This book, a primer, serves as an introduction to a devotional practice known as the Rosary: Rosary means garden of flowers or necklace of beads. The word bead comes from an Anglo-Saxon word meaning prayer. Thus, the rosary is a garden of prayer or a necklace of prayer. After explaining how one prays the Rosary, the author presents eighty reflections on what is known as the Mysteries of the Rosary: four sets of five mysteries, each with four options for each of the twenty mysteries. Each entry contains a Scripture verse from The Christian Bible (New Testament) that illustrates the mystery under consideration, a Celebrated notation indicating when the mystery appears on the annual liturgical calendar, a short reflection, and a suggested focus for the pray-er in making a personal application of the reflection as he or she mediates on the specific decade of the rosary. Each entry leads the pray-er down a path to deeper insight into the mystery being prayed. ""True to its title, this primer offers, in simple and grace-filled language, a profoundly spiritual gift to the attentive reader. Besides providing details about the longevity, practice, and origin of the devotion, the author points the way to a genuinely contemplative experience of this beloved and widely popular prayer. Rosary Primer would make a very welcome addition to the Parish RCIA Library."" --Pauline Nugent, Missouri State University Mark G. Boyer--a well-known author--has been writing books on biblical, liturgical, and devotional spirituality for thirty years. He has written fifty-six spirituality-based volumes that prompt the reader to recognize the divine in everyday life. This is his sixteenth Wipf and Stock title.
