Second Decade

The excellence of the holy Rosary in the prayers of which it is composed.

Eleventh Rose

34. The Creed, or Apostles' Creed, which is recited on the cross of the Rosary or the chaplet, being a sacred summary and abridgment of the Christian truths, is a prayer of great merit, because faith is the foundation, the basis, and the beginning of all Christian virtues, of all eternal virtues, and of all prayers pleasing to God. Accedentem ad Deum credere oportet. He who draws near to God by prayer must first believe, and the more faith he has, the more his prayer will have power and merit in itself and will give glory to God. I shall not pause to explain the words of the Apostles' Creed; but I cannot refrain from declaring that these first three words: Credo in Deum — "I believe in God" — containing as they do the acts of the three theological virtues of faith, hope, and charity, have a marvelous power to sanctify the soul and put the devil to flight. It is with these words that many saints have conquered temptations, especially those against faith, hope, or charity, whether during their lives or at the hour of death. They were the last words that St. Peter Martyr wrote as best he could with his finger in the sand, when, his head split in two by a blow of a sword from a heretic, he was about to breathe his last.

35. Since faith is the only key that opens to us all the mysteries of Jesus and Mary contained in the holy Rosary, we must begin the Rosary by reciting the Creed with great attention and devotion; and the more lively and strong our faith, the more meritorious our Rosary will be. This faith must be lively and animated by charity — that is, to say the holy Rosary well, one must be in the state of grace or at least in search of that grace. It must be strong and constant — that is, one must not seek in the practice of the holy Rosary only sensible pleasure and spiritual consolation; one must not abandon it because one has a crowd of involuntary distractions in the mind, a strange distaste in the soul, a crushing weariness, and an almost continual drowsiness of the body. Neither sensible pleasure, nor consolation, nor sighs, nor impulses of fervor, nor tears, nor a continual application of the imagination, is necessary for saying the Rosary well. Pure faith and good intention are enough. Sola fides sufficit.

Twelfth Rose

36. The Our Father, or Lord's Prayer, derives its first excellence from its Author, who is not a man or an angel, but the King of angels and of men, Jesus Christ. "It was fitting," says St. Cyprian, "that he who came to give us the life of grace as Savior should teach us the way to pray as heavenly Master." The wisdom of this divine Master shines forth clearly in the order, the sweetness, the power, and the clarity of this divine prayer. It is short, yet rich in instruction; it is accessible to the simple and full of mysteries for the learned. The Our Father contains all the duties we owe to God, the acts of all the virtues, and petitions for all our spiritual and bodily needs. It contains, says Tertullian, a summary of the Gospel. It surpasses, says Thomas a Kempis, all the desires of the saints; it contains in brief all the sweet sentences of the psalms and canticles; it asks for everything we need; it praises God in an excellent manner; it raises the soul from earth to heaven and unites it closely with God.

37. St. Chrysostom says that whoever does not pray as the divine Master prayed and taught us to pray is not his disciple, and that God the Father does not willingly hear the prayers that the human mind has composed, but only those of his Son, which he has taught us. We should recite the Lord's Prayer with the certainty that the eternal Father will hear it, since it is the prayer of his Son, whom he always hears, and since we are his members. For what can so good a Father refuse to a petition so well framed and supported by the merits and the recommendation of so worthy a Son? St. Augustine assures us that the Our Father, well recited, wipes away venial sins. The just man falls seven times a day. The Lord's Prayer contains seven petitions by which he can remedy his falls and strengthen himself against his enemies. It is short and easy, so that, since we are weak and subject to many miseries, we may receive more prompt assistance by reciting it more often and more devoutly.

38. Undeceive yourselves, then, devout souls who neglect the prayer that the very Son of God composed and commanded all the faithful to say; you who esteem only prayers composed by men, as if even the most enlightened man could know better than Jesus Christ how we should pray. You look in the books of men for a way to praise and pray to God, as if you were ashamed to use the one his Son prescribed for us. You persuade yourselves that the prayers found in books are for the learned and the rich, and that the Rosary is only for women, children, and the common people — as if the praises and prayers you read were more beautiful and more pleasing to God than those contained in the Lord's Prayer. It is a dangerous temptation to grow tired of the prayer that Jesus Christ has recommended to us, in order to take up prayers composed by men. Not that we disapprove of those composed by the saints to stir the faithful to praise God, but we cannot tolerate their being preferred to the prayer that came from the mouth of incarnate Wisdom. It is to leave the fountain and run after the streams, to disdain the clear water to drink the muddy water. For the Rosary, composed of the Lord's Prayer and the Angelic Salutation, is that clear and perpetual stream flowing from the fountain of grace, while the other prayers they seek in books are only very small streams deriving from it.

