Which Direction to Pray a Rosary
Which Direction to Pray a Rosary
Ever wonder which direction to pray a rosary? Is it from right to left or left to right? What does the Catholic Church teach about it?
Which Direction is the Correct One?
What the Catholic Church Teaches
The Catholic Church has not specified in which direction we should pray a rosary.
The difference is in the hand we use to hold our rosary as we pray.
Right-Hand Prayers
When we pray with rosary beads in our right hand, it feels natural to pray counter-clockwise, (or from right to left).
right hand
left hand
Left-Hand Prayers
It is easier to pray clockwise (from left to right) with our left hand.
When It Matters
It is more noticeable when the beads have a shape. For example, a heart-shaped bead could feel upside down. Notice that when you hold your rosary with the medal facing the back, the beads are in the right direction. *When you place an order with us, we can custom-make it the way you want.
Turning it Around
TIP: For directional-bead rosaries, if you turn the rosary to face the other way, you can pray in the direction that works for you without making it feel like the beads are upside down.
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CREDITS
The LOGO image of Our Lady of Grace is original artwork by Martin Lariviere in 2009. We have the artist’s permission (my son). It is our exclusive trademark logo image.
A beautifully photographed sky by Donald Tong inspired the website’s colour scheme. Cropped portions of it are the background for the footer Bible verse. He shared it as a free download on pexels.com.
Raphael painted The Sistine Madonna circa (1513-1514). We made circular cut-outs from the original image.
Circa the 17th Century, Carlo Esteban Murillo painted our Blessed Mother with Jesus holding a rosary.
Thank you to NicePNG for the arrow image which we adjusted to match our website colours.
Our information is from general knowledge, experience, and shared internet resources. We’d like you to use it as a starting point for your research to verify facts and build a reference list.
IN REVIEW
The Catholic Church has not specified in which direction we should pray a rosary.
Why do we get confused about the issue? When we pray with rosary beads in our right hand, it feels natural to pray counter-clockwise (right to left). It is easier to pray clockwise with our left hand (left to right).