SECOND DECADE

The surpassing merit of the Rosary as seen in the prayers which compose it.

Eleventh Rose                                      [The Creed]

34   The Creed or the Symbol of the Apostles, which is said on
the crucifix of the rosary, is a holy summary of all the
Christian truths. It is a prayer that has great merit, because
faith is the root, foundation and beginning of all Christian
virtues, of all eternal virtues, and of all prayers that are
pleasing to God. "Anyone who comes to God must believe," and the
greater his faith the more merit his prayer will have, the more
powerful it will be, and the more it will glorify God.
    I shall not take time here to explain the Creed word for
word, but I cannot resist saying that the first words, "I believe
in God," are wonderfully effective as a means of sanctifying our
souls and putting the devils to rout, because these words contain
the acts of the three theological virtues of faith, hope and
charity.
    It was by saying these words that many saints overcame
temptations, especially those against faith, hope or charity,
either during their lifetime or at the hour of their death. They
were also the last words of St. Peter, Martyr. A heretic had
cleft his head in two by a blow of his sword, and although St.
Peter was at his last gasp, he managed to trace these words in
the sand with his finger.

35   The holy Rosary contains many mysteries of Jesus and
Mary, and since faith is the only key which opens up these
mysteries for us, we must begin the Rosary by saying the Creed
very devoutly, and the stronger our faith the more merit our
Rosary will have.
    This faith must be lively and informed by charity; in other
words, to recite the Rosary properly it is necessary to be in
God's grace, or at least seeking it. This faith must be strong
and constant, that is, one must not be looking for sensible
devotion and spiritual consolation in the recitation of the
Rosary; nor should one give it up because the mind is flooded
with countless involuntary distractions, or because one
experiences a strange distaste in the soul or an almost continual
and oppressive fatigue of the body. Neither feelings, nor
consolation, nor sighs, nor transports, nor the continual
attention of the imagination are needed; faith and good
intentions are quite enough. Sola fides sufficit.

Twelfth Rose                                  [The Our Father]

36   The Our Father or the Lord's Prayer derives its great value
above all from its author, who is neither a man nor an angel, but
the King of angels and of men, our Lord Jesus Christ. St. Cyprian
says it was necessary that he who came to give us the life of
grace as our Saviour should teach us the way to pray as our
heavenly Master.
    The beautiful order, the tender forcefulness and the clarity
of this divine prayer pay tribute to our divine Master's wisdom.
It is a short prayer but can teach us so very much, and it is
well within the grasp of uneducated people, while scholars find
it a continual source of investigation into the mysteries of God.
    The Our Father contains all the duties we owe to God, the
acts of all the virtues and the petitions for all our spiritual
and corporal needs. Tertullian says that the Our Father is a
summary of the New Testament. Thomas a Kempis says that it
surpasses all the desires of all the saints; that it is a
condensation of all the beautiful sayings of all the psalms and
canticles; that in it we ask God for everything that we need,
that by it we praise him in the very best way; that by it we lift
up our souls from earth to heaven and unite them closely to God.

37   St. John Chrysostom says that we cannot be our Master's
disciples unless we pray as he did and in the way that he showed
us. Moreover, God the Father listens more willingly to the prayer
that we have learned from his Son rather than those of our own
making, which have all our human limitations.
    We should say the Our Father with the certitude that the
eternal Father will hear us because it is the prayer of his Son,
whom he always hears, and because we are his members. God will
surely grant our petitions made through the Lord's Prayer because
it is impossible to imagine that such a good Father could refuse
a request couched in the language of so worthy a Son, reinforced
by his merits, and made at his behest.
    St. Augustine assures us that whenever we say the Our Father
devoutly our venial sins are forgiven. The just man falls seven
times, and in the Lord's Prayer he will find seven petitions
which will both help him to avoid lapses and protect him from his
spiritual enemies. Our Lord, knowing how weak and helpless we
are, and how many difficulties we endure, made his prayer short
and easy to say, so that if we say it devoutly and often, we can
be sure that God will quickly come to our aid.

