MY DEAR FRIENDS IN CHRIST, THE ROSARY MEANS MORE TO ME THAN MY DEGREES

By St Louis de Montfort

“A Spanish Countess, who had been taught the Holy Rosary by Saint Dominic, used to say it faithfully every day with the result that she was making wonderful strides in her spiritual life. Since her one and only thought was how she might attain to perfection she asked a Bishop who was a renowned preacher for some practices that would help her to become perfect.

The Bishop told her that, before he could give her any counsels, she would have to let him know the state of her soul and also what her religious exercises were. She answered that her most important exercise was the Holy Rosary which she said every day meditating on the Joyous, Sorrowful and Glorious Mysteries [of the life of Jesus Christ in the Gospels], and that her soul was greatly helped by so doing.

The Bishop was overjoyed to hear her explain what priceless lessons the mysteries contain. ‘I have been a doctor of theology for twenty years,’ he exclaimed ‘and I have read many excellent books on various devotional practices. But never before have I come across one better than this – for it is of the essence of Christianity and it is a devotion which cannot but bear fruit. I shall follow your example, and from now on I shall preach the Rosary.’

The Bishop’s preaching met with great success, for in almost no time his diocese changed for the better. There was a notable decline in immorality and worldliness of all kinds as well as in gambling. There were several striking instances of people being brought back to the Faith, or sinners making restitution for their crimes and of others sincerely resolving to give up lives of vice. Religious fervour and Christian charity began to flourish. These changes were all the more remarkable because this Bishop had been striving to reform his diocese for some time but with hardly any results.

To better inculcate devotion of the Rosary, the Bishop also wore a beautiful rosary at his side and always showed it to the congregation when he preached. He used to say: ‘My dear brethren in Jesus Christ, I am a Doctor of Theology and a Doctor of Canon as well as Civil law, but I say to you, as your Bishop, that I take more pride in wearing Our Lady’s Rosary than any of my episcopal regalia or academic robes.’”

 

WHAT A MIGHTY FORCE OF LOVE KINDLED MARY MAGDALENE’S HEART!

HOMILY OF ST GREGORY, POPE, ON JOHN 20:11-18

Mary Magdalene, who had been a sinner in the city, washed away with her tears the stains of her misdeeds, because she loved the truth; and the word of Truth was fulfilled which he spoke: “Many sins are forgiven her because she has loved much.”

For she who first had remained cold through sin, afterwards burned with the intensity of her love. For when she came to the sepulchre, and found that the Lord’s body was not there, she believed that it had been taken away, and told the disciples. They coming, saw and believed it to be as the woman had said. And concerning them it goes on to say: “The disciples, therefore, departed to their home”; and then is added: “But Mary was standing outside, weeping at the tomb.”

“BUT MARY WAS STANDING OUTSIDE, WEEPING AT THE TOMB”

And here we should consider, what a mighty force of love it was that kindled this woman’s heart, so that even when the disciples had left the Lord’s sepulchre, she did not leave it. She kept on seeking him whom she had not found: seeking, she wept and, consumed with the fire of her love, she burned with the desire of him who, she believed, had been taken away.

And so it came to pass, that she, alone, who had remained to seek him, saw him, for indeed the virtue of a good work is perseverance; and the voice of Truth has said: “But he who shall persevere to the end shall be saved.”

Mary, therefore, when she wept, stooped down and looked into the sepulchre. Surely, she had already seen that the sepulchre was empty when she had announced that the Lord had already been taken away; why then does she again stoop down, and again desire to see? But, for one who loves, it is not enough to have looked once: because the strength of the love increases the will to seek. Therefore, she sought at first, and found not; she persevered in seeking, and at length succeeded in finding. And it happened that prolonged desires grew greater, and in growing, grasped what they had found.

– St Gregory, Pope, Homily 25 on the Gospels; An Approved English Translation of the Breviarium Romanum, Burns & Oates, London, 1964

 

HERE’S THE ANTIDOTE TO WORRY:

“You are worried? You see some threatening event or experience looming in your future and are torn with anxiety as to the possible consequences. Or you find yourself in a situation in which you feel hopelessly trapped, with no way out?

ARE YOU FEELING TRAPPED?

Those of us who have to answer, ‘Yes’ to such questions, convict ourselves of having failed to make life’s most important decision – the choice of God over all that is not God.

If God were capable of impatience, He surely would be in a state of perpetual annoyance at us worriers. He has presented us with a formula for confident living that is plain, simple and infallible. God rightly could expect us to adopt His formula eagerly. But we do not.

