The Secret of the Rosary - Forty-seventh Rose

Forty-seventh Rose - Proper Dispositions



PREDESTINATE SOULS, you who are of God, cut
yourselves adrift from those who are damning themselves
by their impious lives, laziness and lack of devotion----and,
without delay, recite often your Rosary, with faith, with
humility, with confidence and with perseverance.
Our Lord, Jesus Christ, told us to follow His example and to
pray always----because of our endless need of prayer, the
darkness of our minds, our ignorance and weakness and
because of the strength and number of our enemies. Anyone
who really gives heed to this Our Master's commandment
will surely not be satisfied with saying the Rosary once a
year (as the Perpetual Members do) or once a week (like the
Ordinary Members) but will say it every day (as a member
of the Daily Rosary) and will never fail in this----even
though the only obligation he has is that of saving his own
soul.
1. "We ought always to pray and not to faint." (Luke 18:1)
These are the eternal words of our Blessed Lord Himself.
And we must believe His words and abide by them if we do
not want to be damned. You can understand them in any
way you like, as long as you do not interpret them as the
world does and only observe them in a worldly way.
Our Lord gave us the true explanation of His words----by
means of the example He left us. "I have given you an
example that as I have done to you, so you do also." (John
13:15) And "He passed the whole night in the prayer of
God." (Luke 6:12) As though His days were not long enough,
He used to spend the night in prayer. Over and over again
He said to His Apostles: "Watch ye and pray"; (Matt. 26:41)
the flesh is weak, temptation is everywhere and always
around you. If you do not keep up your prayers, you shall
fall . . . And because some of them evidently thought that
these words of Our Lord constituted a counsel only they
completely missed their point. This is why they fell into
temptation and sin, even though they were in the company
of Jesus Christ.
Dear Rosary Confraternity members, if you want to lead a
fashionable life and belong to the world----by this I mean if
you do not mind falling into mortal sin from time to time
and then going to Confession, and if you wish to avoid
conspicuous sins which the world considers vile and yet at
the same time commit "respectable sins"----then, of course,
there is no need for you to say so many prayers and
Rosaries. You only need to do very little to be "respectable":
a tiny prayer at night and morning, an occasional Rosary
which may be given to you for your penance, a few decades
of Hail Marys said on your Rosary (but haphazardly and
without concentration) when it suits your fancy to say them-
---this is quite enough. If you did less, you might be branded
as a freethinker or a profligate; if you did more, you would
be eccentric and a fanatic. But if you want to lead a true
Christian life and genuinely want to save your soul and
walk in the saints' footsteps and never, never, fall into mortal
sin----if you wish to break Satan's traps and divert his
flaming darts, you must always pray as Our Lord taught and
commanded you to do.
If you really have this wish at heart, then you must at least
say your Rosary or the equivalent, every day. I have said "at
least" because probably all that you will accomplish through
your Rosary will be to avoid mortal sin and to overcome
temptation. This is because you are exposed to the strong
current of the world's wickedness by which many a strong
soul is swept away; you are in the midst of the thick,
clinging darkness which often blinds even the most
enlightened souls; you are surrounded by evil spirits who
being more experienced than ever and knowing that their
time is short are more cunning and more effective in
tempting you.
It will indeed be a marvel of grace wrought by the Most
Holy Rosary if you manage to keep out of the clutches of the
world, the devil and the flesh and avoid mortal sin and gain
Heaven! If you do not want to believe me, at least learn from
your own experience. I should like to ask you if, when you
were in the habit of saying no more prayers than people
usually say in the world and saying them the way they
usually say them, you were able to avoid serious faults and
sins that were grievous but which seemed nothing much to
you in your blindness. Now at last you must wake up, and if
you want to live and die without sin, at least mortal sin, pray
unceasingly; say your Rosary every day as members always
used to do in the early days of the Confraternity.
When our Blessed Lady gave the Holy Rosary to Saint
Dominic she ordered him to say it every day and to get
others to say it daily. Saint Dominic never let anyone join the
Confraternity unless he were fully determined to say it every
day. If today people are allowed to be Ordinary Members by
saying the Rosary merely once a week, it is because fervor
has dwindled, and charity has grown cold. You get what
you can out of one who is poor in prayer. "It was not thus in
the beginning."
Three things must be stressed here; the first is that if you
want to join the Confraternity of the Daily Rosary and share
in the prayers and merits of its members, it is not enough to
be enrolled in the Ordinary Rosary or just to make a
resolution to say it every day; as well as doing this you must
give your name to those who have the power to enroll you
in it. It is also a very good thing to go to Confession and
Holy Communion especially for this intention. The reason
for this is that the Ordinary Rosary Membership does not
include that of the Daily Rosary, but this latter does include
the former.
