Fifth Decade

Forty-First Rose

116. Properly speaking, it is not the length but the fervor of prayer that pleases God and wins his heart. A single Hail Mary well said is of greater merit than a hundred and fifty said poorly. Nearly all Catholics recite the Rosary, the chaplet, or at least a few decades of Hail Marys. Why then are so few of them corrected of their sins and advancing in virtue, if not because they do not say these prayers as they should?

117. Let us see, then, how they should be recited in order to please God and become holier. First, the person who recites the holy Rosary must be in the state of grace, or at least have the firm intention of leaving sin, because all theology teaches us that the good works and prayers done in a state of mortal sin are dead works, which can neither be pleasing to God nor merit eternal life. In this sense it is written: Non est speciosa laus in ore peccatoris — "Praise does not become the mouth of a sinner" (Sir 15:9). The praise and the salutation of the angel, and even the prayer of Jesus Christ himself, are not pleasing to God when they come from the mouth of an unrepentant sinner. Populus hic labiis me honorat, cor autem eorum longe est a me (Mk 7:6). Those who join my confraternities, says Jesus Christ, who recite the chaplet or the Rosary every day without any contrition for their sins, honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me. I said "or at least have the firm intention of leaving sin": first, because if one absolutely had to be in the state of grace to make prayers pleasing to God, it would follow that those in mortal sin should not pray at all, even though they need it more than the just — which is an error condemned by the Church — and thus one should never counsel a sinner to say his chaplet or Rosary, since it would be useless to him. Second, because if one enrolled in a confraternity of the Blessed Virgin, or recited the chaplet, the Rosary, or any other prayer, with the intention of remaining in sin and without any desire to leave it, one would become one of the false devotees of the Blessed Virgin — presumptuous and impenitent devotees who, under the mantle of the Blessed Virgin, with the scapular upon their bodies or the Rosary in hand, cry out: Holy Virgin, good Virgin, Hail Mary — and yet crucify and cruelly tear Jesus Christ by their sins, and fall wretchedly from the midst of the holiest confraternities of the Blessed Virgin into the midst of the flames of hell.

118. We recommend the holy Rosary to everyone: to the just, to persevere and grow in the grace of God; and to sinners, to leave their sins. But God forbid that we should encourage any sinner to use the mantle of the Blessed Virgin's protection as a cloak for damnation, or to change the Rosary, which is a remedy for all evils, into a deadly and fatal poison. Corruptio optimi pessima. One must be an angel in purity, says the learned Hugh, Cardinal, to approach the Blessed Virgin and recite the Angelic Salutation. She once showed an impure man, who regularly recited the holy Rosary every day, some beautiful fruits in a foul vessel; he was horrified, and she said to him: "This is how you serve me: you present me with beautiful roses in a soiled and corrupt vessel. Judge whether I can find them acceptable."

Forty-Second Rose

119. It is not enough, to pray well, to express our petitions in the most excellent of all forms of prayer, which is the Rosary; we must also bring to it great attention, for God listens to the voice of the heart rather than that of the mouth. To pray to God with voluntary distractions would be a great irreverence, which would make our Rosaries fruitless and fill us with sin. How dare we ask God to hear us if we do not hear ourselves? How can we, while praying to this awe-inspiring Majesty who makes all things tremble, voluntarily let ourselves run after a butterfly? This is to drive away the blessing of this great Lord and to turn it into the curse pronounced against those who do the work of God carelessly: Maledictus qui facit opus Dei negligenter (Jer 48:10).

120. You cannot, it is true, recite your Rosary without having some involuntary distractions. It is even very difficult to say a single Hail Mary without your ever-restless imagination taking something away from your attention. But you can recite it without voluntary distractions, and you should take every means to lessen the involuntary ones and fix your imagination. To this end, place yourself in the presence of God. Believe that God and his holy Mother are watching you; that your good angel at your right hand takes your Hail Marys as so many roses, if they are well said, to make a crown for Jesus and Mary; and that the devil, on the contrary, is at your left, prowling around you, ready to devour your Hail Marys and mark them in his book of death if they are not said with attention, devotion, and modesty. Above all, do not fail to offer up each decade in honor of the mysteries and to picture in your imagination Our Lord and his holy Mother in the mystery you are honoring.

121. We read in the life of Blessed Herman, of the Premonstratensian Order, that when he said the Rosary with attention and devotion, meditating on the mysteries, the Blessed Virgin would appear to him, radiant with light, with a beauty and majesty that were ravishing. But afterwards, his devotion having cooled and his Rosary being said only in haste and without attention, she appeared to him with her face all wrinkled, sad, and displeasing. Herman, astonished at such a change, the Blessed Virgin said to him: "I appear to you as I now am in your soul, for you no longer treat me except as a person vile and contemptible. Where is the time when you used to greet me with respect and attention, meditating on my mysteries and admiring my greatness?"