39. We may call happy the one who, in reciting the Lord's Prayer, carefully weighs each word; there he finds all he needs, all he could desire. When we recite this admirable prayer, we immediately win the heart of God by calling upon him by the sweet name of Father. "Our Father," the most tender of all fathers, all-powerful in creation, all-wonderful in his preservation of things, all-loving in his Providence, all-good and infinitely good in the Redemption. God is our Father; we are all brothers; heaven is our homeland and our inheritance. Is there not enough here to inspire in us at once the love of God, the love of neighbor, and detachment from all earthly things? Let us love such a Father and say to him a thousand and a thousand times over: "Our Father, who art in heaven." You who fill heaven and earth by the immensity of your essence, who are present everywhere; you who are in the saints by your glory, in the damned by your justice, in the just by your grace, in sinners by the patience with which you bear them — grant that we may always remember our heavenly origin, that we may live as your true children, that we may always tend toward you alone with all the ardor of our desires. "Hallowed be thy name." The name of the Lord is holy and fearful, says the royal prophet, and heaven, according to Isaiah, resounds with the praises the seraphim never cease to give to the holiness of the Lord, the God of hosts. We ask here that the whole earth may know and adore the attributes of this God, so great and so holy; that he may be known, loved, and adored by pagans, by Muslims, by Jews, by barbarians, and by all unbelievers; that all men may serve him and glorify him by a lively faith, a firm hope, a burning charity, and the renunciation of all errors — in a word, that all men may be holy because he himself is holy. "Thy kingdom come." That is, that you may reign in our souls by your grace during this life, so that after our death we may deserve to reign with you in your kingdom, which is the sovereign and eternal happiness that we believe, that we hope for, and that we await — that happiness promised us by the goodness of the Father, won for us by the merits of the Son, and revealed to us by the lights of the Holy Spirit. "Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven." Certainly nothing can escape the dispositions of divine Providence, which has foreseen and arranged all things before they come to pass; no obstacle can turn it aside from the end it has set for itself; and when we ask God that his will be done, it is not, says Tertullian, because we fear that anyone can effectively oppose the execution of his designs, but that we may humbly acquiesce in all that he has been pleased to ordain for us; that we may always and in all things accomplish his most holy will, which is made known to us by his commandments, with as much promptness, love, and constancy as the angels and the blessed obey him in heaven.

40. "Give us this day our daily bread." Jesus Christ teaches us to ask God for all that is necessary for the life of the body and the life of the soul. By these words of the Lord's Prayer, we make a humble confession of our wretchedness and pay homage to Providence, declaring that we believe and desire to hold from his goodness all temporal goods. By the word "bread" we ask for what is simply necessary for life; the superfluous is not included. This bread we ask for today — that is, we limit all our concerns to the present day, resting upon Providence for the morrow. We ask for our daily bread, thus acknowledging our ever-recurring needs and showing the continual dependence in which we stand upon the protection and help of God. "Forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us." Our sins, say St. Augustine and Tertullian, are so many debts that we contract with God, and his justice demands payment to the last penny. Now we all have these sad debts. Despite the number of our iniquities, let us approach him with confidence and say to him with true repentance: Our Father who art in heaven, forgive us the sins of our heart and our lips, the sins of action and omission, which make us infinitely guilty in the eyes of your justice, because as children of so merciful and compassionate a Father, we forgive out of obedience and charity those who have offended us. And "lead us not" — because of our unfaithfulness to your graces — "into temptation" from the world, the devil, and the flesh. But "deliver us from evil" — the evil of sin, the evil of temporal punishment, and the evil of eternal punishment, which we have deserved. "Amen." A word of great consolation, which is, says St. Jerome, like the seal that God places at the end of our petitions to assure us that he has heard us, as if he himself were to answer us: Amen! Let it be done as you ask! You have truly obtained it. For that is what this word means: Amen.

