THIRD DECADE

The surpassing merit of the holy Rosary as a meditation on the life and passion of

Our Lord Jesus Christ

Twenty-first Rose The Fifteen Mysteries of the Rosary

60 A mystery is a sacred thing which is difficult to

understand. The works of our Lord Jesus Christ are all sacred and

divine because he is God and man at one and the same time. The

works of the Blessed Virgin are very holy because she is the most

perfect and the most pure of God's creatures. The works of our

Lord and of his blessed Mother can rightly be called mysteries

because they are so full of wonders, of all kinds of perfections,

and of deep and sublime truths, which the Holy Spirit reveals to

the humble and simple souls who honour these mysteries.

The works of Jesus and Mary can also be called wonderful

flowers, but their fragrance and beauty can only be appreciated

by those who approach them, who breathe in their fragrance, and

who discover their beauty by diligent and serious meditation.

61 St. Dominic divided the lives of our Lord and our Lady into

fifteen mysteries, which stand for their virtues and their most

important actions. These are fifteen pictures whose every detail

must rule and inspire our lives. They are fifteen flaming torches

to guide our steps throughout this earthly life; fifteen shining

mirrors to help us to know Jesus and Mary, to know ourselves and

to light the fire of their love in our hearts; fifteen fiery

furnaces to consume us completely in their heavenly flames.

Our Lady taught Saint Dominic this excellent method of

praying and ordered him to preach it far and wide so as to

reawaken the fervour of Christians and to revive in their hearts

a love for our Blessed Lord. She also taught it to Blessed Alan

de la Roche and said to him in a vision, "When people say 150

Hail Marys, that prayer is very helpful to them and a most

pleasing tribute to me. But they will do better still and will

please me more if they say these salutations while meditating on

the life, death, and passion of Jesus Christ, for this meditation

is the soul of this prayer." For the Rosary said without the

meditation on the sacred mysteries of our salvation would almost

be a body without a soul, excellent matter, but without the form,

which is the meditation, and which distinguishes it from other

devotions.

62 The first part of the Rosary contains five mysteries: the

first, the Annunciation of the archangel Gabriel to our Lady; the

second the Visitation of our Lady to Saint Elizabeth; the third,

the Nativity of Jesus Christ; the fourth, the Presentation of the

Child Jesus in the Temple and the purification of the Blessed

Virgin; the fifth, the Finding of Jesus in the Temple among the

doctors.

These are called the Joyful Mysteries because of the joy

which they gave to the whole universe. Our Lady and the angels

were overwhelmed with joy the moment the Son of God became

incarnate. Saint Elizabeth and St. John the Baptist were filled

with joy by the visit of Jesus and Mary. Heaven and earth

rejoiced at the birth of the Saviour. Holy Simeon felt great

consolation and was filled with joy when he took the holy child

into his arms. The doctors were lost in admiration and wonderment

at the replies which Jesus gave; and who could express the joy

of Mary and Joseph when they found Jesus after three days'

absence?

63 The second part of the Rosary is also composed of five

mysteries, which are called the Sorrowful Mysteries because they

show us our Lord weighed down with sadness, covered with wounds,

laden with insults, sufferings and torments.

The first of these mysteries is our Lord's prayer and his

Agony in the Garden of Olives; the second, his Scourging; the

third, his being Crowned with thorns; the fourth, his Carrying

of the Cross; the fifth, his Crucifixion and death on Calvary.

64 The third part of the Rosary contains five more mysteries,

which are called the Glorious Mysteries, because when we say them

we meditate on Jesus and Mary in their triumph and glory. The

first is the Resurrection of Jesus; the second, his Ascension

into heaven; the third, the Descent of the Holy Spirit upon the

apostles; the fourth, our Lady's Assumption in glory; the fifth,

her Coronation.

Such are the fifteen fragrant flowers of the mystical Rose-

tree, on which devout souls linger, like discerning bees, to

gather their nectar and make the honey of a solid devotion.

Twenty-second Rose

The Meditation of the Mysteries makes us resemble Jesus

65 The chief concern of the Christian should be to tend to

perfection. "Be faithful imitators of God, as his well-beloved

children," the great Apostle tells us. This obligation is

included in the eternal decree of our predestination, as the one

and only means prescribed by God to attain everlasting glory.