38   I have a word for you, devout souls who pay little attention
to the prayer that the Son of God gave us himself and asked us
all to say: It is high time for you to change your way of
thinking. You only esteem prayers that men have written, as
though anybody, even the most inspired man in the whole world,
could possibly know more about how we ought to pray than Jesus
Christ himself! You look for prayers in books written by other
men almost as though you were ashamed of saying the prayer that
our Lord told us to say.
    You have managed to convince yourself that the prayers in
those books are for scholars and for the rich, and that the
Rosary is only for women and children and the poor people. As if
the prayers and praises you have been reading were more beautiful
and more pleasing to God than those which are to be found in the
Lord's Prayer! It is a very dangerous temptation to lose interest
in the prayer that our Lord gave us and to take up prayers that
men have written instead.
    Not that I disapprove of prayers that saints have written
to encourage the faithful to praise God, but it is not to be
endured that they should prefer these to the prayer which was
uttered by Wisdom incarnate. If they ignore this prayer, it is
as though they passed by the spring to go to the brook, and
refusing the clear water, they drink instead that which is dirty.
For the Rosary, made up of the Lord's Prayer and the Hail Mary,
is this clear and ever-flowing water which comes from the
fountain of grace, whereas other prayers which they look for in
books are nothing but tiny streams which spring from this
fountain.

39   People who say the Lord's Prayer carefully, weighing every
word and meditating on them, may indeed call themselves blessed,
for they find therein everything that they need or can wish for.
    When we say this wonderful prayer, we touch God's heart at
the very outset by calling him by that sweet name of Father.
    "Our Father," he is the dearest of fathers: all-powerful in
his creation, wonderful in the way he maintains the world,
completely lovable in his divine Providence, all good and
infinitely so in the Redemption. We have God for our Father, so
we are all brothers, and heaven is our homeland and our heritage.
This should be more than enough to teach us to love God and our
neighbour, and to be detached from the things of this world.
    So we ought to love our heavenly Father and say to him over
and over again: "Our Father who art in heaven" -
    Thou who dost fill heaven and earth
    with the immensity of thy being,
    Thou who art present everywhere:
    Thou who art in the saints by thy glory,
    in the damned by thy justice,
    in the good by thy grace,
    in sinners by the patience
    with which thou dost tolerate them,
    grant that we may always remember
    that we come from thee;
    grant that we may live as thy true children;
    that we may direct our course towards thee alone
    with all the ardour of our soul.
    "Hallowed by thy name." The name of the Lord is holy and to
be feared, said the prophet-king David, and heaven, according to
Isaiah, echoes with the praises of the seraphim who unceasingly
praise the holiness of the Lord, God of hosts.
    We ask here that all the world may learn to know and adore
the attributes of our God, who is so great and so holy. We ask
that he may be known, loved and adored by pagans, Turks, Jews,
barbarians and all infidels; that all men may serve and glorify
him by a living faith, a staunch hope, a burning charity, and by
the renouncing of all erroneous beliefs. In short, we pray that
all men may be holy because our God himself is holy.
    "Thy kingdom come." That is to say: May you reign in our
souls by your grace, during life, so that after death we may be
found worthy to reign with thee in thy kingdom, in perfect and
unending bliss; that we firmly believe in this happiness to come;
we hope for it and we expect it, because God the Father has
promised it in his great goodness, and because it was purchased
for us by the merits of God the Son; and it has been made known
to us by the light of the Holy Spirit.
    "Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven." As
Tertullian says, this sentence does not mean in the least that
we are afraid of people thwarting God's designs, because nothing
whatsoever can happen without divine Providence having foreseen
it and having made it fit into his plans beforehand. No
obstruction in the whole world can possibly prevent the will of
God from being carried out.
    Rather, when we say these words, we ask God to make us
humbly resigned to all that he has seen fit to send us in this
life. We also ask him to help us to do, in all things and at all
times, his holy will, made known to us by the commandments,
promptly, lovingly and faithfully, as the angels and the blessed
do in heaven.