Thirteenth Rose

41. We honor the perfections of God by reciting each word of the Lord's Prayer. We honor his fruitfulness by the name of Father: who begets from all eternity a Son who is God like you, eternal, consubstantial, who is one and the same essence, one and the same power, one and the same goodness, one and the same wisdom with you; and Father and Son, loving each other, produce the Holy Spirit, who is God like you — three adorable Persons who are one sole God. Our Father! That is, Father of men by creation, by preservation, and by redemption; merciful Father of sinners, loving Father of the just, magnificent Father of the blessed. "Who art." By these words we admire the infinity, the greatness, and the fullness of God's essence — he who truly calls himself He Who Is — that is, who exists essentially, necessarily, and eternally; who is the Being of beings, the cause of all beings; who contains eminently within himself the perfections of all beings; who is in all things by his essence, his presence, and his power, without being enclosed by them. We honor his sublimity, his glory, and his majesty by these words: "Who art in heaven" — that is, seated as upon your throne, exercising your justice over all men. We adore his holiness by desiring that his name be hallowed. We acknowledge his sovereignty and the justice of his laws by wishing that his kingdom come and that men obey him on earth as the angels obey him in heaven. We believe in his Providence by asking him to give us our daily bread. We call upon his mercy by asking the remission of our sins. We have recourse to his power by begging him not to lead us into temptation. We trust in his goodness by hoping that he will deliver us from evil. The Son of God has always glorified his Father by his works; he came into the world to have him glorified by men; he taught them the way to honor him by this prayer, which he deigned to dictate to us himself. We should therefore recite it often, with attention, and in the same spirit in which he composed it.

Fourteenth Rose

42. When we recite this divine prayer attentively, we make as many acts of the noblest Christian virtues as we pronounce words. In saying "Our Father who art in heaven," we form acts of faith, adoration, and humility. In desiring that his name be hallowed and glorified, we show a burning zeal for his glory. In asking for the possession of his kingdom, we make an act of hope. In wishing that his will be accomplished on earth as it is in heaven, we show a spirit of perfect obedience. In asking for our daily bread, we practice poverty of spirit and detachment from earthly goods. In begging him to forgive our sins, we make an act of contrition. In forgiving those who have offended us, we exercise mercy in its highest perfection. In asking his help against temptations, we make acts of humility, prudence, and fortitude. In waiting for him to deliver us from evil, we practice patience. Finally, in asking for all these things not only for ourselves but also for our neighbor and for all the members of the Church, we fulfill the duty of true children of God: we imitate him in his charity, which embraces all men, and we keep the commandment of love of neighbor.

We detest all sins and keep all the commandments of God when, in reciting this prayer, our heart accords with our lips and we have no intentions contrary to the meaning of these divine words. For when we reflect that God is in heaven — that is, infinitely raised above us by the greatness of his majesty — we enter into the deepest sentiments of respect in his presence; seized with holy fear, we flee pride and abase ourselves to nothingness. When, in pronouncing the name of Father, we remember that we owe our existence to God through the medium of our parents, and our instruction itself through the medium of our teachers, who stand in the place of God for us and of whom they are the living images, we feel obliged to honor them — or, to speak more accurately, to honor God in their persons — and we take great care not to despise or afflict them. When we desire that the holy name of God be glorified, we are far from profaning it. When we look upon the kingdom of God as our inheritance, we renounce all attachment to the goods of this world. When we sincerely ask for our neighbor the same goods that we desire for ourselves, we renounce hatred, dissension, and envy. In asking God for our daily bread, we detest gluttony and sensual indulgence, which feed upon abundance. In truly praying God to forgive us as we forgive those who have offended us, we restrain our anger and our desire for revenge; we return good for evil and love our enemies. In asking God not to let us fall into sin at the moment of temptation, we show that we flee sloth and seek the means to fight vice and work out our salvation. In praying God to deliver us from evil, we fear his justice, and we are happy, for the fear of God is the beginning of wisdom; it is by the fear of God that every man avoids sin.

