Day 12, GLORIOUS MYSTERIES, Wednesday 23 September

MARVELS OF THE ROSARY ~ St. Louis de Montfort, Secret of the Rosary

IT WOULD HARDLY be possible for me to put into words how much Our Lady thinks of the Holy Rosary and of how she vastly prefers it to all other devotions. Neither can I sufficiently express how highly she rewards those who work to preach the devotion, to establish it and spread it, nor on the other hand how firmly she punishes those who work against it.

All during life, Saint Dominic had nothing more at heart than to praise Our Lady, to

preach her greatness and to inspire everybody to honor her by saying her Rosary. As a reward he received countless graces from her; exercising her great power as Queen of Heaven she crowned his labors with many miracles and prodigies. Almighty God always granted him what he asked through Our Lady. The greatest honor of all was that she helped him crush the Albigensian heresy and made him the founder and patriarch of a great religious order.

As for Blessed Alan de la Roche who restored the devotion to the Rosary, he received many privileges from Our Lady; she graciously appeared to him several times to teach him how to work out his salvation, to become a good priest and perfect religious, and how to pattern himself on Our Lord.

He used to be horribly tempted and persecuted by devils, and then deep sadness would fall upon him and sometimes he used to be near to despair----but Our Lady always comforted him by her sweet presence which banished the clouds of darkness from his soul.

She taught him how to say the Rosary, explaining its value and the fruits to be gained by it and gave him a great and glorious privilege: the honor of being called her new spouse. As a token of her chaste love for him she placed a ring upon his finger and a necklace made of her own hair about his neck and gave him a Rosary. Blessed Alan died at Zunolle in Flanders September 8th, 1475, after having brought over 100,000 people into the Confraternity.

Blessed Thomas of Saint John was well known for his sermons on the Most Holy Rosary, and the devil, jealous of the success he had with souls, tortured him so much that he fell ill and was sick so long that the doctors gave him up. One night when he really thought that he was dying, the devil appeared to him in the most horrible form imaginable. There was a picture of Our Lady near his bed; he looked at it and cried with all his heart and soul and strength: "Help me, save me, my sweet, sweet Mother!" No sooner had he said this than the picture seemed to come alive and Our Lady put out her hand, took him by the arm and said:

"Do not be afraid, Thomas my son, here I am and I am going to save you: get up now and go on preaching my Rosary as you used to do. I promise to shield you from your enemies."

When Our Lady said this the devil fled and Blessed Thomas got up, finding that he was in perfect health. He then thanked the Blessed Mother with tears of joy. He resumed his Rosary apostolate and his sermons were marvelously successful.

Our Lady blesses not only those who preach her Rosary, but she highly rewards all those who get others to say it by their example.

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 be 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.

People who love the Blessed Virgin ought to follow the example of King Alphonsus and that of the Saints whom I have mentioned so that they too may win other souls for the Confraternity of the Holy Rosary. They will then receive great graces on earth and eternal life later on. "They that explain me shall have life everlasting." (Ecclus. 24:31.)

Day 11, SORROWFUL MYSTERIES, Tuesday September 22

Fifth Sorrowful Mystery ~ The Crucifixion
~ Passion of Jesus Christ, St. Alphonsus de Liguori

While hanging on the cross Jesus looked in vain for someone to console him: I looked for one that would grieve together with me, but there was none. On the contrary, he heard those around him uttering blasphemies: If you are the Son of God, come down from the cross. You who will destroy the temple of God, and in three days rebuild it, save yourself. He saved others, himself he cannot save. Why should they care to afflict by insults and derision one that is already expiring on the cross?

And Jesus, while these are outraging him, what is he doing upon the cross? Is he perhaps praying to the eternal Father to punish them? No, he is praying to him to pardon them: Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do. Yes, says St. Thomas; to show forth the immense love which he had for men, the Redeemer asked pardon of God for his crucifiers: "To show forth the abundance of his love, he asked pardon for his persecutors."  He asked it, and obtained it; for, when they had seen him die they repented of their sin: They returned beating their breasts.

Ah, my dear Savior, behold me at Your feet; I have been one of the most ungrateful of Your persecutors; pray likewise for me to Your Father to pardon me. True it is that the Jews and the executioners knew not what they were doing when they crucified You; but I well knew that in sinning I was offending a God who had been crucified, and had died for me. But Your blood and Your death me the divine mercy. I cannot feel doubtful of being pardoned after seeing You die to obtain pardon for me. 

