The Rosary consists in the recitation, in honor of the Most Holy
Virgin Mary, Mother of God, of the Angelic Salutation one
hundred and fifty times, distributed into fifteen decades; each
decade being preceded by the Lord's Prayer and accompanied by
meditation on one of the principal mysteries of our Divine
Saviour and terminated by the doxology or "Glory be to the
Father," etc. The vocal prayer is the matter, the _body_ of this
exercise; the meditation on the fifteen mysteries is the form,
and, as it were, the _soul_ of this prayer. The Rosary is
divided into three parts; each part contains five mysteries and
is called a chaplet. The first part consists of the five joyful
mysteries; the second, of the five sorrowful; and the third, of
the five glorious mysteries.