Fifteenth Rose

44. The Angelic Salutation is so sublime, so lofty, that Blessed Alan de la Roche believed no creature could comprehend it, and that only Jesus Christ, born of the Virgin Mary, could explain it. Its excellence derives chiefly from the Most Blessed Virgin to whom it was addressed, from the purpose of the Incarnation of the Word for which it was brought from heaven, and from the Archangel Gabriel who first pronounced it. The Angelic Salutation sums up in the most concise abridgment all of Christian theology concerning the Blessed Virgin. In it we find a praise and an invocation. The praise contains everything that constitutes the true greatness of Mary; the invocation contains everything we should ask of her and all we may expect from her goodness. The Most Holy Trinity revealed the first part; St. Elizabeth, enlightened by the Holy Spirit, added the second; and the Church, in the first Council of Ephesus, held in the year 430, supplied the conclusion, after condemning the error of Nestorius and defining that the Blessed Virgin is truly the Mother of God. The Council decreed that the Blessed Virgin should be invoked under this glorious title in these words: Holy Mary, Mother of God, pray for us sinners, now and at the hour of our death.

45. The Blessed Virgin Mary was the one to whom this divine Salutation was presented, in order to bring about the greatest and most important affair in the world: the Incarnation of the Eternal Word, peace between God and men, and the redemption of the human race. The ambassador of this joyful news was the Archangel Gabriel, one of the chief princes of the heavenly court. The Angelic Salutation contains the faith and hope of the patriarchs, prophets, and apostles. It is the constancy and strength of the martyrs, the knowledge of the doctors, the perseverance of the confessors, and the life of religious (Blessed Alan). It is the new canticle of the law of grace, the joy of angels and of men, the terror and confusion of the demons. By the Angelic Salutation, God became man; a Virgin became the Mother of God; the souls of the just were delivered from limbo; the ruins of heaven were repaired and the empty thrones were filled; sin was pardoned; grace was given to us; the sick were healed; the dead were raised; exiles were recalled; the Most Holy Trinity was appeased; and men obtained eternal life. In a word, the Angelic Salutation is the rainbow, the sign of the mercy and grace that God has bestowed upon the world (Blessed Alan).

Sixteenth Rose

46. Although there is nothing so great as the divine Majesty, and nothing so abject as man considered as a sinner, this supreme Majesty does not, for all that, disdain our homage: he is honored when we sing his praises. And the salutation of the angel is one of the most beautiful canticles we can address to the glory of the Most High. Canticum novum cantabo tibi — "I will sing to you a new canticle." This new canticle that David foretold would be sung at the coming of the Messiah is the Salutation of the Archangel. There is an old canticle and a new canticle. The old is the one the Israelites sang in gratitude for the creation, the preservation, the deliverance from captivity, the crossing of the Red Sea, the manna, and all the other favors of heaven. The new canticle is the one Christians sing in thanksgiving for the Incarnation and the Redemption. As these marvels were accomplished through the Angelic Salutation, we repeat this same salutation to thank the Most Holy Trinity for its inestimable blessings. We praise God the Father for having so loved the world as to give it his only Son as Savior. We bless the Son for having come down from heaven to earth, for having become man, and for having redeemed us. We glorify the Holy Spirit for having formed in the womb of the Blessed Virgin that most pure body which was the victim for our sins. It is in this spirit of gratitude that we should recite the Angelic Salutation, making acts of faith, hope, love, and thanksgiving for the gift of our salvation.

47. Although this new canticle is addressed directly to the Mother of God and contains her praises, it is nevertheless most glorious to the Holy Trinity, because all the honor we render to the Blessed Virgin returns to God as to the cause of all her perfections and all her virtues. God the Father is glorified because we honor the most perfect of his creatures. The Son is glorified because we praise his most pure Mother. The Holy Spirit is glorified because we admire the graces with which he has filled his Spouse. Just as the Blessed Virgin, by her beautiful canticle the Magnificat, returned to God the praises and blessings that St. Elizabeth gave her for her eminent dignity as Mother of the Lord, so she promptly returns to God the praises and blessings we give her by the Angelic Salutation.