A FORMULA FOR CONFIDENT LIVING

To commit ourselves completely and irrevocably to God is what we are made for. A life built upon any other basis is an unnatural life, foredoomed to uncertainty and worry.

Once we have said unreservedly, ‘I am all Yours, God. Take me, work Your will in me, do what You want with me,’ all the bits and pieces of life, even the disasters, fall into place and begin to make sense. If I am confident that I am in God’s hands, that He is acting freely in me without hindrance on my part, how can I be uneasy? What God wants for me has to be best for me. If that is not so, then there is no God.

WHAT IF I MAKE THE WRONG DECISIONS, THOUGH?

‘But,’ we may object, ‘I already have given myself to God. I already have consented in advance to whatever God may want to do in me and with me. The trouble is that I still have to make my own decisions – and so often my decisions seem to be the wrong ones.’

ARE WE NOT DECEIVING OURSELVES?

First of all, let us be very sure that we are not deceiving ourselves. We may think that we have made a complete commitment of ourselves to God when actually we are offering Him a divided heart. We do not specifically relegate God to second place as we would do by sin. But we make God share first place with some lesser goal, such as money or success or status or pleasure or some other form of self-advancement.

The most common way of performing this spiritual balancing act between God and non-God, is to convince ourselves that what we want is also what God wants. We do not deliberately reject God’s will. Instead we evade making a thoroughly honest examination of our motives and a realistic application of God’s standard to our contemplated conduct. We ‘hurry by’ God, so to speak, pretending not to see His questioning frown.

LET’S ASSUME WE ARE NOT FOOLING OURSELVES…

However, assuming that we are not fooling ourselves when we say, ‘I want what God wants,’ let us examine this problem of having to make our own decisions.

First of all we must remember that growth in grace is an organic growth by progressive stages. Even with the best of intentions, our responsiveness to God’s will may be initially a sluggish response. With practice, with perseverance, with unrevoked willingness, we gain greater facility in detecting and doing God’s will.

WE ARE LEFT WITH A VERY NARROW MARGIN OF SELF-DETERMINATION

Another consideration is the fact that, once we have thrown ourselves wide open to God, ‘my own decision’ is likely to be much less my own decision than I think. God will honour my free will, but His wisdom will be at work in me. If I could view my own thought processes as I waver between alternatives, I might be startled to see what a narrow margin of self-determination God leaves to me.

TO A PERSON WHO REALLY SEEKS TO MAKE GOD’S WILL SUPREME IN HIS LIFE, THERE CAN BE NO SUCH THING AS A ‘WRONG’ DECISION.

To a person who really seeks to make God’s will supreme in his life, there can be no such thing as a ‘wrong’ decision. When we have done our honest and unselfish best to fix upon the preferable course of action, then our choice is the right choice, no matter how unfortunate the immediate consequences may seem to be. Over the long haul, what now seems to have been an error will flower into a blessing.

‘I know all this,’ you may say, ‘and I do try to do God’s will, but I still worry. And I am ashamed that I do not have more trust in God.’

There is no need to feel ashamed… God sees your singleness of purpose beneath your distress. His love still enfolds you.”
– Fr Leo J. Trese, 1966

 

CONSECRATION TO THE PRECIOUS BLOOD OF JESUS CHRIST

Conscious, merciful Saviour, of my nothingness and of thy sublimity, I cast myself at thy feet and thank thee for the many proofs of thy grace shown to me, thy ungrateful creature. I thank thee especially for delivering me by thy Precious Blood from the destructive power of Satan. In the presence of my dear Mother Mary, my Guardian Angel, my Patron Saint and the whole Company of Heaven, I dedicate myself voluntarily with a sincere heart, O dearest Jesus, to thy Precious Blood, by which thou hast redeemed the world from sin, death and hell. I promise thee with the help of thy grace and to the utmost of my strength to stir up and foster devotion to thy Precious Blood, the Price of our Redemption, so that thy adorable Blood may be honoured and glorified by all. In this way, I wish to make reparation for my disloyalty towards thy Precious Blood of love, and to make satisfaction to thee for the many profanations which men commit against that Precious Price of their salvation.

O would that my own sins, my coldness, and all the acts of disrespect I have ever committed against thee, O holy, Precious Blood, could be undone. Behold, O dearest Jesus, I offer to thee the love, honour and adoration which thy most holy Mother, thy faithful Disciples and all Saints have offered to thy Precious Blood, I ask thee to forget my earlier faithlessness and coldness, and to forgive all who offend thee. Sprinkle me, O divine Saviour, and all men with thy Precious Blood, so that we, O Crucified Love, may love thee from now on with all our hearts, and worthily honour the Price of our salvation. Amen.