Second Rose, from the Secret of the Rosary, by Saint Louis de Montfort
Since the Holy Rosary is composed, principally and in substance, of
the Prayer of Christ and the Angelic Salutation, that is, the Our Father
and the Hail Mary, it was without doubt the first prayer and the first
devotion of the faithful and has been in use all through the centuries
from the time of the Apostles and disciples down to the present.
But
it was only in the year 1214, however, that Holy Mother Church received
the Rosary in its present form and according to the method we use
today. It was given to the Church by Saint Dominic who had received it
from the Blessed Virgin as a powerful means of converting the
Albigensians and other sinners.
I will tell you the story of how he received it, which is found in
the very well-known book "De Dignitate Psalterii" by Blessed Alan de la
Roche.
Saint Dominic, seeing that the gravity of people's sins was hindering
the conversion of the Albigensians, withdrew into a forest near
Toulouse where he prayed unceasingly for three days and three nights.
During this time he did nothing but weep and do harsh penances in order
to appease the anger of Almighty God. He used his discipline so much
that his body was lacerated, and finally he fell into a coma.
At this point Our Lady appeared to him, accompanied by three angels, and she said:
"Dear Dominic, do you know which weapon the Blessed Trinity wants to use to reform the world?"
"Oh, my Lady," answered Saint Dominic, "you know far better than I do
because next to your Son Jesus Christ you have always been the chief
instrument of our salvation."
Then Our Lady replied:
"I
want you to know that, in this kind of warfare, the battering ram has
always been the Angelic Psalter which is the foundation stone of the New
Testament. Therefore if you want to reach these hardened souls and win
them over to God, preach my Psalter."
So he arose, comforted, and burning with zeal, for the conversion of
the people in that district he made straight for the Cathedral. At once
unseen angels rang the bells to gather the people together and Saint
Dominic began to preach.
At the very beginning of his sermon an appalling storm broke, out,
the earth shook, the sun was darkened, and there was so much thunder and
lightning that all were very much afraid. Even greater was their fear
when looking at a picture of Our Lady exposed in a prominent place they
saw her raise her arms to heaven three times to call down God's
vengeance upon them if they failed to be converted, to amend their
lives, and seek the protection of the Holy Mother of God.
God wished, by means of these supernatural phenomena, to spread the
new devotion of the Holy Rosary and to make it more widely known.
At last, at the prayer of Saint Dominic, the storm came to an end,
and he went on preaching. So fervently and compellingly did he explain
the importance and value of the Holy Rosary that almost all the people
of Toulouse embraced it and renounced their false beliefs. In a very
short time a great improvement was seen in the town; people began
leading Christian lives and gave up their former bad habits.