40   "Give us this day our daily bread." Our Lord teaches us to
ask God for everything that we need, whether in the spiritual or
the temporal order. By asking for our daily bread, we humbly
admit our own poverty and insufficiency, and pay tribute to our
God, knowing that all temporal goods come from his Providence.
When we say bread we ask for that which is necessary to live;
and, of course that does not include luxuries.
    We ask for this bread today, which means that we are
concerned only for the present, leaving the morrow in the hands
of Providence.
    And when we ask for our daily bread, we recognize that we
need God's help every day and that we are entirely dependent upon
him for his help and protection.
    "Forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass
against us." Every sin, says St. Augustine and Tertullian, is a
debt which we contract with God, and he in his justice requires
payment down to the last farthing. Unfortunately we all have
these sad debts.
    No matter how many they may be, we should go to God with all
confidence and with true sorrow for our sins, saying, "Our Father
who art in heaven, forgive us our sins of thought and those of
speech, forgive us our sins of commission and of omission which
make us infinitely guilty in the eyes of thy justice.
    "We dare to ask this because thou art our loving and
merciful Father, and because we have forgiven those who have
offended us, out of obedience to you and out of charity.
    "Do not permit us, in spite of our infidelity to thy graces,
to give in to the temptations of the world, the devil, and the
flesh.
    "But deliver us from evil." The evil of sin, from the evil
of temporal punishment and of everlasting punishment, which we
have rightly deserved.
    "Amen." This word at the end of the Our Father is very
consoling, and St. Jerome says that it is a sort of seal of
approbation that God puts at the end of our petitions to assure
us that he will grant our requests, as though he himself were
answering:
    "Amen! May it be as you have asked, for truly you have
obtained what you asked for." That is what is meant by this word:
Amen.

Thirteenth Rose

41   Each word of the Lord's Prayer is a tribute we pay to the
perfections of God. We honour his fecundity by the name of
Father.
    Father,
    thou who throughout eternity
    dost beget a Son
    who is God like thee,
    eternal, consubstantial with thee,
    who is of the very same essence as thee;
    and is of like power
    and goodness
    and wisdom
    as thou art....
    Father and Son,
    who, from your mutual love,
    produce the Holy Spirit,
    who is God like unto you;
    three persons
    but one God.
    Our Father. This means that he is the Father of mankind,
because he has created us and continues to sustain us, and
because he has redeemed us. He is also the merciful Father of
sinners, the Father who is the friend of the just, and the
glorious Father of the blessed in heaven.
    When we say Who art, we honour by these words the infinity
and immensity and fullness of God's essence. God is rightly
called "He who is;" that is to say, he exists of necessity,
essentially, and eternally, because he is the Being of beings and
the cause of all beings. He possesses within himself, in a
supereminent degree, the perfections of all beings, and he is in
all of them by his essence, by his presence and by his power, but
without being bounded by their limitations. We honour his
sublimity and his glory and his majesty by the words Who art in
heaven, that is to say, seated as on thy throne, holding sway
over all men by thy justice.
    When we say Hallowed be thy Name, we worship God's holiness;
and we make obeisance to his kingship and bow to the justice of
his laws by the words Thy kingdom come, praying that men will
obey him on earth as the angels do in heaven.
    We show our trust in his Providence by asking for our daily
bread, and we appeal to his mercy when we ask for the forgiveness
of our sins.
    We look to his great power when we beg him not to lead us
into temptation, and we show our faith in his goodness by our
hope that he will deliver us from evil.
    The Son of God has always glorified his Father by his works,
and he came into the world to teach men to give glory to him. He
showed men how to praise him by this prayer, which he taught us
with his own lips. It is our duty, therefore, to say it often,
with attention, and in the same spirit as he composed it.