Day 10, JOYFUL MYSTERIES, Monday 21 September

Fifth Joyful Mystery, Finding of Jesus in the Temple

Luke, Chapter 2

[41] And his parents went every year to Jerusalem, at the solemn day of the Pasch, [42] And when he was twelve years old, they going up into Jerusalem, according to the custom of the feast, [43] And having fulfilled the days, when they returned, the child Jesus remained in Jerusalem; and his parents knew it not. [44] And thinking that he was in the company, they came a day’s journey, and sought him among their kinsfolks and acquaintance. [45] And not finding him, they returned into Jerusalem, seeking him.

[46] And it came to pass, that, after three days, they found him in the temple, sitting in the midst of the doctors, hearing them, and asking them questions. [47] And all that heard him were astonished at his wisdom and his answers. [48] And seeing him, they wondered. And his mother said to him: Son, why hast thou done so to us? Behold thy father and I have sought thee sorrowing. [49] And he said to them: How is it that you sought me? Did you not know, that I must be about my father’s business? [50] And they understood not the word that he spoke unto them.

[51] And he went down with them, and came to Nazareth, and was subject to them. And his mother kept all these words in her heart. [52] And Jesus advanced in wisdom, and age, and grace with God and men.

Day 9, GLORIOUS MYSTERIES, Sunday 20 September

Fourth Glorious Mystery ~ The Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary into Heaven

-         St. Alphonsus de Liguori, Glories of Mary

But behold Jesus is now come to take His mother to the kingdom of the blessed. It was revealed to Saint Elizabeth, that her Son appeared to Mary before she expired with His cross in His hands, to show the special glory He had obtained by the redemption; having, by His death, made acquisition of that great creature, who, for all eternity, was to honour Him more than all men and angels. Saint John Damascene relates that our Lord Himself gave her the viaticum, saying with tender love: Receive, O my Mother, from my hands, that same body which thou gavest to me.” And the Mother, having received with the greatest love that last communion, with her last breath said, “My Son, into Thy hands do I commend my spirit. I commend to Thee this soul, which from the beginning Thou didst create rich in so many graces, and by a singular privilege didst preserve from the stain of original sin. I commend to Thee my body, from which Thou didst deign to take Thy flesh and blood. I also commend to Thee these, my beloved children (speaking of the holy disciples who surrounded her); they are grieved at my departure; do Thou, who lovest them more than I do, console them; bless them, and give them strength to do great things for Thy glory.

The life of Mary being now at its close, the most delicious music, as Saint Jerome relates, was heard in the apartment where she lay; and, according to a revelation of Saint Bridget, the room was also filled with a brilliant light. This sweet music, and the unaccustomed splendour, warned the holy Apostles that Mary was then departing. This caused them again to burst forth in tears and prayers, and raising their hands, with one voice they exclaimed: ' O, Mother, thou already goest to heaven; thou leavest us; give us thy last blessing, and never forget us miserable creatures.' Mary, turning her eyes around upon all, as if to bid them a last farewell, said, ' Adieu, my children, I bless you; fear not, I will never forget you.' And now death came, not indeed clothed in mourning and grief, as it does to others, but adorned with light and gladness. But what do we say? Why speak of death? Let us rather say that Divine love came, and cut the thread of that noble life. And as a light before going out, gives a last and brighter flash than ever ; so did this beautiful creature on hearing her Son's invitation to follow Him, wrapped in the flames of love, and in the midst of her amorous sighs, give a last sigh of still more ardent love, and breathing forth her soul, expired. Thus was that great Soul, that beautiful Dove of the Lord, loosened from the bands of this life; thus did she enter into the glory of the blessed, where she is now seated, and will be seated, Queen of paradise for all eternity.

Day 8, SORROWFUL MYSTERIES, Saturday 19 Sept

First Sorrowful Mystery, The Agony in the Garden

From On the Passion of Jesus Christ, St. Alphonsus de Liguori

[Our Blessed Lord, kneeling down to pray,] began to feel great repugnance at the sight of the pains that had been prepared for him. When one feels repugnance, even delightful things become painful. Hence with such a repugnance what punishment for the heart of Jesus, what horrible sight then presented itself to his mind of all the interior and exterior torments which were to deprive him of life by afflicting so cruelly his body and his blessed soul! He distinctly saw all the sufferings that awaited him, the mockeries, the outrages, the injuries, the blows, the thorns, the cross, and above all that shameful and desolate death which he was to suffer on an infamous cross, abandoned by everyone, by men and by God, in an abyss of sorrows and disgrace. This is what caused him so bitter a repugnance that he was obliged to ask his eternal Father for strength: He began to fear and to be heavy.