Saint Gregory of Nyssa makes a delightful comparison when

he says that we are all artists and that our souls are blank

canvasses which we have to fill in. The colours which we use are

the Christian virtues, and the original which we have to copy is

Jesus Christ, the perfect living image of God the Father. Just

as a painter who wants to do a life-like portrait places the

model before his eyes and looks at it before making each stroke,

so the Christian must always have before his eyes the life and

virtues of Jesus Christ, so as never to say, think or do anything

which is not in conformity with his model.

66 It was because our Lady wanted to help us in the great task

of working out our salvation that she ordered Saint Dominic to

teach the faithful to meditate upon the sacred mysteries of the

life of Jesus Christ. She did this, not only that they might

adore and glorify him, but chiefly that they might pattern their

lives and actions on his virtues.

Children copy their parents through watching them and

talking to them, and they learn their own language through

hearing them speak. An apprentice learns his trade through

watching his master at work; in the same way the faithful members

of the Confraternity of the Holy Rosary can become like their

divine Master if they reverently study and imitate the virtues

of Jesus which are shown in the fifteen mysteries of his life.

They can do this with the help of his grace and through the

intercession of his blessed Mother.

67 Long ago, Moses was inspired by God to command the Jewish

people never to forget the graces which had been showered upon

them. The Son of God has all the more reason to command us to

engrave the mysteries of his life, passion and glory upon our

hearts and to have them always before our eyes, since each

mystery reminds us of his goodness to us in some special way and

it is by these mysteries that he has shown us his overwhelming

love and desire for our salvation. "Oh, all you who pass by,

pause a while," he says, "and see if there has ever been any

sorrow like to the sorrow I have endured for love of you. Be

mindful of my poverty and humiliations; think of the gall and

wormwood I took for you in my bitter passion."

These words and many others which could be given here should

be more than enough to convince us that we must not only say the

Rosary with our lips in honour of Jesus and Mary, but also

meditate upon the sacred mysteries while we are saying it.

Twenty-third Rose

The Rosary is a Memorial of the Life and Death of Jesus

68 Jesus Christ, the divine spouse of our souls and our very

dear friend, wishes us to remember his goodness to us and to

prize his gifts above all else. Whenever we meditate devoutly and

lovingly upon the sacred mysteries of the Rosary, he receives an

added joy, as also do our Lady and all the saints in heaven. His

gifts are the most outstanding results of his love for us and the

richest presents he could possibly give us, and it is by virtue

of such presents that the Blessed Virgin herself and all the

saints are glorified in heaven.

One day Blessed Angela of Foligno begged our Lord to let her

know by which religious exercise she could honour him best. He

appeared to her nailed to his cross and said, "My daughter, look

at my wounds." She then realized that nothing pleases our dear

Lord more than meditating upon his sufferings. Then he showed her

the wounds on his head and revealed still other sufferings and

said to her, "I have suffered all this for your salvation. What

can you ever do to return my love for you?"

69 The holy sacrifice of the Mass gives infinite honour to the

most Blessed Trinity because it represents the passion of Jesus

Christ and because through the Mass we offer to God the merits

of our Lord's obedience, of his sufferings, and of his precious

blood. All the heavenly court also receive an added joy from the

Mass. Several doctors of the Church, including St. Thomas, tell

us that, for the same reason, all the blessed in heaven rejoice

in the communion of the faithful because the Blessed Sacrament

is a memorial of the passion and death of Jesus Christ, and that

by means of it men share in its fruits and work out their

salvation.

Now the holy Rosary, recited with the meditation on the

sacred mysteries, is a sacrifice of praise to God for the great

gift of our redemption and a holy reminder of the sufferings,

death and glory of Jesus Christ. It is therefore true that the

Rosary gives glory and added joy to our Lord, our Lady and all

the blessed, because they cannot desire anything greater, for the

sake of our eternal happiness, than to see us engaged in a

practice which is so glorious for our Lord and so salutary for

ourselves.

70 The Gospel teaches us that a sinner who is converted and who

does penance gives joy to all the angels. If the repentance and

conversion of one sinner is enough to make the angels rejoice,

how great must be the happiness and jubilation of the whole

heavenly court and what glory for our Blessed Lord himself to see

us here on earth meditating devoutly and lovingly on his

humiliations and torments and on his cruel and shameful death!

Is there anything that could touch our hearts more surely and

bring us to sincere repentance?