Fourteenth Rose

42   We make as many acts of the noblest Christian virtues as we
pronounce words when we recite this divine prayer attentively.
    In saying "Our Father, who art in heaven," we make acts of
faith, adoration and humility. When we ask that his name be
hallowed, we show a burning zeal for his glory. When we ask for
the spread of his kingdom, we make an act of hope; by the wish
that his will be done 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 worldly goods.
When we beg him to forgive us our sins, we make an act of sorrow
for them. By forgiving those who have trespassed against us, we
give proof of the virtue of mercy in its highest degree. Through
asking God's help in all our temptations, we make acts of
humility, prudence and fortitude. As we wait for him to deliver
us from evil, we exercise the virtue of patience.
    Finally, while asking for all these things, not only for
ourselves but also for our neighbour and for all members of the
Church, we are carrying out our duty as true children of God, we
are imitating him in his love which embraces all men and we are
keeping the commandment of love of our neighbour.

43   If we mean in our hearts what we say with our lips, and if
our intentions are not at variance with those expressed in the
Lord's Prayer, then, by reciting this prayer, we hate all sin and
we observe all of God's laws. For whenever we think that God is
in heaven, that is to say, infinitely removed from us by the
greatness of his majesty, we place ourselves in his presence
filled with overwhelming reverence. Then the fear of the Lord
will chase away all pride and we will bow down before God in
utter nothingness.
    When we pronounce the name "Father" and remember that we
owe our existence to God, by means of our parents, and even the
instruction we have received by means of our teachers, who take
the place of God and are his living images, we cannot help paying
them honour and respect, or, to be more exact, to honour God in
them. And nothing would be farther from our thoughts than to be
disrespectful to them or hurt them.
    When we pray that God's holy name be glorified, we cannot
be farther from profaning it. If we really look upon the kingdom
of God as our heritage, we cannot possibly be attached to the
things of this world.
    If we sincerely ask God that our neighbour may have the same
blessings that we ourselves stand in need of, it goes without
saying that we will give up all hatred, quarrelling and jealousy.
And if we ask God for our daily bread, we shall learn to hate
gluttony and sensual pleasures which thrive in rich surroundings.
    While sincerely asking God to forgive us as we forgive those
who trespass against us, we no longer give way to anger and
revenge, we return good for evil and we love our enemies.
    To ask God to save us from falling into sin when we are
tempted is to give proof that we are fighting laziness and that
we are genuinely seeking means to root out vicious habits and to
work out our salvation.
    To pray God to deliver us from evil is to fear his justice,
and this will give us true happiness, for the fear of God is the
beginning of wisdom. It is through the virtue of the fear of God
that men avoid sin.

Fifteenth Rose

44   The Angelic Salutation, or Hail Mary, is so heavenly and so
beyond us in its depth of meaning, that Blessed Alan de la Roche
held that no mere creature could ever understand it, and that
only our Lord Jesus Christ, born of the Virgin Mary, can really
explain it.
    Its enormous value is due, first of all, to our Lady to whom
it was addressed, to the purpose of the Incarnation of the Word,
for which reason this prayer was brought from heaven, and also
to the archangel Gabriel who was the first ever to say it.
    The Angelic Salutation is a most concise summary of all that
Catholic theology teaches about the Blessed Virgin. It is divided
into two parts, that of praise and that of petition. The first
shows all that goes to make up Mary's greatness; and the second,
all that we need to ask her for, and all that we may expect to
receive through her goodness.
    The most Blessed Trinity revealed the first part of it to
us; St. Elizabeth, inspired by the Holy Spirit, added the second;
and the Church gave us the conclusion in the year 430 when she
condemned the Nestorian heresy at the Council of Ephesus and
defined that the Blessed Virgin is truly the Mother of God. At
this time she ordered us to pray to our Lady under this glorious
title by saying, "Holy Mary, Mother of God, pray for us sinners,
now and at the hour of our death."

45   The greatest event in the whole history of the world was the
Incarnation of the eternal Word by whom the world was redeemed
and peace was restored between God and men. Our Lady was chosen
as his instrument for this tremendous event, and it was put into
effect when she was greeted with the Angelic Salutation. The
archangel Gabriel, one of the leading princes of the heavenly
court, was chosen as ambassador to bear these glad tidings.
    In the Angelic Salutation can be seen the faith and hope of
the patriarchs, the prophets and the apostles. Furthermore, it
gives to martyrs their unswerving constancy and strength, it is
the wisdom of the doctors of the Church, the perseverance of the
holy confessors and the life of all religious (Blessed Alan). It
is the new hymn of the law of grace, the joy of angels and men,
and the hymn which terrifies devils and puts them to shame.
    By the Angelic Salutation God became man, a virgin became
the Mother of God, the souls of the just were delivered from
Limbo, the empty thrones in heaven have been filled, sin has been
pardoned, grace been given to us, the sick been made well, the
dead brought back to life, exiles brought home, the Blessed
Trinity has been appeased, and men obtained eternal life.
    Finally, the Angelic Salutation is the rainbow in the sky,
a sign of the mercy and grace which God has given to the world
(Blessed Alan).