With this fear and repugnance Jesus felt at the same time great sadness and great affliction of mind: he began to grow sorrowful and to be sad. But, O Lord! Is it not You that have given to Your martyrs such a force in sufferings that they went so far as to despise torments and death and to submit to them with joy? How then does it happen that for Yourself, O Jesus! You have reserved Yourself to suffer by dying in so great sadness? Ah! I know the reason for at this moment there were presented to his mind all the sins of the world, the blasphemies, the sacrileges, the impurities, and all the other sins that men were going to commit after his death. Each one of these sins came then as a cruel monster to tear his heart by its own malice. It seems that then in his agony our afflicted Savior was obliged to say: O men! is it thus that you respond to the immense love that I have borne towards you? Alas! after so many sufferings endured for you, to see so many sins! After so many proofs of my love, to see so much ingratitude! It is that which afflicts me, makes me sad even unto death, and makes me sweat blood: And his sweat became as drops of blood trickling down upon the ground.

O my tender Jesus! I do not notice in this garden scourges, thorns, nails, which wound You; yet I see You bathed in blood from head to foot. My sins therefore were the cruel pressure which, by the violence of the affliction and of sadness, forced so much blood from Your heart. I have myself been one of Your most cruel executioners. … How dear did it cost You to make me comprehend the love which You have for me! Oh, grant me those aids to love You which You have merited for me by so many sufferings! Bestow upon me that sacred fire which You did come to enkindle upon earth by dying for us. Be ever reminding me of Your death that I may never forget to love You.

Day 7, JOYFUL MYSTERIES, Friday September 18

Joyful Mysteries ~ Birth of Our Savior, Jesus Christ

[Many holy persons have described the necessity of True Devotion to Mary in memorable, truly inspired ways, but none has done so, to the best of my knowledge, more delightfully than GK Chesterton does here. From his classic The Everlasting Man.]

Bethlehem is emphatically a place where extremes meet. Here begins, it is needless to say, another mighty influence for the humanization of Christendom. If the world wanted what is called a non-controversial aspect of Christianity, it would probably select Christmas. Yet it is obviously bound up with what is supposed to be a controversial aspect (I could never at any stage of my opinions imagine why); the respect paid to the Blessed Virgin. When I was a boy, a more Puritan generation objected to a statue upon my parish church representing the Virgin and Child. After much controversy, they compromised by taking away the Child. One would think that this was even more corrupted with Mariolatry, unless the mother was counted less dangerous when deprived of a sort of weapon. But the practical difficulty is also a parable.

You cannot chip away the statue of a mother from all round that of a newborn child. You cannot suspend the new-born child in mid-air; indeed, you cannot really have a statue of a newborn child at all. Similarly, you cannot suspend the idea of a newborn child in the void or think of him without thinking of his mother. You cannot visit the child without visiting the mother; you cannot in common human life approach the child except through the mother. If we are to think of Christ in this aspect at all, the other idea follows it as it is followed in history. We must either leave Christ out of Christmas, or Christmas out of Christ, or we must admit, if only as we admit it in an old picture, that those holy heads are too near together for the haloes not to mingle and cross.

Day 6, GLORIOUS MYSTERIES, September 17, Feast of the Stigmata of St. Francis

Feast of the Stigmata of St. Francis of Assisi

From The Liturgical Year, Dom Gueranger, Time After Pentecost

The Man-God, Jesus Christ, still lives in the Church by the continual reproduction of His mysteries in this His bride, making her a faithful copy of Himself. In the thirteenth century, while the charity of the many had grown cold, the divine fire burned with redoubled ardour in the hearts of a chosen few. It was the hour of the Church’s passion; the beginning of that series of social defections, with their train of denials, treasons, and derisions, which ended in the prescription we now witness. 

