August 4, Feast of St. Dominic
St. Dominic Receives the Rosary from Our Lady (from Secret
of the Rosary, St. Louis de Montfort)
Since the Holy Rosary is
composed, principally and in substance, of the Prayer of Christ and the Angelic
Salutation, that is, the Our Father and the Hail Mary, it was without doubt the
first prayer and the first devotion of the faithful and has been in use all
through the centuries from the time of the Apostles and disciples down to the
present.
But it was only in the
year 1214, however, that Holy Mother Church received the Rosary in its present
form and according to the method we use today. It was given to the Church by
Saint Dominic who had received it from the Blessed Virgin as a powerful means
of converting the Albigensians and other sinners.
I will tell you the
story of how he received it, which is found in the very well-known book
"De Dignitate Psalterii" by Blessed Alan de la Roche. Saint Dominic,
seeing that the gravity of people's sins was hindering the conversion of the
Albigensians, withdrew into a forest near Toulouse where he prayed unceasingly
for three days and three nights. During this time he did nothing but weep and
do harsh penances in order to appease the anger of Almighty God. He used his
discipline so much that his body was lacerated, and finally he fell into a
coma.
At this point Our Lady
appeared to him, accompanied by three angels, and she said:
"Dear Dominic, do
you know which weapon the Blessed Trinity wants to use to reform the
world?"
"Oh, my Lady," answered Saint Dominic, "you know
far better than I do because next to your Son Jesus Christ you have always been
the chief instrument of our salvation."
Then Our Lady replied:
"I want you to know
that, in this kind of warfare, the battering ram has always been the Angelic
Psalter which is the foundation stone of the New Testament. Therefore if you
want to reach these hardened souls and win them over to God, preach my
Psalter."
So he arose, comforted,
and burning with zeal, for the conversion of the people in that district he
made straight for the Cathedral. At once unseen angels rang the bells to gather
the people together and Saint Dominic began to preach.
At the very beginning of
his sermon an appalling storm broke, out, the earth shook, the sun was
darkened, and there was so much thunder and lightning that all were very much
afraid. Even greater was their fear when looking at a picture of Our Lady
exposed in a prominent place they saw her raise her arms to heaven three times
to call down God's vengeance upon them if they failed to be converted, to amend
their lives, and seek the protection of the Holy Mother of God. God wished, by means of
these supernatural phenomena, to spread the new devotion of the Holy Rosary and
to make it more widely known.
At last, at the prayer
of Saint Dominic, the storm came to an end, and he went on preaching. So
fervently and compellingly did he explain the importance and value of the Holy
Rosary that almost all the people of Toulouse embraced it and renounced their
false beliefs. In a very short time a great improvement was seen in the town;
people began leading Christian lives and gave up their former bad habits.
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