The second point I want to make is that, absolutely speaking,
it is not even a venial sin to fail to say the Rosary every day,
or once a week, or even once a year.
The third point is that whenever illness, or work that you
have performed out of obedience to a lawful superior or
some real necessity, or even involuntary forgetfulness has
prevented you from saying your Rosary, you do not forfeit
your share in the merits and your participation in the
Rosaries of the other Confraternity members. So, absolutely
speaking, you are under no obligation to say two Rosaries
the next day to make up for the one you missed, as I
understand it, through no fault of your own. If, however,
when you are ill, your sickness is such that you are still able
to say part of your Rosary, you must say that part.
"Blessed are (those) who stand before thee always." (3 Kings
10:8) "Happy they who dwell in your house! Continually
they praise you." (Ps. 83:5) "Oh, dear Lord Jesus, blessed are
the brothers and sisters of the Daily Rosary Confraternity
who are in Thy presence every day----in Thy little home at
Nazareth, at the foot of Thy Cross on Calvary, and around
Thy throne in Heaven, so that they may meditate and
contemplate Thy Joyous, Sorrowful and Glorious Mysteries.
How happy they are on earth because of the wonderful
graces that Thou dost vouchsafe to them, and how blessed
they shall be in Heaven where they will praise Thee in a
very special way----for ever and ever!"
2. The Rosary should be said with faith----for our Blessed
Lord said "Believe that you shall receive; and they shall
come unto you." (Mark 11:24) If you believe that you will
receive what you ask from the hands of Almighty God, He
will grant your petitions. He will say to you: "As thou hast
believed, so be it done to thee." (Matt. 8:13) "If any of you
want wisdom, let him ask of God----but let him ask in faith,
nothing wavering." (James 1:5, 6) If anyone needs wisdom,
let him ask God with faith, and without hesitating, and
through his Rosary----and what he asks shall be given him.
3. Thirdly, we must pray with humility, like the publican; he
was kneeling on the ground----on both knees----not on one
knee as proud and worldly people do, or with one knee on
the bench in front of him. He was at the back of the Church
and not in the sanctuary as the Pharisee was; his eyes were
cast down, as he dared not look up to Heaven; he did not
hold his head up proudly and look about him like the
Pharisee. He beat his breast, confessing his sins and asking
forgiveness: "Be merciful to me a sinner" (Luke 18:13) and he
was not in the least like the Pharisee who boasted of his
good works and who despised others in his prayers. Do not
imitate the pride of the Pharisee whose prayer only
hardened his heart and increased his guilt; imitate rather the
humility of the Publican whose prayer obtained for him the
remission of his sins.
You should be very careful not to do anything out of the
ordinary nor to ask nor even wish for knowledge of
extraordinary things, visions, revelations or other
miraculous graces which Almighty God has occasionally
given to a few of the Saints while they were reciting the
Rosary. "Faith alone suffices": faith alone is quite enough for
us now that the Holy Gospels and all the devotions and
pious practices are firmly established.
Even if you suffer from dryness of soul, boredom and
interior discouragement, never give up even the least little
bit of your Rosary----for this would be a sure sign of pride
and faithlessness. On the contrary, like a real champion of
Jesus and Mary, you should say your Our Fathers and Hail
Marys quite drily if you have to, without seeing, hearing or
feeling any consolation whatsoever, and concentrating as
best you can on the mysteries. You ought not to look for
candy or jam to eat with your daily bread, as children do----
but you should even say your Rosary more slowly
sometimes when you particularly find it hard to say. Do this
to imitate Our Lord more perfectly in His agony in the
garden: "Being in an agony, He prayed the longer," (Luke
22:43) so that what was said of Our Lord (when He was in
His agony of prayer) may be said of you too: He prayed
even longer.
4. Pray with great confidence, with confidence based upon
the goodness and infinite generosity of God and upon the
promises of Jesus Christ. God is a spring of living water
which flows unceasingly into the hearts of those who pray.
The Eternal Father yearns for nothing so much as to share
the life-giving waters of His grace and mercy with us. He is
entreating us: "All you that thirst, come to the waters . . ."
(Isa. 54:1) This means "Come and drink of My spring
through prayer," and when we do not pray to Him He
sorrowfully says that we are forsaking Him: "They have
forsaken Me, the fountain of living water." (Jer. 2:13)
We make Our Lord happy when we ask Him for graces and
if we do not ask, He makes a loving complaint: "Hitherto
you have not asked anything . . . ask and you shall receive . .
. seek and you shall find, knock and it shall be opened to
you." (John 16:24 and Matt. 7:7)
Furthermore, to give us more confidence in praying to Him,
He has bound Himself by a promise: that His Eternal Father
would grant us everything that we ask in His name.

The Canada54 National Novena includes a daily reading from the Secret of the Rosary.

There are exactly 54 readings. 
  • A white rose for priests;
  • A red rose for sinners;
  • A mystical rose tree for devout souls;
  • A rosebud for little children;
  • Plus 50 roses representing each Hail Mary recited during 5 decades of the Rosary

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