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The Secret of the Rosary - Red Rose
A Red Rose - For Sinners
POOR MEN AND WOMEN who are sinners, I, a greater
sinner than you, wish to give to you this rose----a crimson
one, because the Precious Blood of Our Lord has fallen upon
it. Please God that it will bring true fragrance into your lives-
---but above all may it save you from the danger that you are
in. Every day unbelievers and unrepentant sinners cry: "Let
us crown ourselves with roses." (Wis. 2:8) But our cry should
be: "Let us crown ourselves with roses of the Most Holy
Rosary."
How different are theirs from ours! Their roses are pleasures
of the flesh, worldly honors and passing riches which wilt
and decay in no time, but ours, which are the Our Father
and Hail Mary which we have said devoutly over and over
again and to which we have added good penitential acts,
will never wilt or die and they will be just as exquisite
thousands of years from now as they are today.
On the contrary, sinners' roses only look like roses, while in
point of fact they are cruel thorns which prick them during
life by giving them pangs of conscience, at their death they
pierce them with bitter regret and, still worse, in eternity,
they turn to burning shafts of anger and despair. But if our
roses have thorns, they are the thorns of Jesus Christ Who
changes them into roses. If our roses prick us, it is only for a
short time----and only in order to cure the illness of sin and
to save our souls.
So by all means we should eagerly crown ourselves with
these roses from Heaven, and recite the entire Rosary every
day, that is to say three Rosaries each of five decades which
are like three little wreaths or crowns of flowers: and there are two reasons for doing this: First of all to honor the three
crowns of Jesus and Mary----Jesus' crown of grace at the
time of His incarnation, His crown of thorns during His
passion and His crown of glory in Heaven, and of course the
three-fold crown which the Most Blessed Trinity gave Mary
in Heaven.
Secondly, we should do this so that we ourselves may
receive three crowns from Jesus and Mary. The first is a
crown of merit during our lifetime, the second, a crown of
peace at our death, and the third, a crown of glory in
Heaven.
If you say the Rosary faithfully until death, I do assure you
that, in spite of the gravity of your sins "you shall receive a
never fading crown of glory." (1 Pet. 5:4) Even if you are on
the brink of damnation, even if you have one foot in Hell,
even if you have sold your soul to the devil as sorcerers do
who practise black magic, and even if you are a heretic as
obstinate as a devil, sooner or later you will be converted
and will amend your life and save your soul, if----and mark
well what I say----if you say the Holy Rosary devoutly every
day until death for the purpose of knowing the truth and
obtaining contrition and pardon for your sins.
In this book there are several stories of great sinners who
were converted through the power of the Holy Rosary.
Please read and meditate upon them.
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