48. If the Angelic Salutation gives glory to the Holy Trinity, it is also the most perfect praise we can offer to Mary. St. Mechtilde, desiring to know by what means she could best express the tenderness of her devotion to the Mother of God, was rapt in ecstasy, and on this thought the Blessed Virgin appeared to her, bearing upon her breast the Angelic Salutation written in letters of gold, and said to her: "Know, my daughter, that no one can honor me with a more pleasing salutation than the one the Most Adorable Trinity caused to be presented to me, and by which he raised me to the dignity of Mother of God. By the word Ave, which is the name of Eve (Eva) reversed, I learned that God, by his almighty power, had preserved me from all sin and from the miseries to which the first woman was subject. The name Mary, which means 'Lady of Light,' signifies that God has filled me with wisdom and light, like a brilliant star, to illumine heaven and earth. These words, full of grace, tell me that the Holy Spirit has filled me with so many graces that I can bestow them abundantly upon those who ask for them through my mediation. In saying The Lord is with thee, one renews in me the ineffable joy I felt when the Eternal Word became incarnate in my womb. When I am told Blessed art thou among women, I praise the divine mercy which has raised me to this high degree of happiness. At these words, Blessed is the fruit of thy womb, Jesus, all of heaven rejoices with me to see my Son Jesus adored and glorified for having saved mankind."

Seventeenth Rose

49. Among the admirable things the Blessed Virgin revealed to Blessed Alan de la Roche (and we know that this great devotee of Mary confirmed his revelations by oath), there are three of the most remarkable. The first is that it is a probable and proximate sign of eternal reprobation to have negligence, lukewarmness, and aversion for the Angelic Salutation, which repaired the world. The second is that those who are devoted to this admirable salutation bear a very great sign of predestination. The third is that those who have received from heaven the favor of loving the Blessed Virgin and serving her out of affection must be extremely careful to continue to love and serve her until she has placed them in heaven through her Son, in the degree of glory befitting their merits (Alan).

50. All heretics, who are all children of the devil and who bear the evident marks of reprobation, have a horror of the Hail Mary. They still learn the Our Father, but not the Hail Mary; they would rather carry a serpent on their person than a chaplet or a rosary. Among Catholics, those who bear the mark of reprobation care little for the chaplet or the Rosary; they neglect to say it, or say it only with lukewarmness and in haste. Even if I placed no pious faith in what was revealed to Blessed Alan de la Roche, my own experience would be enough to convince me of this terrible and consoling truth. I do not know, and I cannot even clearly see, how it can be that a devotion so small in appearance is an infallible mark of eternal salvation, and its absence a mark of reprobation. Yet nothing is more true. We even see in our own day that those of the new doctrines condemned by the Church, with all their outward piety, greatly neglect devotion to the chaplet and the Rosary and often drive it from the minds and hearts of those who come near them, under the finest pretexts in the world. They take care not to condemn the chaplet, the Rosary, or the scapular openly, as the Calvinists do; but the manner in which they go about it is all the more pernicious for being more subtle. We shall speak of this later.

51. My Hail Mary, my Rosary, or my chaplet, is my prayer and my surest touchstone for distinguishing those who are led by the Spirit of God from those who are under the illusion of the evil spirit. I have known souls who seemed to soar like eagles to the clouds by their sublime contemplation, yet were miserably deceived by the devil; and I discovered their illusions only through the Hail Mary and the chaplet, which they rejected as beneath them. The Hail Mary is a heavenly and divine dew which, falling into the soul of a predestined person, imparts a marvelous fruitfulness for producing all kinds of virtues; and the more the soul is watered by this prayer, the more enlightened it becomes in mind, the more inflamed in heart, and the more strengthened against all its enemies. The Hail Mary is a piercing and fiery dart which, when united by a preacher with the word of God he proclaims, gives him the power to pierce, to touch, and to convert the most hardened hearts, even though he may not have much natural talent for preaching. This was the secret weapon that the Blessed Virgin, as I have already said, taught St. Dominic and Blessed Alan de la Roche for the conversion of heretics and sinners. From this comes the practice of preachers beginning their sermons with a Hail Mary, as St. Antoninus attests.