Sixteenth Rose

46   Even though there is nothing so great as the majesty of God
and nothing so low as man in so far as he is a sinner, Almighty
God does not despise our poor prayers. On the contrary, he is
pleased when we sing his praises.
    And the Angel's greeting to our Lady is one of the most
beautiful hymns which we could possibly sing to the glory of the
Most High. "To you will I sing a new song." This new hymn, which
David foretold would be sung at the coming of the Messiah, is
none other than the Angelic Salutation.
    There is an old hymn and a new hymn: the first is that which
the Jews sang out of gratitude to God for creating them and
maintaining them in existence, for delivering them from captivity
and leading them safely through the Red Sea, for giving them
manna to eat, and for all his other blessings.
    The new hymn is that which Christians sing in thanksgiving
for the graces of the Incarnation and the Redemption. As these
marvels were brought about by the Angelic Salutation, so also do
we repeat the same salutation to thank the most Blessed Trinity
for the immeasurable goodness shown to us.
    We praise God the Father because he so loved the world that
he gave us his only Son as our Saviour. We bless the Son because
he deigned to leave heaven and come down upon earth, because he
was made man and redeemed us. We glorify the Holy Spirit because
he formed our Lord's pure body in the womb of our Lady, that body
which was the victim for our sins. In this spirit of deep
thankfulness should we, then, always say the Hail Mary, making
acts of faith, hope, love and thanksgiving for the priceless gift
of salvation.

47   Although this new hymn is in praise of the Mother of God and
is sung directly to her, it is nevertheless most glorious to the
Blessed Trinity, for any honour we pay to our Lady returns
inevitably to God, the source of all her perfections and virtues.
God the Father is glorified when we honour the most perfect of
his creatures; God the Son is glorified when we praise his most
pure Mother; the Holy Spirit is glorified when we are lost in
admiration at the graces with which he has filled his spouse.
    When we praise and bless our Lady by saying the Angelic
Salutation, she always refers these praises to God in the same
way as she did when she was praised by St. Elizabeth. The latter
blessed her in her high dignity as Mother of God and our Lady
immediately returned these praises to God in her beautiful
Magnificat.

48   Just as the Angelic Salutation gave glory to the Blessed
Trinity, it is also the very highest praise that we can give to
Mary.
    One day, when St. Mechtilde was praying and was trying to
think of some way in which she could express her love of the
Blessed Virgin better than before, she fell into ecstasy. Our
Lady appeared to her with the Angelic Salutation written in
letters of gold upon her breast and said to her, "My daughter,
I want you to know that no one can please me more than by saying
the greeting which the most adorable Trinity presented to me and
by which I was raised to the dignity of the Mother of God.
    "By the word Ave, which is the name of Eve, Eva, I learned
that God in his infinite power had preserved me from all sin and
its attendant misery which the first woman had been subject to.
    "The name Mary, which means 'lady of light,' shows that God
has filled me with wisdom and light, like a shining star, to
light up heaven and earth.
    "The words, full of grace, remind me that the Holy Spirit
has showered so many graces upon me that I am able to give these
graces in abundance to those who ask for them through my
mediation.
    "When people say, The Lord is with thee, they renew the
indescribable joy that was mine when the eternal Word became
incarnate in my womb.
    "When you say to me, Blessed art thou among women, I praise
the mercy of God who has raised me to this exalted degree of
happiness.
    "And at the words, Blessed is the fruit of thy womb, Jesus,
the whole of heaven rejoices with me to see my Son Jesus adored
and glorified for having saved mankind."

