Mystical Rose Bush

5. You will not take it amiss, devout and enlightened souls, if I offer you a little rose bush come down from heaven, to be planted in the garden of your soul; it will not harm the fragrant flowers of your contemplations. It is most fragrant and wholly divine; it will spoil nothing in the order of your garden; it is most pure and well-ordered; it leads all things to order and purity. It grows to such a prodigious height and attains such a vast extent, if it is watered and cultivated as it should be every day, that not only will it not hinder your other devotions, but it will even preserve and perfect them all. You who are spiritual understand me well! This rose bush is Jesus and Mary in life, in death, and in eternity.

6. The green leaves of this mystical rose bush represent the Joyful Mysteries of Jesus and Mary; the thorns, the Sorrowful; and the flowers, the Glorious. The rosebuds are the infancy of Jesus and Mary; the open roses represent Jesus and Mary in their sufferings; and the full-blown roses show Jesus and Mary in their glory and triumph. The rose delights by its beauty: there you have Jesus and Mary in the Joyful Mysteries. It pricks by its thorns: there they are in the Sorrowful Mysteries. And it rejoices by the sweetness of its fragrance: there at last they are in the Glorious Mysteries. Do not despise, then, my happy and divine plant; plant it yourselves in your soul by resolving to say your Rosary. Cultivate it and water it by saying it faithfully every day and performing good works, and you will see that this seed, which now seems so small, will in time become a great tree in which the birds of heaven — that is, predestined souls raised to contemplation — will make their nest and dwelling, so as to be sheltered beneath the shade of its leaves from the heat of the sun, to be preserved by its height from the wild beasts of the earth, and at last to be delicately nourished by its fruit, which is none other than the adorable Jesus, to whom be honor and glory for ever and ever. Amen. So be it. God alone.