Forty-Third Rose

122. As there is no prayer more meritorious to the soul and more glorious to Jesus and Mary than the Rosary well said, so there is none more difficult to say well and to persevere in, particularly because of the distractions that arise naturally from the frequent repetition of the same prayer. When one says the Little Office of the Blessed Virgin, the seven psalms, or other prayers besides the chaplet or Rosary, the change and variety of the words that compose them hold the imagination and refresh the mind, and consequently make it easy for the soul to say them well. But in the Rosary, since one always has the same Our Father and Hail Mary to say and the same form to keep, it is very hard not to grow weary of it, not to fall asleep over it, and not to abandon it for other prayers that are more varied and less monotonous. This is why it takes infinitely more devotion to persevere in the recitation of the holy Rosary than in any other prayer, even were it the entire psalter of David.

123. What increases this difficulty is our imagination, which is so restless that it is hardly at rest for a moment, and the malice of the devil, who is tireless in distracting us and hindering our prayer. What does this wicked spirit not do against us while we are saying our Rosary against him? He increases our natural sluggishness and negligence. Before we begin our prayer, he increases our boredom, our distractions, and our weariness. While we are praying, he overwhelms us on every side. And after we have finished it, with much difficulty and many distractions, he whispers to us: "What you said was worthless. Your chaplet, your Rosary, is no good. You would do better to work and attend to your business. You are wasting your time reciting so many vocal prayers without attention. Half an hour of meditation or of good reading would be much better. Tomorrow, when you are less drowsy, you will pray with more attention. Put off the rest of your Rosary until tomorrow." By these devices, the devil often makes us give up the Rosary entirely or in part, or makes us take up some other devotion instead, or postpone it.

124. Do not believe him, dear brother of the Rosary, but take courage. Even if throughout your entire Rosary your imagination was filled with nothing but extravagant thoughts and fancies, which you tried your best to chase away as soon as you noticed them, your Rosary is all the better for being difficult. It is all the more difficult because it is naturally less agreeable to the soul and is filled with those miserable little flies and ants that run here and there in the imagination, despite the will, and give the soul no time to enjoy what it says or to rest in peace.

125. If you must fight throughout your entire Rosary against the distractions that assail you, fight valiantly, weapons in hand — that is, continue your Rosary, even without any taste or sensible consolation: this is a terrible combat, but one salutary for the faithful soul. If you lay down your arms — that is, if you abandon your Rosary — you are defeated, and then the devil, as victor over your firmness, will leave you in peace and reproach you on the day of judgment for your faintheartedness and unfaithfulness. Qui fidelis est in minimo et in majori fidelis est — "He who is faithful in the least is faithful also in the greatest" (Lk 16:10). He who is faithful in rejecting the smallest distractions in the least part of his prayer will also be faithful in the greatest things. Nothing is so certain, since the Holy Spirit has said so. Courage, then, good and faithful servant of Jesus Christ and the Blessed Virgin, who have resolved to say your Rosary every day! Let not the multitude of flies — so I call the distractions that make war upon you while you pray — be able to make you cowardly abandon the company of Jesus and Mary, in which you find yourself while saying your Rosary. I shall set forth below some means of lessening distractions.

Forty-Fourth Rose

126. After invoking the Holy Spirit, to say your Rosary well, put yourself for a moment in the presence of God and offer up the decades as you will see below. Before beginning each decade, pause a moment, more or less according to your leisure, to consider the mystery you are celebrating in that decade, and always ask, through that mystery and the intercession of the Blessed Virgin, for one of the virtues that shine forth most in that mystery, or for whichever you most need. Above all, beware of the two common faults that almost all who say the chaplet or Rosary commit. The first is to take no intention in saying the chaplet, so that if you asked them why they are saying it, they could not answer you. Therefore, always have in view, when reciting your Rosary, some grace to ask, some virtue to imitate, or some sin to destroy. The second common fault is to have no other intention, when beginning the Rosary, than to get through it quickly. This comes from regarding the Rosary as a burdensome thing that weighs heavily upon the shoulders when one has not yet said it, especially when one has made it a matter of conscience, or when one has received it as a penance and as it were against one's will.