Seventeenth Rose

49   Blessed Alan de la Roche, who was so deeply devoted to the
Blessed Virgin, had many revelations from her, and we know that
he confirmed the truth of these revelations by a solemn oath.
Three of them stand out with special emphasis: the first, that
if people fail to say the Hail Mary, which has saved the world,
out of carelessness, or because they are lukewarm, or because
they hate it, this is an indication that they will probably be
condemned to eternal punishment.
    The second truth is that those who love this divine
salutation bear the very special stamp of predestination.
    The third is that those to whom God has given this favour
of loving our Lady and of serving her out of love must take very
great care to continue to love and serve her until the time when
she shall have had them placed in heaven by her Son in the degree
of glory which they have earned (Blessed Alan)

50   Heretics, all of whom are children of the devil and who
clearly bear the sign of God's reprobation, have a horror of the
Hail Mary. They still say the Our Father, but never the Hail
Mary; they would rather carry a poisonous snake about them than
a rosary.
    Among Catholics, those who bear the mark of God's
reprobation think but little of the Rosary. They either neglect
to say it or only say it quickly and in a lukewarm manner.
    Even if I did not believe what was revealed to Blessed Alan
de la Roche, even then my own experience would be enough to
convince me of this terrible but consoling truth. I do not know,
nor do I see clearly, how it can be that a devotion which seems
to be so small can be the infallible sign of eternal salvation,
and how its absence can be the sign of God's eternal displeasure;
nevertheless, nothing could be more true.
    In our own day we see that people who hold new doctrines
that have been condemned by the Church, with all their would-be
piety, ignore the devotion to the Rosary and often dissuade their
acquaintances from saying it with all sorts of fine pretexts.
They are very careful not to condemn the Rosary and the Scapular,
as the Calvinists do, but the way they set about attacking them
is all the more deadly because it is the more cunning. I shall
refer to it again later on.

51   The Hail Mary, the Rosary, is the prayer and the infallible
touchstone by which I can tell those who are led by the Spirit
of God from those who are deceived by the devil. I have known
souls who seemed to soar like eagles to the heights by their
sublime contemplation and yet were pitifully led astray by the
devil. I only found out how wrong they were when I learned that
they scorned the Hail Mary and the Rosary, which they considered
as being far beneath them.
    The Hail Mary is a blessed dew that falls from heaven upon
the souls of the predestinate. It gives them a marvellous
spiritual fertility so that they can grow in all virtues. The
more the garden of the soul is watered by this prayer, the more
enlightened in mind we become, the more zealous in heart, the
stronger against all our enemies.
    The Hail Mary is a sharp and flaming shaft which, joined to
the Word of God, gives the preacher the strength to pierce, move,
and convert the most hardened hearts, even if he has little or
no natural gift for preaching.
    As I have already said, this was the great secret that our
Lady taught St. Dominic and Blessed Alan for the conversion of
heretics and sinners. Saint Antoninus tells us that that is why
many priests acquired the habit of saying a Hail Mary at the
beginning of their sermons.

Eighteenth Rose

52   This heavenly salutation draws down upon us the blessings
of Jesus and Mary in abundance, for it is an infallible truth
that Jesus and Mary reward in a marvellous way those who glorify
them. "I love those who love me. I enrich them and fill their
treasures." That is what Jesus and Mary say to us. "Those who sow
blessings will also reap blessings."
    Now if we say the Hail Mary properly, is not that a way to
love, bless and glorify Jesus and Mary? In each Hail Mary we
bless both Jesus and Mary: "Blessed art thou among women, and
blessed is the fruit of thy womb, Jesus."
    By each Hail Mary we give our Lady the same honour that God
gave her when he sent the archangel Gabriel to greet her for him.
How could anyone possibly think that Jesus and Mary, who often
do good to those who curse them, could ever curse those who bless
and honour them by the Hail Mary?
    Both Saint Bernard and Saint Bonaventure say that the Queen
of Heaven is certainly no less grateful and good than gracious
and well-mannered people of this world. Just as she excels in all
other perfections, she surpasses us all in the virtue of
gratitude; so she will never let us honour her with respect
without repaying us a hundredfold. Saint Bonaventure says that
Mary will greet us with grace if we greet her with the Hail Mary.
    Who could possibly understand the graces and blessings which
the greeting and tender regard of the Virgin Mary effect in us?
From the very first instant that Saint Elizabeth heard the
greeting given her by the Mother of God, she was filled with the
Holy Spirit and the child in her womb leaped for joy. If we make
ourselves worthy of the greeting and blessing of our Lady, we
shall certainly be filled with graces and a flood of spiritual
consolations will flow into our souls.