A Christian who does not meditate on the mysteries of the

Rosary is very ungrateful to our Lord and shows how little he

cares for all that our divine Saviour has suffered to save the

world. This attitude seems to show that he knows little or

nothing of the life of Jesus Christ, and that he has never taken

the trouble to find out what he has done and what he went through

in order to save us. A Christian of that kind ought to fear that,

not having known Jesus Christ or having put him out of his mind,

Jesus will reject him on the day of judgment with the reproach,

"I tell you solemnly, I do not know you."

Let us meditate, then, on the life and sufferings of our

Saviour by means of the holy Rosary; let us learn to know him

well and to be grateful for all his blessings, so that, on the

day of Judgment, he may number us among his children and his

friends.

Twenty-fourth Rose

Meditation on the Mysteries of the Rosary is a great means of

perfection

71 The saints made our Lord's life the principal object of

their study; they meditated on his virtues and his sufferings,

and in this way arrived at Christian perfection.

Saint Bernard began with this meditation and he always kept

it up. "At the very beginning of my conversion," he said, "I made

a bouquet of myrrh fashioned from the sorrows of my Saviour. I

placed this bouquet upon my heart, thinking of the lashes, the

thorns and the nails of his passion. I applied my whole mind to

the meditation on these mysteries every day."

This was also the practice of the holy martyrs; we admire

how they triumphed over the most cruel sufferings. Where could

this admirable constancy of the martyrs come from, says Saint

Bernard, if not from the wounds of Jesus Christ, on which they

meditated so frequently? Where was the soul of these generous

athletes when their blood gushed forth and their bodies were

wracked with cruel torments? Their soul was in the wounds of

Christ and those wounds made them invincible."

72 During her whole life, our Saviour's holy Mother was

occupied in meditating on the virtues and the sufferings of her

Son. When she heard the angels sing their hymn of joy at his

birth and saw the shepherds adore him in the stable, her heart

was filled with wonder and she meditated on all these marvels.

She compared the greatness of the Word incarnate to the way he

humbled himself in this lowly fashion; the straw of the crib, to

his throne in the heart of his Father; the might of God, to the

weakness of a child; his wisdom, to his simplicity.

Our Lady said to Saint Bridget one day, "Whenever I used to

contemplate the beauty, modesty, and wisdom of my Son, my heart

was filled with joy; and whenever I considered his hands and feet

which would be pierced with cruel nails, I wept bitterly and my

heart was rent with sorrow and pain."

73 After our Lord's Ascension, our Blessed Lady spent the rest

of her life visiting the places that had been hallowed by his

presence and by his sufferings. There, she meditated on his

boundless love and on his terrible passion.

Saint Mary Magdalene continually performed the same

religious exercises during the last thirty years of her life,

when she lived at Sainte-Baume.

Saint Jerome tells us that this was the devotion of the

faithful in the early centuries of the Church. From all the

countries of the world they came to the Holy Land to engrave more

deeply on their hearts a great love and remembrance of the

Saviour of mankind by seeing the places and things he had made

holy by his birth, his work, his sufferings, and his death.

74 All Christians have but one faith and adore one and the same

God, and hope for the same happiness in heaven; they know only

one mediator, who is Jesus Christ; all must imitate their divine

model, and in order to do this they must meditate on the

mysteries of his life, of his virtues and of his glory.

It is a great mistake to think that only priests and

religious and those who have withdrawn from the turmoil of the

world are supposed to meditate upon the truths of our faith and

the mysteries of the life of Christ. If priests and religious

have an obligation to meditate on the great truths of our holy

religion in order to live up to their vocation worthily, the same

obligation is just as much incumbent on the laity, because of the

fact that every day they meet with spiritual dangers which might

cause them to lose their souls. Therefore they should arm

themselves with the frequent meditation on the life, virtues, and

sufferings of our Blessed Lord, which are presented to us in the

fifteen mysteries of the holy Rosary.

Twenty-fifth Rose

The Riches of Holiness contained in the Prayers and Meditations

of the Rosary

75 Never will anyone be able to understand the marvellous

riches of sanctification which are contained in the prayers and

mysteries of the holy Rosary. This meditation on the mysteries

of the life and death of our Lord Jesus Christ is the source of

the most wonderful fruits for those who make use of it.

