Marian Mondays

Since I posted my first Marian Mondays post, perhaps a month ago, I have been trying to figure out what direction to take those posts in, as I would like to continue them. But there is so much information on the internet about Mary's apparitions, and I have not yet found it to be very well organized or easy to find really good, basic information (if you have a site you particularly like, please do let me know, even for my own reading, or for posting).

I had started reading St. Louis de Montfort's The Secret of the Rosary fairly recently and picked it up again tonight. Perhaps, until I am done reading this little book, I will pull a few quotes from it every so often to post.

One I found to be interesting is from the "Seventh Rose" (or "chapter" 7). St. Louis de Montfort says this:

"The chronicles of Saint Francis tell of a young friar who had the praiseworthy habit of saying the Crown of Our Lady (the Rosary) every day before dinner. One day for some reason or other he did not manage to say it. The refectory bell had already been rung when he asked the Superior to allow him to say it before coming to the table, and having obtained the permission he withdrew to his cell to pray.
"After he had been gone a long time the Superior sent another Friar to fetch him, and he found him in his room bathed in a heavenly light facing Our Lady who had two angels with her. Beautiful roses kept issuing from his mouth at each Hail Mary; the angels took them one by one, placing them on Our Lady's head, and she smilingly accepted them.
"Finally two other friars who had been sent to find out what had happened to the first two saw the same lovely scene, and Our Lady did not go away until the whole Rosary had been said.
"So the complete Rosary [of 15 decades] is a large crown of roses and the Rosary of five decades is little wreath of flowers or a small crown of heavenly roses which we place on the heads of Jesus and Mary. The rose is the queen of flowers, and so the Rosary is the rose of all devotions and it is therefore the most important one."

What a beautiful thought - placing a rose on Mary's head with each Hail Mary said and completing the crown for our Holy Mother with each Rosary. What a wonderful way to honor the Mother of Our Lord and Our Mother.

St. Louis goes on to say, in the "Eighth Rose,"
"It would hardly be possible for me to put into words how much Our Lady thinks of the Holy Rosary and of how she vastly prefers it to all other devotions. neither can I sufficiently express how highly she rewards those who work to preach the devotion, to establish it and spread it, nor on the other hand how firmly she punishes those who work against it."

The Rosary is a beautiful prayer, full of the richness of our faith and full of petition to Our Lady. Truly blessed is She who Our God has chosen to be the Mother of His Son! Blessed is She who God saved from committing sin in order to be the perfect vessel to bring Jesus to us. Blessed is She who is still with us, given to us as our Mother, helping us and praying for us. And truly blessed is the Fruit of Her womb, our Savior, Our Lord. She who is blessed and touched by the hand of God will bless us who have devotion to her.

St. Louis de Montfort describes one type of "confraternity" to the Holy Rosary which is doable, especially if you can break it down into pieces (he does not say whether this is allowed or not): "Ordinary membership which entails saying the complete Rosary [fifteen decades] once a week." There are many places in which it is suggested we pray the entire Rosary once a day, but I do believe Our Lady understands for some of us this is not possible. My husband and I pray one Rosary (5 decades) a day, and that is often a struggle for me but has been very worthwhile, and I feel it's the least I can do to honor Mary and, through her, her Son. But this "ordinary membership" is a wonderful place to start or to devote yourself to over the long term - or one Rosary a week is also a great beginning!