimage season).  We invite you to become a part of the National and International Pray Circle by saying the Rosary. You yourself will also be remembered at Shrine Prayers as one of the links in a chain of living prayer which will stretch from the Holy House of England's Nazareth across continents to embrace the whole human family.

On application you are allocated a Mystery and asked to pray for that particular decade of the Rosary on the same day as it is said in the Shrine.  Although you do not have to offer your decade of the rosary at 6.00 pm, the time of Shrine Prayers in Walsingham, it may help you to know that you are not praying alone if you are able to undertake this work at the same time as those who are gathered in the Shrine.

The sequence is:

  • Monday and Saturday the Joyful Mysteries are recited (The Annunciation - The Visitation - The Nativity - The Presentation in the Temple - The Finding in the Temple)
  • Tuesday and Friday, the Sorrowful Mysteries (The Agony in the Garden - The Scourging at the Pillar - The Crowning with Thorns - The Carrying of the Cross - The Death on the Cross)
  • Wednesday and Sunday, the Glorious Mysteries (The Resurrection - The Ascension - The Descent of the Holy Spirit - The Assumption of Our Lady - The Coronation of Our Lady)
  • Thursday, the Luminous Mysteries (The Baptism of the Lord - The Wedding at Cana - The Proclamation of the Kingdom of God - The Transfiguration - The Institution of the Eucharist)

Each Mystery is offered for a particular intention or need. The Opening Prayers are offered for Priest Associates of the Holy House and in thanksgiving. The first Mystery is offered for the sick; the second for those in spiritual need; the third for those in temporal or material need; the fourth for the departed; and the fifth for the Shrine and the village of Walsingham.

In addition you will be allocate mystery.  Each of the fifteen altars of the Shrine dedicated to a Mystery of the rosary under the patronage of a particular saint. The Mystery allocated to you will be a Mystery that has been prayed in this way for many years. In some cases it will have been very significant in the shaping of a pilgrim journey of faith. The task you are receiving is therefore a precious one.

But not only is this giving of a Mystery of the rosary the gift of a part of Walsingham's history. The rosary is a form of prayer used by Christians throughout the world. It joins you with them in seeking that union with Mary and the whole communion of saints in which the Spirit turns us to Jesus, our great High Priest in whom we have access to the Father of us all.

Please click here for a Living Rosary application form.