Today people want things that strike and move them, that

leave deep impressions on the soul. Now has there ever been

anything in the history of the world more moving than the

wonderful story of the life, death, and glory of our Saviour

which is contained in the holy Rosary? In the fifteen tableaux,

the principal scenes or mysteries of his life unfold before our

eyes. How could there be any prayers more wonderful and sublime

than the Lord's Prayer and the Ave of the angel? All our desires

and all our needs are found expressed in these two prayers.

76 The meditation on the mysteries and prayers of the Rosary

is the easiest of all prayers, because the diversity of the

virtues of our Lord and the different situations of his life

which we study, refresh and fortify our mind in a wonderful way

and help us to avoid distractions. For the learned, these

mysteries are the source of the most profound doctrine, while

simple people find in them a means of instruction well within

their reach.

We need to learn this easy form of meditation before

progressing to the highest state of contemplation. That is the

view of Saint Thomas Aquinas, and the advice that he gives when

he says that, first of all, one must practice on a battlefield,

as it were, by acquiring all the virtues of which we have the

perfect model in the mysteries of the Rosary; for, says the

learned Cajetan, that is the way we arrive at a really intimate

union with God, since without that union contemplation is nothing

but an illusion which can lead souls astray.

77 If only the Illuminists or the Quietists of these days had

followed this piece of advice, they would never have fallen so

low or caused such scandals among spiritual people. To think that

it is possible to say prayers that are finer and more beautiful

than the Our Father and the Hail Mary is to fall a prey to a

strange illusion of the devil, for these heavenly prayers are the

support, the strength and the safeguard of our souls.

I admit it is not always necessary to say them as vocal

prayers and that interior prayer is, in a sense, more perfect

than vocal. But believe me, it is really dangerous, not to say

fatal, to give up saying the Rosary of your own accord under the

pretext of seeking a more perfect union with God. Sometimes a

soul that is proud in a subtle way and who may have done

everything that he can do interiorly to rise to the sublime

heights of contemplation that the saints have reached may be

deluded by the noonday devil into giving up his former devotions

which are good enough for ordinary souls. He turns a deaf ear to

the prayers and the greeting of an angel and even to the prayer

which God has composed, put into practice, and commanded: Thus

shall you pray: Our Father. Having reached this point, such a

soul drifts from illusion to illusion, and falls from precipice

to precipice.

78 Believe me, dear brother of the Rosary Confraternity, if you

genuinely wish to attain a high degree of prayer in all honesty

and without falling into the illusions of the devil so common

with those who practice mental prayer, say the whole Rosary every

day, or at least five decades of it.

If you have already attained, by the grace of God, a high

degree of prayer, keep up the practice of saying the holy Rosary

if you wish to remain in that state and by it to grow in

humility. For never will anyone who says his Rosary every day

become a formal heretic or be led astray by the devil. This is

a statement which I would sign with my blood.

On the other hand, if God in his infinite mercy draws you

to himself as forcibly as he did some of the saints while saying

the Rosary, make yourself passive in his hands and let yourself

be drawn towards him. Let God work and pray in you and let him

say your Rosary in his way, and that will be sufficient for the

day.

But if you are still in the state of active contemplation

or the ordinary prayer of quietude, of the presence of God,

affective prayer, you have even less reason for giving up the

Rosary. Far from making you lose ground in mental prayer or

stunting your spiritual growth, it will be a wonderful help to

you. You will find it a real Jacob's ladder with fifteen rungs

by which you will go from virtue to virtue and from light to

light. Thus, without danger of being misled, you will easily

arrive at the fullness of the age of Jesus Christ.

Twenty-sixth Rose

79 Whatever you do, do not be like a certain pious but self-

willed lady in Rome, so often referred to by speakers on the

Rosary. She was so devout and fervent that she put to shame by

her holy life even the strictest religious in the Church.

Having decided to ask St. Dominic's advice about her

spiritual life, she made her confession to him. For penance he

gave her one Rosary to say and advised her to say it every day.

She excused herself, saying that she had her regular exercises,

that she made the Stations of Rome every day, that she wore sack-

cloth as well as a hair-shirt, that she gave herself the

discipline several times a week, that she often fasted and did

other penances. Saint Dominic urged her over and over again to

take his advice and say the Rosary, but she would not hear of it.

She left the confessional, horrified at the methods of this new

spiritual director who had tried so hard to persuade her to take

up a devotion for which she had no taste.