127. It is pitiful to see how most people say their chaplet or Rosary. They say it with astonishing haste and even swallow part of the words. One would not pay a compliment to the lowest of men in this ridiculous manner, and yet one thinks that Jesus and Mary will be honored by it! After that, should we be surprised that the holiest prayers of the Christian religion remain almost without fruit, and that after a thousand or ten thousand Rosaries one is no holier? Stop, dear brother of the Rosary, your natural haste in reciting your Rosary, and make some pauses in the middle of the Our Father and the Hail Mary, and a shorter one after the words of the Our Father and the Hail Mary that I have marked with a cross below. Our Father, who art in heaven, + hallowed be thy name, + thy kingdom come, + thy will be done + on earth as it is in heaven. + Give us this day + our daily bread, + and forgive us our trespasses + as we forgive those who trespass against us, + and lead us not into temptation, + but deliver us from evil. Amen. + Hail Mary, full of grace, + the Lord is with thee, + blessed art thou among women, + and blessed is the fruit of thy womb, Jesus. + Holy Mary, Mother of God, + pray for us sinners, now + and at the hour of our death. Amen. + You will find it hard at first to make these pauses, because of the bad habit you have of praying in haste; but a single decade said in this measured way will be more meritorious than thousands of Rosaries recited hurriedly, without reflection or pause.

128. Blessed Alan de la Roche and other authors, among them Bellarmine, relate that a good priest advised three penitents who were sisters to recite the Rosary devoutly every day for a year, without missing a day, in order to fashion a beautiful garment of glory for the Blessed Virgin — a secret he had received from heaven. All three said it for a year. On the eve of the Purification, in the evening, when they were in bed, the Blessed Virgin, accompanied by St. Catherine and St. Agnes, entered their room, clothed in a garment all blazing with light, on which was written in letters of gold on every side: Ave Maria gratia plena. The Queen of heaven approached the bed of the eldest sister and said to her: "I greet you, my daughter, who have so often and so well greeted me. I have come to thank you for the beautiful garments you have made me." The two holy virgins who accompanied her also thanked her, and all three disappeared. An hour later, the Blessed Virgin, with her two companions, came again into the room, dressed in a green garment without gold or light, and approached the bed of the second sister. She thanked her for the garment she had made by saying her Rosary. But this second sister, having seen the Blessed Virgin appear to her elder sister with much more brilliance, asked the reason. "It is because she made me finer garments by saying her Rosary better than you," Mary replied. About an hour later, the Blessed Virgin appeared a third time to the youngest sister, dressed in dirty, torn rags, and said to her: "O daughter, you have dressed me like this; I thank you for it." The young girl, overwhelmed with shame, cried out: "What! My Lady, have I dressed you so poorly? I beg your forgiveness! I ask for time to make you a finer garment by saying my Rosary better." After the vision disappeared, the youngest sister was deeply distressed. Having told their confessor all that had happened, he encouraged them to say their Rosary for another year with more perfection than ever, which they did. At the end of the year, on the very day of the Purification, the Blessed Virgin, still accompanied by St. Catherine and St. Agnes who bore crowns, and clothed in a marvelous garment, appeared to them in the evening and said: "Be assured, my daughters, of the kingdom of heaven; you will enter it tomorrow with great joy." To which all three replied: "Our heart is ready, dear Lady; our heart is ready." The vision disappeared. That very night they fell ill. They sent for their confessor, received the last sacraments, and after thanking their confessor for the holy practice he had taught them. After Compline, the Blessed Virgin appeared to them once more, accompanied by a great number of virgins. She had the three sisters clothed in white robes, and then they all three walked forth while the angels sang: "Come, spouses of Jesus Christ, receive the crowns prepared for you in eternity." Amen. Learn several truths from this story: first, how important it is to have good directors who inspire holy practices of piety, especially the holy Rosary; second, how important it is to say the Rosary with attention and devotion; third, how benign and merciful the Blessed Virgin is to those who repent of the past and resolve to do better; fourth, how generous she is in rewarding, during life, at death, and in eternity, the little services we faithfully render her.

Forty-Fifth Rose

129. I add that the holy Rosary should be recited with modesty — that is, as far as possible, on one's knees, with hands joined and the rosary in hand. If, however, one is sick, it may be said in bed; if one is traveling, it may be said while walking; if, because of some infirmity, one cannot kneel, it may be said standing or sitting. One may even recite it while working, when one cannot leave one's work to fulfill the duties of one's profession, for manual labor is not always contrary to vocal prayer. I admit that our soul, being limited in its operations, when it is attentive to the work of the hands, is less attentive to the operations of the mind, such as prayer; but in cases of necessity, this prayer has its value before the Blessed Virgin, who rewards good will more than outward action.