Eighteenth Rose

52. This divine Salutation draws down upon us the blessings of Jesus and Mary, for it is an infallible principle that Jesus and Mary magnificently reward those who glorify them: they return a hundredfold the blessings we give them. Ego diligentes me diligo (Prov 8:17), ut ditem diligentes me et thesauros eorum repleam. This is what Jesus and Mary proclaim aloud: "We love those who love us; we enrich them and fill their treasures." Qui seminat in benedictionibus, de benedictionibus et metet — "He who sows blessings shall also reap blessings" (2 Cor 9:6). Now, is it not loving, blessing, and glorifying Jesus and Mary to recite the Angelic Salutation properly? In each Hail Mary, we give two blessings to Jesus and Mary: "Blessed art thou among women, and blessed is the fruit of thy womb, Jesus." By each Hail Mary, you render to Mary the same honor that God rendered to her in greeting her through the Archangel Gabriel. Who could believe that Jesus and Mary, who often do good to those who curse them, would give their maledictions to those who bless and honor them by the Hail Mary? The Queen of heaven, say St. Bernard and St. Bonaventure, is no less grateful and courteous than the well-bred people of quality in this world; she surpasses them in this virtue as in all other perfections. She will therefore never allow us to honor her with respect without returning it a hundredfold. Mary, says St. Bonaventure, greets us with grace if we greet her with the Hail Mary: Ipsa salutabit nos cum gratia si salutaverimus eam cum Ave Maria. Who could comprehend the graces and blessings that the salutation and the benign gaze of the Blessed Virgin work within us? At the very moment St. Elizabeth heard the greeting the Mother of God gave her, she was filled with the Holy Spirit, and the child she carried in her womb leaped for joy. If we make ourselves worthy of the greeting and the reciprocal blessing of the Blessed Virgin, we shall surely be filled with grace and a torrent of spiritual consolations will flow into our souls.

Nineteenth Rose

53. It is written: "Give and it shall be given unto you." Let us take the comparison of Blessed Alan: "If I gave you a hundred and fifty diamonds every day, even if you were my enemy, would you not forgive me? Would you not treat me as a friend and grant me all the favors you could? Would you become rich in the goods of grace and glory? Greet the Blessed Virgin, honor your good Mother." Sicut qui thesaurizat, ita et qui honorificat matrem — "He who honors his Mother, the Blessed Virgin, is like a man who amasses treasures" (Sir 3:5). Present to her every day at least fifty Hail Marys, each of which contains fifteen precious stones more pleasing to her than all the riches of the earth. What may you not expect from her generosity? She is our Mother and our friend. She is the Empress of the universe, who loves us more than all mothers and queens combined have ever loved any mortal, for, says St. Augustine, the charity of the Blessed Virgin surpasses all the natural love of all men and all the angels.

54. One day Our Lord appeared to St. Gertrude counting gold coins. She was bold enough to ask him what he was counting. "I am counting," Jesus Christ replied, "your Hail Marys; it is the currency with which one buys my paradise." The devout and learned Suarez, of the Society of Jesus, so esteemed the merit of the Angelic Salutation that he said he would gladly give all his learning for the value of a single Hail Mary well said.

55. "Let whoever loves you, O divine Mary," said Blessed Alan de la Roche, "hear and savor this: Heaven is in joy, earth is in wonder, every time I say: Hail Mary. I hold the world in contempt, I have the love of God in my heart, when I say: Hail Mary. My fears vanish, my passions are mortified, when I say: Hail Mary. I grow in devotion, I find compunction, when I say: Hail Mary. My hope is strengthened, my consolation is increased, when I say: Hail Mary. My spirit rejoices, my sorrow is dispelled, when I say: Hail Mary. For the sweetness of this benign salutation is so great that no words can express it adequately, and after all the marvels that have been said of it, it remains so hidden and so profound that it cannot be fathomed. It is short in words but great in mysteries; it is sweeter than honey and more precious than gold. It should be most frequently in our hearts for meditation and on our lips to be read and devoutly repeated." Auscultet tui nominis, o Maria, coelum gaudet, omnis terra stupet cum dico Ave Maria; Satan fugit, infernus contremiscit, cum dico Ave Maria; mundus vilescit, cor in amore liquescit, cum dico Ave Maria; terror evanescit, caro marcescit, cum dico Ave Maria; crescit devotio, oritur compunctio, cum dico Ave Maria; spes proficit, augetur consolatio, cum dico Ave Maria; recreatur animus, et in bono confortatur aeger affectus, cum dico Ave Maria. Siquidem tanta suavitas hujus benignae salutationis, ut humanis non possit explicare verbis, sed semper manet altior et profundior quam omnis creatura indagare sufficiat. Haec oratio parva est verbis, alta mysteriis, brevis sermone, alta virtute, super mel dulcis, super aurum pretiosa; ore cordis est jugiter ruminanda labiisque puris frequentissime legenda ac devote repetenda. The same Blessed Alan relates, in chapter 69 of his Psalter, that a religious very devoted to the Rosary appeared after her death to one of her sisters and said to her: "If I could return to my body to say just one Hail Mary, even without much fervor, in order to have the merit of that prayer, I would willingly endure all over again the pains I suffered before dying." It should be noted that she had suffered violent pains on her sickbed for several years.

