Hi Everyone,
Today's article, "The Secret of the Rosary, comes from the Pilgrims of St. Michael's publication, Michael Journal (http://www.michaeljournal.org). To access this particular article you may search http://www.michaeljournal.org/secretrosary.htm. The Pilgrims kindly gave permission to reprint this.
Regarding praying the rosary, some persons no longer pray the rosary because they, they say, have moved into "deeper"forms of prayer such as meditation and contemplation. However, please to be reminded that the Rosary is a tool by which we may meditate and contemplate. It is also especially requested by Our Lady to be used daily. No one is too great or educated or high up to be praying the rosary, since our Queen Mother requests this of each of us. Numbers of stories tell of the power of the rosary. St. (Padre) Pio called it The Weapon against satan, our common enemy, the world over.
To assist those who might find it long and arduous, consider each prayer bead to be a pearl to add to our Queen Mother's dress, or a small flower handed to her in love. Or consider each prayer bead to be one of the links that helps to build the chains that Mary uses to bind satan. What joy it is to assist our loving Mother in accomplishing Her plans!
God bless you. Mary's Missionaries (http://marysgardens1998.blogspot.com).
The Secret of the Rosary
The following are some excerpts taken from the book entitled
“The Secret of the Rosary” by St. Louis Marie De Montfort. Hopefully they
will help our readers to understand the power and importance of reciting the
Rosary faithfully every day.
There was a certain pious but self-willed lady who lived in Rome
during the time of Saint Dominic. She was so devout and so fervent that she put
to shame by her holy life even the strictest religious in the Church.
Having decided to ask Saint Dominic's advice about her spiritual
life, she asked him to hear her confession. For her penance, he gave her one
whole Rosary to say, and advised her to say it every day. She said that she had
no time to say it, excusing herself on the grounds that she made the Stations of
Rome every day, that she wore sack-cloth and also a hair shirt, that she gave
herself the discipline several times a week, that she carried out so many other
penances and fasted so much. Saint Dominic urged her over and over again to take
his advice and say the Rosary, but she would not hear of it. She left the
confessional horrified at the tactics of this new spiritual director who had
tried so hard to persuade her to take on a devotion that was not at all to her
liking.
Later on when she was in prayer, she fell into ecstasy and had a
vision of her soul appearing before Our Lord's Judgment Seat. Saint Michael put
all her penances and other prayers onto one balance of the scales, and all her
sins and imperfections onto the other. The tray of her good works was greatly
outweighed by that of her sins and imperfections.
Filled with terror, she cried for mercy, imploring the help of the
Blessed Virgin, her glorious Advocate, who took the one and only Rosary that she
had said for her penance and dropped it onto the tray of her good works. The one
Rosary was so heavy that it weighed more than all her sins as well as all her
good works. Our Lady then reproved her for having refused to follow the counsel
of Her servant Dominic, and for not saying the Rosary every day.
As soon as she came to herself, she rushed and threw herself at the
feet of Saint Dominic and told him all that had happened, begged his forgiveness
for her unbelief, and promised to say the Rosary faithfully every day. By this
means, she rose to Christian perfection, and finally to the glory of everlasting
life.
* * *
In 1460, Blessed Alan de la Roche received a special warning from
Our Lord. This is how he received His urgent message, as he tells it
himself:
One day when he was saying Mass, Our Lord, who wished to spur him
on to preach the Holy Rosary, spoke to him in the Sacred Host: “How can you
crucify Me again so soon?” Jesus said. “What did you
say, Lord?” asked Blessed Alan, horrified. “You crucified
Me once before by your sins,” answered Jesus, “and I would
willingly be crucified again rather than have My Father offended by the sins you
used to commit. You are crucifying Me again now because you have all the
learning and understanding that you need to preach My Mother's Rosary, and you
are not doing so. If you only did this, you could teach many souls the right
path and lead them away from sin — but you are not doing it, and so you yourself
are guilty of the sins that they commit.”
This terrible reproach made Blessed Alan solemnly resolve to preach
the Rosary unceasingly.
Alphonsus, King of Leon and Galicia, very much wanted all his
servants to honor the Blessed Virgin by saying the Rosary. So he used to hang a
large Rosary on his belt and always wore it, but unfortunately never said it
himself. Nevertheless his wearing it encouraged his courtiers to say the Rosary
very devoutly.
One day, the King fell seriously ill, and when he was given up for
dead, he found himself, in a vision, before the judgment seat of Our Lord. Many
devils were there accusing him of all the sins he had committed, and Our Lord,
as Sovereign Judge, was just about to condemn him to hell when Our Lady appeared
to intercede for him. She called for a pair of scales, and had his sins placed
in one of the balances whereas She put the Rosary that he had always worn on the
other scale, together with all the Rosaries that had been said because of his
example. It was found that the Rosaries weighed more than his sins.