130. I advise you to divide your Rosary into three chaplets, or three different times of the day. It is better to divide it this way than to say it all at once. If you cannot find enough time to say a third of it at one sitting, say one decade here and one decade there. You can manage, despite all your occupations and business, to have said the entire Rosary before going to bed. Imitate the fidelity of St. Francis de Sales. Being very tired one evening from the visits he had made during the day, and it being near midnight, he remembered that he had some decades of his Rosary left to say. He knelt down and recited them before going to bed, despite everything his chaplain could say to persuade him to put off until the next day the prayers he still had to say. Imitate also the fidelity, modesty, and devotion of that holy religious, of whom the chronicles of St. Francis speak, who had the custom of reciting a chaplet before dinner with great attention and modesty. I have spoken of him earlier.

Forty-Sixth Rose

131. Of all the ways of reciting the holy Rosary, the most glorious to God, the most salutary to the soul, and the most terrible to the devil, is to chant it or recite it publicly in two choirs. God loves assemblies. All the angels and the blessed, assembled in heaven, sing his praises unceasingly. The just, assembled in many communities on earth, pray together day and night. Our Lord expressly counseled this practice to his apostles and disciples and promised them that whenever at least two or three were assembled in his name, he would be in the midst of those gathered to pray in his name and to recite his own prayer. What happiness to have Jesus Christ in our company! To possess him, we need only gather together to say the chaplet. This is why the first Christians assembled so often to pray together, despite the persecutions of the emperors, who forbade their assemblies. They preferred to risk death rather than fail to assemble and have the company of Jesus Christ.

132. This manner of praying is more salutary to the soul: first, because the mind is ordinarily more attentive in public prayer than in private; second, when we pray in common, the prayers of each individual become the prayers of the whole assembly and all together form but one prayer, so that if some individual does not pray as well, another in the assembly who prays better supplies for his deficiency. The strong supports the weak; the fervent inflames the lukewarm; the rich enriches the poor; the bad passes for good. How does one sell a measure of tares? By mixing it with four or five bushels of good wheat; the whole lot is sold. Third, a person who says the chaplet alone has only the merit of one chaplet; but if she says it with thirty persons, she has the merit of thirty chaplets. Such are the laws of public prayer. What gain! What an advantage! Fourth, Pope Urban VIII, being greatly pleased with the devotion of the holy Rosary recited in two choirs in many places in Rome, particularly at the convent of the Minerva, granted a hundred days' indulgence every time it was so recited: Toties quoties. These are the terms of his brief, which begins Ad perpetuam rei memoriam, in the year 1626. Thus, every time the chaplet is said in common, one gains a hundred days' indulgence. Fifth, this public prayer is more powerful to appease the wrath of God and draw down his mercy than private prayer, and the Church, guided by the Holy Spirit, has made use of it at all times of public calamity and misery. Pope Gregory XIII declared in his bull that we must piously believe that the public prayers and processions of the members of the holy Rosary contributed greatly to obtaining from God the great victory the Christians won over the Turkish naval fleet at the Gulf of Lepanto, on the first Sunday of October, 1571.

133. Louis the Just, of happy memory, while besieging La Rochelle, where the Huguenots held their stronghold, wrote to his mother the queen to have public prayers said for the success of his arms. The queen resolved to have the Rosary recited publicly in the church of the Friars Preachers of the Faubourg Saint-Honore in Paris, which was carried out under the direction of the Archbishop. The devotion began on May 20, 1628. The queen mother and the reigning queen attended, together with the Duke of Orleans, Cardinals de la Rochefoucauld and de Berulle, several prelates, the whole court, and an innumerable crowd. The Archbishop read aloud the meditations on the mysteries of the Rosary, then began the Our Father and Hail Mary of each decade, while the religious and the congregation responded. After the chaplet, an image of the Blessed Virgin was carried in procession while her Litany was chanted. This devotion was continued every Saturday with admirable fervor and an evident blessing from heaven, for the king triumphed over the English at the Ile de Re and entered La Rochelle victorious on All Saints' Day of that same year. This shows the power of public prayer.

134. The Rosary recited in common is far more terrible to the devil, since by this means we form an army to attack him. He can sometimes triumph easily enough over the prayer of an individual, but if it is united with that of others, he can hardly prevail. It is easy to break a single stick by itself, but if you bind it with several others to make a bundle, it can no longer be broken. Vis unita fit fortior. Soldiers assemble in an army to fight their enemies; the wicked assemble to commit their debaucheries and dances; even the demons assemble to destroy us. Why then should Christians not assemble to have the company of Jesus Christ, to appease the wrath of God, to draw down his grace and mercy, and to vanquish and terrify the demons more powerfully? Dear brother of the Rosary, if you live in town or country, near a parish church or chapel, go there at least every evening, with the permission of the pastor, and there, in the company of all who will come, recite the chaplet in two choirs. Do the same in your home or in that of some neighbor, if you do not have the convenience of a church or chapel.