Nineteenth Rose

53   It is written, "Give, and it shall be given to you." To take
Blessed Alan's illustration of this: "Supposing I were to give
you a hundred and fifty diamonds every day, even if you were an
enemy of mine, would you not forgive me? Would you not treat me
as a friend and give me all the graces that you were able to
give? If you want to gain the riches of grace and of glory,
salute the Blessed Virgin, honour your good Mother."
    "He who honours his Mother (the Blessed Virgin) is as one
who lays up a treasure." Present her every day with at least
fifty Hail Marys, for each one is worth fifteen precious stones,
which are more pleasing to her than all the riches of this world
put together.
    And you can then expect great things from her generosity.
She is our Mother and our friend. She is the empress of the
universe and loves us more than all the mothers and queens of the
world have ever loved any one human being, for, as St. Augustine
says, the charity of the Blessed Virgin far surpasses the natural
love of all mankind and even of all the angels.

54   One day Saint Gertrude had a vision of our Lord counting
gold coins. She summoned the courage to ask him what he was
doing, and he answered, "I am counting the Hail Marys that you
have said; this is the money with which you purchase heaven."
    The holy and learned Jesuit, Father Suarez, was so deeply
aware of the value of the Angelic Salutation that he said he
would gladly give all his learning for the price of one Hail Mary
well said.

55   Blessed Alan de la Roche said, "Let everyone who loves you,
O most holy Mary, listen to this and drink it in:
    "Whenever I say Hail, Mary, the court of heaven rejoices and
earth is lost in wonderment; I despise the world and my heart is
filled with the love of God, when I say 'Hail, Mary.' All my
fears wilt and die and my passions are quelled, if I say 'Hail,
Mary'; devotion grows within me and sorrow for sin awakens, when
I say 'Hail, Mary.'
    "Hope is made strong in my breast and the dew of consolation
falls on my soul more and more, because I say, 'Hail, Mary.' And
my spirit rejoices and sorrow fades away, when I say 'Hail,
Mary.'
    "For the sweetness of this blessed salutation is so great
that there are no words to explain it adequately, and even when
its wonders have been sung, we still find it so full of mystery
and so profound that its depths can never be plumbed. It has but
few words but is exceeding rich in mystery; it is sweeter than
honey and more precious than gold. We should often meditate on
it in our hearts, and have it ever on our lips so as to say it
devoutly again and again."
    Blessed Alan also relates that a nun who had always had a
great devotion to the Rosary appeared after her death to one of
her sisters in religion and said to her, "If I were able to
return in my body to have the chance of saying just a single Hail
Mary, even without great fervour, I would gladly go through the
sufferings that I had during my last illness all over again, in
order to gain the merit of this prayer" It is to be noted that
she had been bedridden and suffered agonizing pains for several
years before she died.

56   Michel de Lisle, Bishop of Salubre, who was a disciple and
co-worker of Blessed Alan de la Roche in the re-establishment of
the holy Rosary, said that the Angelic Salutation is the remedy
for all ills that we suffer as long as we say it devoutly in
honour of our Lady.

