►If you can help it, do not pray the Rosary alone. (It’s easy for the mind to wander – if you pray alone.)

Pray “with two or three” of your family or friends. The Lord has promised: “For where two or three have gathered in My name, I am there in their midst.” (Matthew 18:20).

Basics of the Rosary

►The Rosary helps us keep in memory principal events in the history of our salvation.

As updated today – in Lord Justo Ukon Takayama’s time, the Rosary was simpler — there are 20 mysteries reflected upon in the Rosary, and these are divided into the ● five Joyful Mysteries (said on Monday and Saturday), the ● five Luminous Mysteries (said on Thursday), the ● five Sorrowful Mysteries (said on Tuesday and Friday), and the ● five Glorious Mysteries (said on Wednesday and Sunday). As an exception, the Joyful Mysteries are said on Sundays during Christmas, while the Sorrowful Mysteries are said on the Sundays of Lent.

The mysteries of the Rosary are based on the incidents in the life of Our Lord and His Mother that are celebrated in the Liturgy. There is a parallel between the main feasts honoring our Lord and his Mother in the liturgical year, and the 20 mysteries of the Rosary. Consequently, one who recites the 20 mysteries of the Rosary in one day reflects on the whole liturgical cycle that the Church commemorates during the course of each year.

It’s the Gospel compressed into the Rosary. The Catholic Church grants indulgences for the recitation of the Rosary.

Invite Your Patron Saint — or Blessed Takayama — to Pray with You

As a force multiplier, invite Blessed Justo Ukon Takayama — the Philippine Church’s third Blessed — to pray the Rosary with you. (Lord Takayama was the “Kirishitan Samurai” who was entrusted with safeguarding the image of Our Lady of the Rosary during the perilous exile-voyage from Nagasaki to Manila from Nov. 8 to Dec. 21, 1614.

‘La Japona’ — Enshrined at Santo Domingo Church since 1614

Today, the statue of “La Japona” is enshrined at the Santo Domingo Church in Quezon City.

Praying With the Support of the Entire Heavenly Court

This method of praying the Rosary is based on Our Lady’s promise that devotees of the Rosary will have for their intercessors the entire heavenly court.#

Dr. Ernesto A. de Pedro
Managing Trustee