Ancient peoples of the East had the custom of offering crowns of roses to distinguished persons; and true Christians have the praiseworthy habit of offering every day with great devotion this crown of Marian roses to their beloved Mother, the holy Virgin. Thus from the year 1208, during which the glorious St. Dominic taught it as it is prayed today, there has not been a Saint nor a person distinguished for learning and virtue, nor an observant religious community, nor a well-ordered seminary, which has not kept up devotion to the Rosary.
Each time you confess and receive Communion, you will do so as if it were the last of your life, approaching humbly and trustingly, like a poor little woman, or like a leper, but full of love.
The Rosary is a rich mine in which Christians who pray it and meditate it attentively and devoutly gain immense spiritual treasures. It is a flourishing garden in which flowers of all kinds of beautiful, fragrant virtues are plucked.
Be a lover of silence and prayer, the more the better; for these two will be the wings whereon your will fly to your Spouse.
The holy Rosary is the most powerful, easiest and sweetest means for dispelling religious ignorance and getting rid of error and heresy. Indeed, when people love and recite the holy Rosary they find it makes them better. While one prays the Our Father and ten Hail Marys it is not necessary to reflect on all of the ten points into which the mysteries are divided; one may linger on that point or points which appeal more to him or move him more to devotion.
Consider -for it is so- that we are standing between two eternities, one happy, the other unhappy, and that we will be given the one which, with the help of God’s grace, we have chosen and which we have striven for by holy and good works.
