The Secret of the Rosary - Twenty-fourth Rose

Twenty-fourth Rose - Means of Perfection

THE SAINTS always made Our Lord's life the principal
object of their study; they meditated on His virtues and
sufferings and in this way they arrived at Christian
perfection.
Once Saint Bernard began this meditation he always
continued it.
"At the very beginning of my conversion," he said, "I made a
bouquet of myrrh made up of the sorrows of my Savior. I
placed this bouquet upon my heart, thinking of the stripes,
the thorns and the nails of His passion. I used all my mental
strength to meditate on these mysteries every day."
This was a practice of the Holy Martyrs too; we know how
admirably they triumphed over the most cruel sufferings.
Saint Bernard says that the Martyrs' wonderful constancy
could have only sprung from one source: their constant
meditation on the wounds of Jesus Christ. The Martyrs were
Christ's athletes, His champions; while their blood gushed
forth and their bodies were wracked with cruel torments,
their generous souls were hidden in the wounds of Our
Lord. These wounds made them invincible.
During her whole life the Blessed Mother's chief concern
was meditation on the virtues and sufferings of her Son.
When she heard the Angels sing their hymns of joy at His
birth and when she saw the shepherds adore Him in the
stable, her heart and mind were filled with wonder and she
meditated upon all these marvels.
She compared the greatness of the Word Incarnate to His
deep humility and the way He lowered Himself; she thought
of Him in His manger filled with straw and then on His
Throne in Heaven and in the bosom of His Eternal Father.
She compared the might of God to the weakness of a Baby---
-and His wisdom to His simplicity.
One day Our Lady said to Saint Bridget: "Whenever I
meditated on the beauty, modesty and wisdom of my Son,
my heart was filled with joy: and whenever I thought of His
hands and feet which would be pierced with cruel nails, I
wept bitterly and my heart was rent with sorrow and pain."
After Our Lord's ascension Our Blessed Lady spent the rest
of her life in visiting the places that had been hallowed by
His presence and sufferings. When she was in those places
she used to meditate upon His boundless love and upon His
terrible passion.
Saint Mary Magdalene did nothing other than religious
exercises of this kind during the last thirty years of her life
when she lived in the prayerful seclusion of Sainte
Baume.[1]
Saint Jerome says that devotion to the Holy Places was
widespread among the faithful in the early centuries of the
Church. They came to the Holy Land from all corners of
Christendom so as to impress a great love and remembrance
of their Savior more deeply upon their hearts by seeing the
places and things He had made holy by His birth, by His
work, by His sufferings and by His death.
All Christians have but one Faith and adore one and the
same God, all hoping for the same happiness in Heaven.
They have one Mediator Who is Jesus Christ and therefore
they must all imitate their Divine Model and in order to do
this they must meditate on the mysteries of His life, His
virtues and of His glory.
It is a great mistake to think that only priests and religious
and those who have withdrawn from the turmoil of the
world are supposed to meditate upon the truths of our Faith
and the mysteries of the life of Jesus Christ. If priests and
religious have an obligation to meditate on the great truths
of our holy religion in order to live up to their vocation
worthily, the same obligation, then, is just as much
incumbent upon the laity----because of the fact that every
day they meet with spiritual dangers which might make
them lose their souls. Therefore they should arm themselves
with the frequent meditation on the life, virtues and
sufferings of Our Blessed Lord----which are so beautifully
contained in the fifteen mysteries of the Holy Rosary.
Notes:
1. Saint Mary Magdalene, according to a tradition, spent the
last thirty years of her life in Provence, at a place
subsequently called Sainte Baume ("the Holy Ointment").
Pilgrims go to the Dominican Church of Sainte Baume to
venerate the relic of her head which is preserved there.
(Catholic Encyclopaedia.) 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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