Will do. Will need to get a rosary to pray the Rosary.
I can recommend simple, nylon cord rosaries with plastic beads, which are available in private chapels for free, already blessed. They are more durable than any other style because they don't wear out and don't break.
In the meantime (am sick and can't go out for a bit) will learn the prayers. I was hoping to learn them in Latin, since I have enough Latin to understand that level of syntax, and it will help me focus. Does anyone know any reason I shoul[d] NOT do that?
No reason at all. In fact, if you learn the Rosary in Latin you might find it useful sometime when you're with others from foreign countries because Latin SHOULD be a unifying language.
Of course, it used to be more unifying when lots of Catholics knew it better.
You can find the prayers of the Rosary in Latin on a website: Traditio (dot) com and I'd put a link here for you to find the right page immediately but it might not come out properly (the CathInfo auto system is programmed to change links to certain websites).
A word of caution: The Rosary has a lot of Hail Mary prayers and if you're not ready for that you might start saying them too quickly which isn't good. So keep your mind on the mystery at hand while you say the prayers and don't go too fast. It takes about 15 or 20 minutes to pray the Rosary devoutly.
There is a thread here with some very good meditations that gives a short sentence for each of the 150 Hail Mary's in a complete Rosary:
http://www.cathinfo.com/catholic.php/Lets-Pray-not-just-SAY-the-Rosary-150-picture-meditationsIf you want help finding Latin prayers I can post them here for you. Here is the most frequently repeated prayer:
Hail MaryAve Maria gratia plena, Dominus tecuм. Benedicta tu in mulieribus et benedictus fructus ventris tui, Jesu. Sancta Maria, mater Dei, ora pro nobis pecatoribus, nunc, et in hora mortis nostrae. Amen.The
Credo is sometimes hard to find, and be careful not to get a corrupted version.
The
Pater Noster is found in any Latin Missal, as it is said at Mass after every consecration.
The
Gloria Patri is also in the Missal.
There is a prayer that has been popularly added after the
Gloria Patri of each decade, called the Fatima Prayer, which Our Lady of Fatima gave to the 3 shepherd children. That has at least two versions in Latin so you can take your pick. There never has been any "official" Vatican version disseminated:
O my Jesus, forgive us our sins; save us from the fires of hell; lead all souls to heaven especially those most in need. (You commonly hear Catholics end this with "...of Thy mercy," however, the earliest records of the apparitions of Fatima did not have those three words.)
It is most usual practice to include the Hail, Holy Queen (
Salve Regina) at the end of the 5-decade Rosary (or at the end of any 15-decade Rosary, if you can muster that much). Also, lots of Rosary groups include other prayers at the end, like St Michael Archangel (
Sancte Michael Archangeli), and the Collect or Prayer found in the Latin Missal for the Feast of the Holy Rosary (October 7th).
Incidentally, there are at least 3 English versions of the St. Michael prayer in use, so be prepared for some confusion in that when you meet with others for the Rosary. This is another reason to use Latin because everyone has the official Pope Leo XIII Latin St. Michael prayer.
Collect/Prayer - Oct. 7th:
O God, whose only begotten Son, by His life, death and resurrection has purchased for us the reward of eternal salvation, grant, we beseech Thee, that meditating upon these mysteries of the most holy Rosary of the Blessed Virgin Mary, we may imitate what they contain and obtain what they promise, through the same Christ our Lord. Amen. (Standard Latin version is found in the daily Missal.)