Later on, when she was at prayer she fell into ecstasy and

had a vision of her soul appearing before the Supreme Judge.

Saint Michael put all her penances and other prayers on one side

of the scales and all her sins and imperfections on the other.

The tray of her good works were greatly outweighed by that of her

sins and imperfections.

Filled with alarm, she cried for mercy, imploring the help

of the Blessed Virgin, her gracious advocate, who took the one

and only Rosary she had said for her penance and dropped it on

the tray of her good works. This one Rosary was so heavy that it

weighed more than all her sins as well as all her good works. Our

Lady then reproved her for having refused to follow the counsel

of her servant Dominic and for not saying the Rosary every day.

As soon as she came to herself she rushed and threw herself

at the feet of Saint Dominic and told him all that had happened,

begged his forgiveness for her unbelief, and promised to say the

Rosary faithfully every day. By this means she rose to Christian

perfection and finally to the glory of everlasting life.

You who are people of prayer, learn from this the power, the

value and the importance of this devotion of the holy Rosary when

it is said with meditation on the mysteries.

80 Few saints have reached the same heights of prayer as Saint

Mary Magdalene, who was lifted up to heaven by angels each day,

and who had the privilege of learning at the feet of Jesus and

his holy Mother. Yet one day, when she asked God to show her a

sure way of advancing in his love and arriving at the heights of

perfection, he sent the archangel St. Michael to tell her, on his

behalf, that there was no other way for her to reach perfection

than to meditate on our Lord's passion. So he placed a cross in

the front of her cave and told her to pray before it,

contemplating the sorrowful mysteries which she had seen take

place with her own eyes.

The example of Saint Francis de Sales, the great spiritual

director of his time, should spur you on to join the holy

confraternity of the Rosary, since, great saint though he was,

he bound himself by vow to say the whole Rosary every day for as

long as he lived.

Saint Charles Borromeo also said it every day and strongly

recommended this devotion to his priests and clerics in

seminaries and to all his people.

Blessed Pius V, one of the greatest popes who have ever

ruled the Church, used to say the Rosary every day. Saint Thomas

of Villanova, Archbishop of Valencia, Saint Ignatius, Saint

Francis Xavier, Saint Francis Borgia, Saint Teresa and Saint

Philip Neri, as well as many other great men whom I do not

mention, were greatly devoted to the Rosary.

Follow their example; your spiritual directors will be very

pleased, and if they are aware of the benefits which you can

derive from this devotion, they will be the first to urge you to

adopt it.

Twenty-seventh Rose

81 To encourage you still more in this devotion practised by

so many holy people, I should like to add that the Rosary recited

with the meditation of the mysteries brings about the following

marvellous results:

1 it gradually brings us a perfect knowledge of Jesus

Christ;

2 it purifies our souls from sin;

3 it gives us victory over all our enemies;

4 it makes the practice of virtue easy;

5 it sets us on fire with the love of our Lord;

6 it enriches us with graces and merits;

7 it supplies us with what is needed to pay all our

debts to God and to our fellow-men, and finally, it

obtains all kinds of graces from God.

82 The knowledge of Jesus Christ is the science of Christians

and the science of salvation; it surpasses, says Saint Paul, all

human sciences in value and perfection:

1 because of the dignity of its object, which is a God-

man, compared to whom the whole universe is but a drop

of dew or a grain of sand;

2 because of its utility to us; human sciences only fill

us with the wind and emptiness of pride;

3 because of its necessity; for no one can be saved

without the knowledge of Jesus Christ, while a person

who knows absolutely nothing of any other science will

be saved as long as he is enlightened by the knowledge

of Jesus Christ.

Blessed is the Rosary which gives us this science and

knowledge of our Blessed Lord through our meditations on his

life, death, passion and glory.

The Queen of Sheba, lost in admiration at Solomon's wisdom,

cried out, "Blessed are your attendants and your servants who are

always in your presence and hear your wisdom." But happier still

are the faithful who carefully meditate on the life, virtues,

sufferings and glory of our Saviour, because by this means they

can gain perfect knowledge of him, in which eternal life

consists.

83 Our Lady revealed to Blessed Alan that no sooner had Saint

Dominic begun preaching the Rosary than hardened sinners were

touched and wept bitterly over their grievous sins. Young

children performed unbelievable penances, and everywhere he

preached the Rosary such fervour was aroused that sinners changed