Looking at him with great kindness, Our Lady said: “As a reward for
this little honor that you paid Me in wearing My Rosary, I have obtained a great
grace for you from My Son. Your life will be spared for a few more years. See
that you spend these years wisely, and do penance.”
When the King regained consciousness, he cried out: “Blessed by the
Rosary of the Most Holy Virgin Mary by which I have been delivered from eternal
damnation!”
After he had recovered his health, he spent the rest of his life in
spreading devotion to the Holy Rosary, and said it faithfully every day.
* * *
One day, Saint Gertrude had a vision of Our Lord counting gold
coins. She summoned the courage to ask Him what He was doing. He answered: “I am counting
the Hail Mary's that you have said; this is the money with which you can pay
your way to Heaven.”
* * *
Blessed Alan de la Roche says that a nun who had always had a great
devotion to the Holy Rosary appeared after death to one of her sisters in
religion, and said to her: “If I were allowed to go back into my body to have the
chance of saying just one single Hail Mary — even if I said it quickly and
without great fervor — I would gladly go through the suffering that I had during
my last illness all over again in order to gain the merit of this
prayer.” This is all the more compelling because she had been
bedridden and had suffered agonizing pains for several years before she
died.
* * *
Our Lady once said to Blessed Alan de la Roche in a vision: “When people say
one-hundred and fifty Angelic Salutations, this prayer is very helpful to them
and is a very pleasing tribute to Me. But they will do better still and will
please Me even more if they say these salutations while meditating on the life,
death, and passion of Jesus Christ — for this meditation is the soul of this
prayer.”
For, in reality, the Rosary said without meditating on the sacred
mysteries of our salvation would be almost like a body without a soul: excellent
matter but without the form which is meditation — this latter being that which
sets it apart from all other devotions.
Our Lady also revealed to Blessed Alan that no sooner had Saint
Dominic begun preaching the Rosary than hardened sinners were touched and wept
bitterly over their grievous sins. Young children performed incredible penances,
and everywhere that he preached the Holy Rosary, such fervor arose that sinners
changed their lives and edified everyone by their penances and change of
heart.
Blessed Albert the Great learned in a revelation that by simply
thinking of, or meditating on, the passion of Our Lord Jesus Christ, a Christian
gains more merit than if he had fasted on bread and water every Friday for a
whole year, or had beaten himself with his discipline once a week until the
blood flowed, or had recited the whole Book of Psalms every day. If this is so,
then how great must be the merit that we can gain by the Holy Rosary which
commemorates the whole life and passion of Our Savior!
One day, Our Lady revealed to Blessed Alan that, after the Holy
Sacrifice of the Mass, which is the most important as well as the living
memorial of Our Blessed Lord's passion, there could not possibly be a finer
devotion nor one of greater merit than that of the Holy Rosary, which is like a
second memorial and representation of the life and passion of Our Lord Jesus
Christ.
* * *
When Saint Dominic was preaching the Rosary near Carcassone, an
Albigensian was brought to him who was possessed by the devil. Saint Dominic
exorcised him in the presence of a great crowd of people; it appears that over
twelve thousand had come to hear him preach.
During the exorcism, the demon was forced to speak the following
about devotion to the Mother of God: “Listen well,
you Christians: the Mother of Jesus Christ is all-powerful, and She can save Her
servants from falling into hell. She is the Sun which destroys the darkness of
our wiles. It is She who uncovers our hidden plots, breaks our snares, and makes
our temptations useless and ineffectual.
“We have to
say, however reluctantly, that not a single soul who has really persevered in
Her service has ever been damned with us; one single sigh that She offers to the
Blessed Trinity is worth far more than all the prayers, desires, and aspirations
of all the saints.
“We fear Her
more than all the other saints in Heaven together, and we have no success with
Her faithful servants. Many Christians who call upon Her when they are in the
hour of death, and who really ought to be damned according to our ordinary
standards, are saved by Her intercession.
“Oh, if only
that Mary (it is thus in their fury that they called Her) had not pitted Her
strength against ours and had not upset our plans, we should have conquered the
Church and should have destroyed it long before this, and we would have seen to
it that all of the Orders in the Church fell into error and
disorder.
“Now that we are forced to speak, we must also tell you this: nobody
who perseveres in saying the Rosary will be damned, because She obtains for Her
servants the grace of true contrition for their sins, and by means of this they
obtain God's forgiveness and mercy.”
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From John Paul
II's Message for World Youth Day 2003:
“Dear young
people, do not be ashamed to recite the Rosary alone, while you walk along the
streets to school, to the university or to work, or as you commute by public
transport. Adopt the habit of reciting it among yourselves, in your groups,
movements and associations. Do not hesitate to suggest that it be recited at
home by your parents and brothers and sisters, because it rekindles and
strengthens the bonds between family members. This prayer will help you to be
strong in your faith, constant in charity, joyful and persevering in
hope.”
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