135. This is a holy practice that God, in his mercy, has established in the places where I have given missions, in order to preserve and increase their fruit, and to prevent sin. Before the chaplet was established in these towns and villages, one saw nothing but dancing, debauchery, dissoluteness, immodesty, swearing, quarrels, and divisions; one heard nothing but indecent songs and double-meaning expressions. Now one hears only the singing of canticles and the chanting of the Our Father and Hail Mary. One sees only holy gatherings of twenty, thirty, a hundred, or more persons who, like religious, sing the praises of God at a fixed hour. There are even places where the Rosary is recited in common every day, at three times during the day. What a blessing from heaven! As there are reprobates everywhere, do not doubt that in the places where you live there will be some wicked people who will neglect to come to the chaplet, who will perhaps even mock it and do all they can, by their bad words and bad example, to prevent you from continuing this holy exercise. Hold firm. Just as these wretches are to be forever separated from God and his paradise in hell, so they must, even here on earth, in advance, separate themselves from the company of Jesus Christ and his servants.

Forty-Seventh Rose

136. Separate yourselves from the wicked, people of God, predestined souls, and to escape and save yourselves from those who are damning themselves by their impiety, irreligion, or idleness — without wasting time — recite the holy Rosary often, with faith, with humility, with confidence, and with perseverance. First, whoever seriously considers the commandment Jesus Christ gave us to pray always, the example he set, the infinite needs we have for prayer because of our darkness, our ignorance, our weakness, and the multitude of our enemies — surely such a one will not be content to recite the Rosary once a year, as the confraternity of the perpetual Rosary requires, or once a week, as the ordinary Rosary prescribes, but will recite it every day without fail, as the daily Rosary indicates, even though his only obligation is the obligation of his salvation. Oportet — it is necessary — semper orare — to pray always — et non deficere — and never to cease praying.

137. These are the eternal words of Jesus Christ, which must be believed and practiced under pain of damnation. Explain them as you please, provided you do not explain them in the fashionable way, in order to practice them only in the fashionable way. Jesus Christ has given us the true explanation in the examples he left us: Exemplum dedi vobis, ut quemadmodum ego feci, ita et vos faciatis (Jn 13:5). Erat pernoctans in oratione Dei (Lk 6:12). As if the day were not enough for him, he spent the night in prayer. He repeated often to his apostles these two words: Vigilate et orate — Watch and pray. The flesh is weak; temptation is near and continual. If you do not pray always, you will fall into it. Apparently they believed what Our Lord told them was only a counsel; they interpreted his words in the fashionable way — and that is why they fell into temptation and into sin, even while in the company of Jesus Christ.

138. If you want, dear brother, to live in the fashionable way and be damned in the fashionable way — that is, to fall from time to time into mortal sin and then go to confession, to avoid only the gross and scandalous sins while keeping the respectable ones — it is not necessary for you to say so many prayers or so many Rosaries. A little prayer morning and evening, a few chaplets given as penance, a few decades of Hail Marys on a rosary said carelessly when the fancy strikes you — that is all that is needed to live as a "respectable person." If you did less, you would approach libertinism; if you do more, you approach eccentricity and bigotry.

139. But if, as a true Christian who truly wants to be saved and walk in the footsteps of the saints, you wish never to fall into mortal sin at all, to break all the snares and extinguish all the fiery darts of the devil, you must always pray, as Jesus Christ taught and commanded. And so you must at the very least say your Rosary every day, or some equivalent prayers. I say "at the very least," for the most you can do with your daily Rosary is to avoid all mortal sin and conquer all temptations, in the midst of the torrents of iniquity in the world that often sweep away even the most assured; in the midst of the thick darkness that often blinds even the most enlightened; in the midst of the evil spirits who, being more experienced than ever and having less time to tempt, tempt with more subtlety and more success. What a marvel of the grace of the holy Rosary, if you escape the world, the devil, the flesh, and sin, and save yourself in heaven!

140. If you will not believe what I say, believe your own experience. I ask you: when you said only the few prayers that fashionable people say, and in the manner they usually say them, could you keep from committing serious faults and grievous sins, which seemed light to you only because of your blindness? Open your eyes then, and to live and die a saint, without mortal sin — at least without mortal sin — pray always. Recite your Rosary every day, as all the members used to do in the early days of the confraternity (see at the end of this book the proof of what I say). The Blessed Virgin, giving it to St. Dominic, commanded him to say it and have it said every day; and the saint admitted no one into the confraternity who was not resolved to say it every day. If now the ordinary Rosary confraternity requires only the recitation of one Rosary per week, it is because fervor has grown cold and charity has cooled. One draws what one can from a poor prior. Non fuit ab initio sic. Three things should be noted here.