Twentieth Rose              Brief explanation of the Hail Mary

57   Are you in the miserable state of sin? Then call on Mary and
say to her, "Ave," which means "I greet thee with the most profound
respect, thou who art without sin," and she will deliver you from
the evil of your sins.
    Are you groping in the darkness of ignorance and error? Go
to Mary and say to her, "Hail Mary," which means "Hail, thou who
art bathed in the light of the Sun of Justice," and she will give
you a share in her light.
    Have you strayed from the path leading to heaven? Then call
on Mary, for her name means "Star of the Sea, the Polar Star
which guides the ships of our souls during the voyage of this
life," and she will guide you to the harbour of eternal
salvation.
    Are you in sorrow? Turn to Mary, for her name means also
"Sea of Bitterness which has been filled with bitterness in this
world but which is now turned into a sea of purest joy in
heaven," and she will turn your sorrow into joy and your
affliction into consolation.
    Have you lost the state of grace? Praise and honour the
numberless graces with which God has filled the Blessed Virgin
and say to her, Thou art full of grace and filled with all the
gifts of the Holy Spirit, and she will give you some of these
graces.
    Are you alone, having lost God's protection? Pray to Mary
and say, The Lord is with thee, in a nobler and more intimate way
than he is with the saints and the just, because thou art one
with him. He is thy Son and his flesh is thy flesh; thou art
united to the Lord because of thy perfect likeness to him and by
your mutual love, for thou art his Mother. And then say to her,
"The three persons of the Godhead are with thee because thou art
the Temple of the Blessed Trinity," and she will place you once
more under the protection and care of God.
    Have you become an outcast and been accursed by God? Then
say to our Lady, "Blessed art thou above all women and above all
nations by thy purity and fertility; thou hast turned God's
maledictions into blessings for us." She will bless you.
    Do you hunger for the bread of grace and the bread of life?
Draw near to her who bore the living Bread which came down from
heaven, and say to her, "Blessed be the fruit of thy womb, whom
thou hast conceived without the slightest loss to thy virginity,
whom thou didst carry without discomfort and brought forth
without pain. Blessed be Jesus who redeemed our suffering world
when we were in the bondage of sin, who has healed the world of
its sickness, who has raised the dead to life, brought home the
banished, restored sinners to grace, and saved men from
damnation. Without doubt, your soul will be filled with the bread
of grace in this life and of eternal glory in the next. Amen."

58   Conclude your prayer with the Church and say, "Holy Mary,"
holy because of thy incomparable and eternal devotion to the
service of God, holy in thy great rank as Mother of God, who has
endowed thee with eminent holiness, in keeping with this great
dignity.
    "Mother of God, and our Mother, our Advocate and Mediatrix,
Treasurer and dispenser of God's graces, obtain for us the prompt
forgiveness of our sins and grant that we may be reconciled with
the divine majesty.
    "Pray for us sinners, thou who art always filled with
compassion for those in need, who never despise sinners or turn
them away, for without them you would never have been Mother of
the Redeemer.
    "Pray for us now, during this short life, so fraught with
sorrow and uncertainty; now, because we can be sure of nothing
except the present moment; now that we are surrounded and
attacked night and day by powerful and ruthless enemies.
    "And at the hour of our death, so terrible and full of
danger, when our strength is waning and our spirits are sinking,
and our souls and bodies are worn out with fear and pain; at the
hour of our death when the devil is working with might and main
to ensnare us and cast us into perdition; at that hour when our
lot will be decided forever and ever, heaven or hell.
    "Come to the help of your poor children, gentle Mother of
pity, Advocate and Refuge of sinners, at the hour of our death
drive far from us our bitter enemies, the devils, our accusers,
whose frightful presence fills us with dread. Light our path
through the valley of the shadow of death. Lead us to thy Son's
judgment-seat and remain at our side. Intercede for us and ask
thy Son to pardon us and receive us into the ranks of thy elect
in the realms of everlasting glory. Amen."

59   No one could help admiring the excellence of the holy
Rosary, made up as it is of these two divine parts: the Lord's
Prayer and the Angelic Salutation. How could there be any prayers
more pleasing to God and to the Blessed Virgin, or any that are
easier, more precious, or more helpful than these two prayers?
We should always have them in our hearts and on our lips to
honour the most Blessed Trinity, Jesus Christ our Saviour and his
most holy Mother.
    In addition, at the end of each decade it is good to add the
Gloria Patri, 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.