The purpose of the rosary is to help keep in memory certain events or mysteries in the history of our salvation, and to thank and praise God for them. The rosary is a scripture based prayer. It begins with the Apostle's Creed, which summarizes the great mysteries of the Catholic faith. The Our Father, which introduces each mystery is from the Gospels. The Hail Mary is said ten times at each mystery after the Our Father. The mysteries of the rosary center on the events of Christ's life. There are four sets of mysteries.
The Joyful Mysteries are : the Annunciation (Luke 1:26-38), the Visitation (Luke 1:40-55), the Nativity (Luke 2:6-20), the Presentation of Jesus in the Temple (Luke 2:21-39), and the Finding of the Child Jesus in the Temple (Luke 2:41-51).
The Sorrowful Mysteries are : the Agony in the Garden (Mt. 26:36-46), the Scourging (Mt 27:26), the Crowing with Thorns (Mt 27:29), the Carrying of the Cross (Luke 23:26-32), and the Crucifixion (Luke 23:33-46).
The Glorious Mysteries are : The Resurrection (Luke 24:1-12), the Ascension (Luke 24:50-51), the Descent of the Holy Spirit (Acts 2:1-4), the Assumption of Mary into heaven and her Coronation.
The Luminous Mysteries which have to do with the earthly ministry of Jesus are : The Baptism of Jesus (Matt 3:13-17, Mark 1:9-11, Luke 3:21-22 ), the Wedding in Cana (John 2:1-11), the Proclaiming of the Kingdom (Matt 10:7-8), the Transfiguration (Matt 17:1-9, Mark 9:2-10, Luke 9:28-36), and the Institution of the Eucharist (Matt 26:26-29, Mark 14:22-25, Luke 22:19-20).
With the exception of the last two glorious mysteries, each mystery is explicitly scriptural.
As we say each 10 Hail Mary's we must meditate on the mystery associated with it and keep Jesus's life close to our heart. Christ forbid meaningless repetition (Matt 6:7) but the Bible itself has some prayers that involve repetition. You can see this in Psalm 136. Also in the Garden of Gethsemane (Matt 26:39-44), Jesus prayed the same prayer three times in a row. We must always pray these prayers with sincerity and not mindlessly.
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