141. The first is that if you wish to enroll in the confraternity of the daily Rosary and share in the prayers and merits of its members, it is not enough to be enrolled in the confraternity of the ordinary Rosary, or merely to resolve to say your Rosary every day. You must also give your name to those who have the authority to enroll you. It is good to go to confession and receive communion for this intention. The reason is that the ordinary Rosary does not include the daily Rosary, but the daily Rosary includes the ordinary Rosary. The second thing to note is that, strictly speaking, there is no sin whatever, not even venial, in failing to recite the daily Rosary, or the weekly, or the yearly Rosary. The third is that when illness, legitimate obedience, necessity, or involuntary forgetfulness prevents you from reciting your Rosary, you still have its merit and do not lose your share in the Rosaries of the other members. Thus it is not strictly necessary that on the following day you recite two Rosaries to make up for the one you missed through no fault of your own, as I assume. If, however, illness only prevents you from reciting a part of your Rosary, you should recite that part. Beati qui stant coram te semper. Beati qui habitant in domo tua, Domine, in saecula saeculorum laudabunt te. Blessed, Lord Jesus, are the members of the daily Rosary who, every day, stand around and within your little house of Nazareth, around your Cross on Calvary, and around your throne in heaven, to meditate and contemplate your Joyful, Sorrowful, and Glorious Mysteries. How happy they are on earth, through the special graces you communicate to them, and how blessed they will be in heaven, where they will praise you in a special way for ever and ever!

142. Second, the Rosary must be recited with faith, according to the words of Jesus Christ: Credite quia accipietis et fiet vobis — Believe that you will receive from God what you ask of him, and he will hear you. He will say to you: Sicut credidisti, fiat tibi — Let it be done to you as you have believed. Si quis indiget sapientiam, postulet a Deo; postulet autem in fide nihil haesitans (Jas 1:6) — If anyone needs wisdom, let him ask it of God with faith, without hesitating, while reciting his Rosary, and it will be given him.

143. Third, we must pray with humility, like the publican. He knelt on the ground, not with one knee in the air or resting on a bench like the proud people of the world. He was at the back of the church and not in the sanctuary like the Pharisee. His eyes were cast down, not daring to look toward heaven, and not with head held high, looking this way and that, like the Pharisee. He struck his breast, confessing himself a sinner and asking for mercy: Propitius esto mihi peccatori (Lk 18:13) — and not like the Pharisee, who despised others in his prayers. Beware of the proud prayer of the Pharisee, which made him more hardened and more accursed; but imitate the humility of the publican in his prayer, which obtained for him the remission of his sins. Take great care not to pursue the extraordinary, or to ask or even desire extraordinary knowledge, visions, revelations, or other miraculous graces that God has sometimes communicated to certain saints in the recitation of their chaplet or Rosary. Sola fides sufficit — pure faith alone suffices now that the Gospel and all devotions and practices of piety are sufficiently established. Never omit the least part of your Rosary in your times of dryness, distaste, and interior abandonment; this would be a mark of pride and unfaithfulness. Rather, like a brave champion of Jesus and Mary, without seeing, feeling, or tasting anything, say your Our Father and Hail Mary quite dryly, while looking as best you can at the mysteries. Do not desire the candy and sweets of children for eating your daily bread; but to imitate Jesus Christ more perfectly in his agony, sometimes prolong your Rosary when you find it hardest to say: Factus in agonia prolixius orabat (Lk 22:43) — so that what is said of Jesus Christ while he was in his agony of prayer may be said of you: He prayed all the longer.

144. Fourth, pray with great confidence, which is founded on the infinite goodness and generosity of God and on the promises of Jesus Christ. God is a spring of living water flowing unceasingly into the hearts of those who pray. Jesus Christ is the breast of the Eternal Father, wholly filled with the milk of grace and truth. The greatest desire the Eternal Father has for us is to communicate to us the saving waters of his grace and mercy. He cries: Omnes sitientes venite ad aquas (Is 55) — Come and drink of my waters through prayer. And when he is not prayed to, he complains that he is being abandoned: Me dereliquerunt fontem aquae vivae (Jer 2:13). To ask Jesus Christ for his graces is to give him pleasure — even greater pleasure than one would give a nursing mother whose breasts are full by drawing from her milk. Prayer is the channel of God's grace and the nipple of the breasts of Jesus Christ. If one does not draw from them by prayer, as all children of God should, he lovingly complains: Usque modo non petistis quidquam; petite et accipietis, quaerite et invenietis, pulsate et aperietur vobis (Mt 7:7). Until now you have asked me nothing. Ask and I will give you; seek in me and you will find; knock at my door and I will open it to you. Moreover, to give us even greater confidence in praying to him, he has pledged his word: that the Eternal Father will grant us all that we ask in his name.