56. Michael de Lisle, Bishop of Salubre, a disciple and colleague of Blessed Alan de la Roche in the restoration of the holy Rosary, says that the Angelic Salutation is the remedy for all the ills that afflict us, provided we recite it devoutly in honor of the Blessed Virgin.

Twentieth Rose

57. Are you in the misery of sin? Invoke the divine Mary; say to her: Ave — which means: I salute you with the deepest reverence, O you who are without sin and without misfortune. She will deliver you from the evil of your sins. Are you in the darkness of ignorance or error? Come to Mary; say to her: Ave Maria — which means: "Enlightened by the rays of the Sun of Justice." She will share with you her light. Have you strayed from the path to heaven? Invoke Mary, whose name means Star of the Sea and Pole Star, guiding our voyage through this world, and she will lead you to the port of eternal salvation. Are you in sorrow? Have recourse to Mary, whose name means Bitter Sea, who was filled with bitterness in this world and is now changed into a sea of pure sweetness in heaven. She will turn your sorrows into joys and your afflictions into consolations. Have you lost grace? Honor the abundance of graces with which God filled the Blessed Virgin; say to her: "Full of grace" and of all the gifts of the Holy Spirit, and she will share her graces with you. Are you alone, deprived of God's protection? Address yourself to Mary; say to her: "The Lord is with thee," more nobly and more intimately than with the just and the saints, for you are one thing with him. Since he is your Son, his flesh is your flesh; you are with the Lord by a most perfect likeness and a mutual charity, for you are his Mother. Tell her: The whole Most Holy Trinity is with you, of whom you are the precious temple, and she will place you once more under the protection and safeguard of God. Have you become the object of God's curse? Say: "Blessed art thou above all women" and of all nations, for your purity and fruitfulness; you have changed the divine curse into a blessing; and she will bless you. Are you hungry for the bread of grace and the bread of life? Draw near to her who bore the living bread that came down from heaven; say to her: "Blessed is the fruit of thy womb," whom you conceived without any loss of your virginity, whom you carried without burden, and brought forth without pain. "May Jesus" be blessed, who has redeemed the captive world, healed the sick world, raised the dead, brought back the exile, justified the criminal, saved the condemned. Your soul will surely be satisfied with the bread of grace in this life and with eternal glory in the next. Amen.

58. Conclude your prayer with the Church and say: "Holy Mary" — holy in body and in soul, holy through a singular and eternal dedication to the service of God, holy as Mother of God, whom he endowed with an eminent holiness befitting that infinite dignity. "Mother of God" — who are also our Mother, our Advocate and Mediatrix, the Treasurer and Dispenser of God's graces — obtain for us speedily the pardon of our sins and our reconciliation with the divine Majesty. "Pray for us sinners" — you who have such compassion for the wretched, who never despise or reject sinners, without whom you would not be the Mother of the Savior. "Pray for us now" — during the time of this short, fragile, and miserable life. "Now," for we have nothing certain but the present moment. Now, when we are attacked and surrounded night and day by powerful and cruel enemies. "And at the hour of our death" — so terrible and so perilous, when our strength is spent, when our minds and bodies are worn down by pain and fear; at the hour of our death, when Satan redoubles his efforts to destroy us forever; at that hour which will decide our fate for all eternity — happy or unhappy. Come to the aid of your poor children, O compassionate Mother, O advocate and refuge of sinners! Drive far from us, at the hour of death, the demons our accusers and your enemies, whose terrifying appearance fills us with dread. Come to enlighten us in the darkness of death. Lead us, accompany us to the tribunal of our Judge, your Son. Intercede for us, that he may pardon us and receive us into the number of your elect, in the dwelling place of eternal glory. "Amen." So be it.

59. Who would not admire the excellence of the holy Rosary, composed of these two divine parts: the Lord's Prayer and the Angelic Salutation? Is there any prayer more pleasing to God and to the Blessed Virgin, easier, sweeter, and more salutary to men? Let us always have them in our hearts and on our lips, to honor the Most Holy Trinity, Jesus Christ our Savior, and his most holy Mother. Moreover, at the end of each decade, it is good to add the Gloria Patri, etc. — that is: Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit. As it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be, world without end. Amen.