Rosary - 3rd Rose

Third Rose

This is a story from the Secret of the Rosary by St Louis de Montfort.  

In the third rose, St Dominic was the one who was given the gift from the Blessed Mother to pray the rosary.  

The Holy Rosary, which he said every day, was his preparation for every sermon and his little meeting with Our Lady immediately after preaching.  

One day he had to preach at Notre Dame in Paris, and it happened to be the feast of St John the Evangelist.  He was in a little chapel behind the high altar prayerfully preparing his sermon by saying the Rosary, as he always did, when Our Lady appeared to him and said: Dominic, even though what you have planned to say may be good, I'm bringing you a much better sermon.  

Saint Dominic took in his hands the book Our Lady proffered, read the sermon carefully and when he had understood it and meditated on it, he gave thanks to the Blessed Mother.  

When the time came, he went up into the pulpit and, in spite of the feast day, made no mention of St John other than to say that he had been found worthy to be the guardian of the Queen of Heaven.  The congregation was mass up of theologians, and other eminent people, who were used to hearing unusual and polished discourses.  But St Dominic told them that it was not his wish to give them a learned discourse, wise in the eyes of the world, but that he would speak in the simplicity of the Holy Spirit and with His forcefulness.  

So he began preaching the Holy Rosary and explained the Hail Mary word by word as he would to a group of children and used very simple illustrations which were in the book Our Lady had given him.  

St Dominic once shared with Blessed Alan.  My son, it is good to preach, but there is a danger of looking for praise rather than the salvation of souls.  Listen carefully to what happened to me in Paris so that you may be on guard against this kind of mistake; I was to preach in the great church dedicated to the Blessed Virgin Mary and I was particularly anxious to give a brilliant sermon, not out of pride , but because of the high intellectual stature of the congregation.  

An hour before the time I had to preach, I was recollected my saying my rosary as always before giving a sermon, when I fell into ecstasy.  I saw my beloved friend, the Mother of God coming towards me with a book in her hand.  Dominic, she says, your sermon for today may be very good indeed, but no matter how good it is, I have brought you one that is much better.  

Of course I was overjoyed, took the book and read every word of it.  Just as Our Lady says, I found exactly the right things to say in my sermon, so I thanked her with all my heart.  

When it was time to begin, I saw the university of Paris had turned out in full force as well as a large number of nobleman.  They had all see. And heard of the great things that the Good Lord has been doing through me.  So I went up into the pulpit.  

Our Lady also says to St Dominic: Dominic, I rejoice to see that you are not relying on your own wisdom and that, rather than seen the empty praise of men, you are working with great humility for the salvation of souls.  

But many priests want to preach thunderously against the worse kinds of sin at the very outset, failing to realize that before a sick person is given bitter medicine, he needs to be prepared by being out into the right frame of mind to really benefit from it.  

That  is why, before doing anything else, priests should try to kindle a love the prayer in people's hearts and especially a love of my Angelic Psalter. If only they would all start saying it and would really persevere, God, in his mercy, could hardly refuse to give them his grace. So I want you to preach my Rosary.