Forty-Eighth Rose

145. But to our confidence let us join, in the fifth place, perseverance in prayer. Only those who persevere in asking, seeking, and knocking will receive, find, and enter. It is not enough to ask some graces of God for a month, a year, ten years, twenty years; we must not grow weary — et non deficere. We must ask until death and be resolved either to obtain what we ask for our salvation or to die. Indeed, we must join death itself with perseverance in prayer and confidence in God, and say: Etiam si occiderit me, sperabo in eum — Even if he should slay me, I will hope in him and from him for what I ask.

146. The generosity of the great and rich of this world appears in their anticipating with their favors those who need them, even before they ask. But God, on the contrary, shows his magnificence by making us search and ask long for the graces he wishes to grant; and the more precious the grace he intends to give, the longer he delays in granting it: first, to increase it still further; second, so that the person who receives it may esteem it greatly; third, so that the one who receives it may take care not to lose it, for we do not value highly what we obtain in a moment and at little cost. Persevere then, my dear brother of the Rosary, in asking God through the holy Rosary for all your spiritual and bodily needs, and especially for divine Wisdom, which is an infinite treasure: Thesaurus est infinitus (Wis 7:14). You will obtain it sooner or later, infallibly, provided you do not give up and do not lose heart in the middle of your course. Grandis enim tibi restat via (1 Kgs 19). For you still have a long road to travel, many storms to weather, many difficulties to overcome, and many enemies to defeat, before you have amassed enough of the treasures of eternity — enough Our Fathers and Hail Marys — to buy paradise and win the beautiful crown that awaits a faithful member of the Rosary. Nemo accipiat coronam tuam — Take care that another, more faithful than you in saying his Rosary every day, does not snatch it from you. Coronam tuam — it was yours; God had prepared it for you; it was yours, you had already half won it by your Rosaries well said. And because you stopped in the middle of so fair a course where you were running so well — currebatis bene (Gal 5:7) — another, who outstripped you, arrived there first; another, more diligent and more faithful, has earned and paid, through his Rosaries and good works, what was necessary to obtain that crown. Quid vos impedivit? (Gal 5:7) — Who prevented you from having the crown of the holy Rosary? Alas! the enemies of the holy Rosary, who are so numerous.

147. Believe me, only the violent carry it off by force: Violenti rapiunt (Mt 11:12). These crowns are not for the timid who fear the mockery and threats of the world. These crowns are not for the slothful and lazy, who say their Rosary only with negligence, or in haste, or perfunctorily, or at intervals, according to their whim. These crowns are not for the cowardly who lose heart and lay down their arms when they see all hell unleashed against their Rosary. If you wish, dear brother of the Rosary, to undertake to serve Jesus and Mary by reciting the Rosary every day, prepare your soul for temptation: Accedens ad servitutem Dei, praepara animam tuam ad tentationem (Sir 2:1). Heretics, libertines, respectable worldly people, half-devout persons and false prophets, in league with your corrupt nature and all of hell, will wage terrible battles against you to make you give up this practice.

148. To fortify you against the attacks — not so much of the declared heretics and libertines as of the "respectable" worldly people and even devout persons who do not favor this practice — I want to report here simply a small part of what they think and say every day. "What does this great babbler of chaplets and Rosaries want? What is he always muttering? What sloth! He does nothing but tell his beads. He would do much better to work, instead of wasting his time on such bigotry. Really, yes! All you have to do is say your Rosary and roast larks will fall from the sky. The Rosary will surely bring us dinner! God helps those who help themselves. Why get tangled up in so many prayers? Brevis oratio penetrat coelos; a single Our Father and Hail Mary well said are enough. God has not commanded us to say the chaplet or the Rosary. It is good, to be sure; but one will be no less saved for not saying it. How many saints never said it! Some people judge everybody by their own standard; some indiscreet people push everything to extremes; some scrupulous people put sin where there is none — they say that all those who do not say their Rosary will be damned. Saying the chaplet — that is good for ignorant women who cannot read. Saying the Rosary — is it not better to say the Little Office of the Blessed Virgin or the seven psalms? Is there anything finer than these psalms dictated by the Holy Spirit? You intend to say your Rosary every day; it is a flash in the pan — it will not last long. Is it not better to take on less and be more faithful? Come, my dear friend, believe me: say your morning and evening prayers well and work for God during the day; God asks nothing more of you. If you did not have your living to earn, well and good, you might commit yourself to saying your Rosary. You can say it on Sundays and feast days at your leisure, but not on working days; you have to work. What! Carrying about such a great big rosary, like an old woman! I have seen them with just ten beads — that does as well as one with a hundred and fifty. What! Wearing a rosary on your belt — what bigotry! I advise you to put it round your neck, as the Spaniards do. They are great sayers of rosaries — they carry a big rosary in one hand while holding a dagger in the other, to stab treacherously. Away with these outward devotions; true devotion is in the heart," etc.

