So if you are a hopeless Mary nerd, like I am, I recommend the Encyclopedia of Mary, by Monica and Bill Dodds (you can see an image of it in the On My Shelf widget down at your right).  Leafing through it yesterday, I found some fascinating information about the rosary.
I’ve known for a while now that the rose is a traditional symbol for the rosary. What I didn’t know until yesterday is that each part of the rose represents a part of the rosary. According to tradition, the leaves represent the joyful mysteries, the thorns represent the sorrowful ones, and the blossoms represent the glorious ones.
Beautiful, isn’t it?
