The Secret of the Rosary - Twenty-fifth Rose

Twenty-fifth Rose - Wealth of Sanctification

NEVER WILL ANYONE really be able to understand the
marvelous riches of sanctification which are contained in the
prayers and mysteries of the Holy Rosary. This meditation
on the mysteries of the life and death of Our Lord and Savior
Jesus Christ is the source of the most wonderful fruits for
those who use it.
Today people want things that strike and move and that
leave deep impressions on the soul. Nor has there ever been
anything in the whole history of the world more moving
than the wonderful story of the life, death and glory of Our
Savior which is contained in the Holy Rosary. In the fifteen
tableaux the chief scenes or mysteries of His life unfold
before our eyes. How could there ever be any prayers more
wonderful and sublime than the Lord's Prayer and the
Salutation of the Angel? All our desires and all our needs are
found expressed in these two prayers.
The meditation on the mysteries and the prayers of the
Rosary is the easiest of all prayers, because the diversity of
the virtues of Our Lord Jesus Christ and the different stages
of His life which we study refresh and fortify our mind in a
wonderful way and help us to avoid distractions.
For learned people these mysteries are the source of the most
profound doctrine but simple people find in them a means
of instruction well within their reach.
We must learn this easy form of meditation before
progressing to the highest state of contemplation. This is the
view of Saint Thomas Aquinas and the advice that he gives
when he says that first of all one must practise on a
battlefield, as it were, by acquiring all the virtues which the
Holy Rosary gives us to imitate. The learned Cajetan says
that this is the way that we reach a really intimate union
with God----for without this union contemplation is nothing
other than a dangerous illusion which can lead souls astray.
If only the Illuminists or the Quietists[1] of today had
followed this piece of advice they would never have fallen
so low nor would they have caused such scandals and upset
the devotions of good people. To think that it is possible to
say prayers that are finer and more beautiful than the Our
Father and the Hail Mary is to fall prey to a strange illusion
of the devil.
These heavenly prayers are the support, the strength and the
safeguard of our souls----but I must admit that it is not
always necessary to say them as vocal prayers. It is quite
true that, in a sense, mental prayer is more perfect than vocal
prayer, but, believe me, it is really dangerous, not to say
fatal, to give up saying the Rosary of your own accord under
the excuse of seeking a more perfect union with God.
Sometimes a soul that is proud in a subtle way and who may
have done everything that he can do interiorly to rise to the
sublime heights of contemplation that the Saints have
reached, may be deluded by the noon-day devil into giving
up his former devotions because he thinks that he has found
a greater good. He then looks upon his erstwhile practices as
inferior and only fit for ordinary and mediocre souls.
But this kind of soul has deliberately turned a deaf ear to the
prayers and salutation taught us by an Archangel and even
to the Prayer which God made and taught us and which He
said Himself. "Thus therefore shall you pray: Our Father . . .
" (Matt. 6:9) Having reached this point such a soul drifts
from its first illusion into still greater ones and falls from
precipice to precipice.
Believe me, dear brothers of the Rosary Confraternity, if you
genuinely wish to reach a high level of prayer in all honesty
and without falling into the traps that the devil sets for those
who pray, say your whole Rosary every day, or at least five
decades of it.
If, by the grace of God, you have already reached a high
level of prayer, keep up the practice of saying the Holy
Rosary if you wish to remain in that state and if you hope,
through it, to grow in humility. For never will anyone who
says his Rosary every day become a formal heretic or be led
astray by the devil. This is a statement that I would gladly
sign with my blood.
On the other hand if Almighty God in His infinite mercy
draws you to Him as forcibly as He did some of the Saints
while saying the Rosary, make yourself passive in His hands
and let yourself be drawn towards Him. Let God work and
pray in you and let Him say your Rosary in His way and this
will be enough for the day.
But if you are still in the state of active contemplation or the
usual prayer of quietude, which is to say that of placing
yourself in the presence of God and loving Him, you have
every reason in the world not to give up saying your Rosary.
Far from making you lose ground in mental prayer or
stunting your spiritual growth, it will be the most
tremendous help to you. You will find that it will be a real
Jacob's ladder with fifteen rungs and by each one of these
you will go from virtue to virtue and from light to light.
Thus, without danger of being misled, you will easily come
to the fullness of the age of Jesus Christ.
Notes:
1. Quietism and Illuminism were heresies of Saint Louis'
day. Adherents of the former school and also those of the
latter had an exaggerated idea of Divine inspiration and
denied the necessity of individual effort in the spiritual life.
Madame Guillon was the chief exponent of Quietism in
France. M.B.

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

JesusMarie.com  - Le Secret du Rosaire - ICI

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Visiting Our Lady of the Cape on Pilgrimage? What you need to know HERE

A priest discovers a pig chewing on a Rosary. What he does next transforms his dying parish into a National Shrine!

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