149. Many clever people, great scholars, but proud and self-important minds, will hardly recommend the holy Rosary to you. They will sooner urge you to say the seven penitential psalms or some other prayers instead. If a good confessor has given you a Rosary to say as your penance for a fortnight or a month, you need only go to confession to one of these gentlemen and your penance will be changed to some other prayers, fasts, Masses, or alms. If you even consult certain persons of prayer in the world, since they do not know from their own experience the excellence of the Rosary, not only will they not recommend it to anyone, but they will turn others away from it to lead them to contemplation — as though the Rosary and contemplation were incompatible, as though so many saints who were devoted to the Rosary had not attained the most sublime contemplation. Your own domestic enemies will attack you all the more cruelly because they are so closely united to you. I mean the powers of your soul and the senses of your body — the distractions of the mind, the weariness of the will, the dryness of the heart, the exhaustion and illnesses of the body. All of these, in league with the evil spirits who will join in, will cry out to you: "Give up your Rosary — it is what gives you your headache! Give up your Rosary — there is no obligation under pain of sin. Say only a part of it at most. Your troubles are a sign that God does not want you to say it. You will say it tomorrow, when you are in a better state," etc.

150. In short, dear brother, the daily Rosary has so many enemies that I regard it as one of the most signal favors of God that one persevere in it until death. Persevere in it, and you will receive the admirable crown prepared for your faithfulness in heaven: Esto fidelis usque ad mortem, et dabo tibi coronam (Rev 2:10).

Forty-Ninth Rose

151. In order to gain the indulgences granted to the members of the holy Rosary while reciting your Rosary, some remarks about indulgences are in order. An indulgence in general is a remission or relaxation of the temporal punishments due for actual sins, by the application of the superabundant satisfactions of Jesus Christ, the Blessed Virgin, and all the saints, which are contained in the treasures of the Church. A plenary indulgence is a remission of all the punishment due for sin; a partial indulgence — of one hundred, one thousand years, more or less — is the remission of as much punishment as one could have expiated in a hundred or a thousand years, had one been performing, for that length of time, the penances prescribed by the ancient canons of the Church. These canons prescribed for a single mortal sin seven, and sometimes ten or fifteen, years of penance; so that a person who had committed twenty mortal sins would owe at least seven times twenty years of penance, and so on.

152. In order for the members of the Rosary to gain its indulgences, it is required: first, that they be truly penitent, and that they have gone to confession and received communion, as the bulls of indulgences state; second, that they have no attachment to any venial sin, because as long as the attachment to sin remains, the guilt remains, and as long as the guilt remains, the punishment is not remitted; third, they must perform the prayers and other good works indicated in the bull. And if, according to the intention of the popes, one can gain a partial indulgence — for example, of a hundred years — without gaining the plenary one, it is not always necessary, in order to gain them, to have been to confession and communion, as is the case with the indulgences attached to the recitation of the chaplet and the Rosary, to the processions, to blessed rosaries, etc. Do not neglect these indulgences.

153. Flammin and a great number of authors relate that a young lady of good family named Alexandra, who had been miraculously converted and enrolled in the confraternity of the Rosary by St. Dominic, appeared to him after her death and told him she was condemned to seven hundred years in purgatory for several sins she had committed and caused others to commit through her worldly vanities. She begged him to relieve her and have the members of the confraternity pray for her, which he did. Fifteen days later she appeared to St. Dominic, more radiant than the sun, having been delivered so promptly by the prayers the members of the Rosary had offered for her. She also informed the saint that she had come from the souls in purgatory to urge him to continue preaching the Rosary and to see to it that their relatives share with them the merits of their Rosaries, for which they would abundantly repay them when they attained glory.

154. To make the exercise of the holy Rosary easier for you, here are several methods for reciting it in a holy manner, with the meditation on the Joyful, Sorrowful, and Glorious Mysteries of Jesus and Mary. You may choose the one most to your liking; you may also form a particular method of your own, as several holy persons have done.