The cross had been exalted before the eyes of the world: the bride was now to be nailed thereto with her divine Spouse, after having stood with Him in the Praetorium exposed to the insults and blows of the multitude. Like an artist selecting a precious marble, the Holy Spirit chose the flesh of St. Francis of Assisi as the medium for the expression of His divine thought. He thereby manifested to the world the special direction He intended to give to the sanctity of souls; He offered to heaven a first and complete model of the new work He was meditating, viz: the perfect union, upon the very cross, of the mystical body with its divine Head. Francis was the first to be chosen for this honour: but others were to follow; and hence forward, here and there through the world, the stigmata of our blessed Lord will ever be visible in the Church. Let us read in this light the admirable history of the event, composed by the seraphic doctor in honour of his holy father St. Francis. 

Let us read in this light the admirable history of the event, composed by the seraphic doctor in honour of his holy father St. Francis.

Two years before the faithful servant and minister of Christ, Francis, gave up his spirit to God, he retired alone into a high place, which is called Mount Alvernia, and began a forty days’ fast in honour of the Archangel St. Michael. The sweetness of heavenly contemplation was poured out on him more abundantly than usual, till, burning with the flame of celestial desires, he began to feel an increasing overflow of these divine favours.

While the seraphic ardour of his desires thus raised him up to God, and the tenderness of his love and compassion was transforming him into Christ the crucified Victim of excessive love; one morning about the feast of the Exaltation of holy cross, as he was praying on the mountain-side, he saw what appeared to be a Seraph, with six shining and fiery wings, coming down from heaven. The vision flew swiftly through the air and approached the man of God, who then perceived that it was not only winged, but also crucified; for the hands and feet were stretched out and fastened to a cross; while the wings were arranged in a wondrous manner, two being raised above the head, two out stretched in flight, and the remaining two crossed over and veiling the whole body. As he gazed, Francis was much astonished, and his soul was filled with mingled joy and sorrow. The gracious aspect of him, who appeared in so wonderful and loving a manner, rejoiced him exceedingly, while the sight of his cruel crucifixion pierced his heart with a sword of sorrowing compassion.

He, who appeared outwardly to Francis, taught him inwardly that, although weakness and suffering are incompatible with the immortal life of a seraph, yet this vision had been shown to him to the end that he, Christ’s lover, might learn how his whole being was to be transformed into a living image of Christ crucified, not by martyrdom of the flesh, but by the burning ardour of his soul. After a mysterious and familiar colloquy, the vision disappeared, leaving the saint’s mind burning with seraphic ardour, and his flesh impressed with an exact image of the Crucified, as though, after the melting power of that fire, it had next been stamped with a seal. For immediately the marks of nails began to appear in his hands and feet, their heads showing in the palms of his hands and the upper part of his feet, and their points visible on the other side. There was also a red scar on his right side, as if it had been wounded by a lance, and from which blood often flowed staining his tunic and underclothing.

Francis, now a new man, honoured by this new and amazing miracle, and, by a hitherto unheard of privilege, adorned with the sacred stigmata, came down from the mountain bearing with him the image of the Crucified, not carved in wood or stone by the hand of an artist, but engraved upon his flesh by the finger of the living God. The seraphic man well knew that it is good to hide the secret of the king; wherefore, having been thus admitted into his king’s confidence, he strove, as far as in him lay, to conceal the sacred marks. But it belongs to God to reveal the great things which he himself has done; and hence, after impressing those signs upon Francis in secret, he publicly worked miracles by means of them, revealing the hidden and wondrous power of the stigmata by the signs wrought through them.

Pope Benedict XI willed that this wonderful event, which is so well attested and in pontifical diplomas has been honoured with the greatest praises and favours, should be celebrated by a yearly solemnity. Afterwards, Pope Paul V, wishing the hearts of all the faithful to be enkindled with the love of Christ crucified, extended the feast to the whole Church. 

Standard-bearer of Christ and of His Church, we would fain, with the apostle and with thee, glory in nothing save the cross of our Lord Jesus. We would fain bear in our souls the sacred stigmata, which adorned thy holy body. To him whose whole ambition is to return love for love, every suffering is a gain, persecution has no terrors; for the effect of persecutions and sufferings is to assimilate him, together with his mother the Church, to Christ persecuted, scourged, and crucified. It is with our whole hearts that we pray, with the Church: ‘O Lord Jesus Christ, who, when the world was growing cold, didst renew the sacred marks of Thy Passion in the flesh of the most blessed Francis, to inflame our hearts with the fire of Thy love; mercifully grant, that by his merits and prayers we may always carry the cross, and bring forth worthy fruits of penance. Who livest and reignest with God the Father, in the unity of the Holy Ghost, God, world without end. Amen.’