St Louis de Montfort tells the story of how St Dominic received the Rosary from the Blessed Virgin.
St 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 to appease the anger of Almighty God. He used his discipline so much his body was lacerated, and finally he fell into a coma.
Our Lady appeared, accompanied by three angels, and said: ‘Dear Dominic, do you know which weapon the Blessed Trinity wants to use to reform the world?’
‘Oh, my Lady’, answered St 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’. Our Lady replied: ‘I want you to know, in this kind of warfare, the battering ram has always been the Angelic Psalter which is the foundation stone of the New Testament. Thus, if you want to reach these hardened souls and win them over to God, preach my Psalter.’
He arose, comforted, and burning with zeal for conversion of the people in that district he went directly to the Cathedral. At once unseen angels rang the bells to gather the people and St Dominic began to preach. At the start of his sermon a storm broke out, the earth shook, the sun was darkened, and there was so much thunder and lightning.
Everybody was very scared. 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, through these supernatural phenomena, to spread the new devotion of the Holy Rosary and to make it widely known. At last at the prayer of St Dominic, the storm ended, 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. Soon a great improvement was seen in the town; people began leading Christian lives and gave up their former bad habits.
Ref: St Louis M de Montfort, “The Secret of the Rosary”, 1954, pp18-9
Joy of the children of this world and sorrow of the children of God
When our Lord was about to leave this world, he told his disciples, “A little while, and you shall not see me, because I go to the Father. You shall lament and weep, but the world shall rejoice.” (Jn 16:16, 30) Our Lord has apportioned the goods of this life: to the righteous he gives crosses and tears; to the worldly, the ‘children of the world’, riches and material enjoyments.
Why so? In his sovereign justice, God desires that the former should be purified by brief sufferings from the smallest stains of sin. The others are rewarded for their naturally good actions, but no merit in eternity.
Apparently happy, the latter are really always tormented by the thirst for gaining something and the fear of losing it; bending under the yoke of violent, disgraceful and insatiable passions; plagued by remorse of conscience; terrified at the thought of death and eternity.
Do we share this view of worldy happiness? Do we say, ‘I could as easily have saved my soul while living in the world, enjoying my liberty, taking part in innocent pleasures’? If this is so, lukewarmness has allowed ill-regulated affections to possess our heart.
As St Paul said, “I exceedingly abound with joy in all our tribulation”; and St Augustine, about his severe penances, “The tears that you see me shed are sweeter than all the pleasures that I ever tasted in the world”.
The words 'tears' and 'sorrow' were meant by our Lord in exactly opposite to the senseless laughter and sinful joys of the world. “There is a sorrow of the world, and a sorrow that is according to God.” (St Paul) The latter is an apparent sorrow only. In the depths of the soul is a foretaste of the joys of heaven, of which the worldly cannot imagine. ‘As sorrowful, yet always rejoicing.’
‘I will see you again, and your heart shall rejoice; and your joy no man shall take from you.’ An assurance that the privations, tears, and passing sorrow of the ‘children of God’ will lead to an eternal joy in heaven.
Our Lord also said -- “Blessed are they that mourn, for they shall be comforted.” (Mt 5:4) But to the ‘children of this world’: “Woe to you that now laugh for you shall mourn and weep.” (Lk 6:25) An instant of joy, eternal suffering; an instant of suffering, eternal joy. What a contrast!
Ref: cf “Practical Meditations” by a Father of the Society of Jesus, 1964, pp230-32
‘Virgo fidelis’ -- “Faithful Virgin, pray for us! Teach us to believe as you believed! Make our faith in God, in Christ, in the Church, always be limpid, serene, courageous, strong and generous.” (Pope John Paul II, “The Pope Speaks on Mary”, 1979, p19)
Our Lady of the Oak, near the town of Sable, in Anjou. This image has wrought so many miracles, that it is at present very famous in the country; Marshal de Bois-Dauphin built a fine church for it, and a house of reception for the pilgrims. — Triple Couronne, n. 50. (“Catholic Gems or Treasures of the Church” Historical Calendar; http://www.bethlehemobserver.com)
Our Lady of the Oak ('Notre-Dame du Chêne'). Near Sable, Anjou, France. In the Middle Ages. A Druidic custom absorbed by Christianity. (www.marylinks.org/Mary-Calendar.htm)
Our Lady of the Oak, Anjou, France. (www.iskandar.com/ourlady/ourladyfeasts.html)
Our Lady of the Oak (near Sable: Anjou, France). (maryfest.htm / www.starharbor.com/santiago/m_feasts.html)
Our Lady of Quito, Ecuador (1534); “Our Lady of the Earthquake”. (www.iskandar.com/ourlady/ourladyfeasts.html) [NB see 29, 30 April]
'Nuestra Señora de Quito' (Our Lady of Quito); Our Lady of the Earthquake. Quito, Ecuador. 1534. (www.marylinks.org/Mary-Calendar.htm)
St Peter Chanel, priest and martyr -- A religious of the Society of Mary (Marists). (Fr James Socias, et al [Eds], “Daily Roman Missal”, 1989, p1513)
St Louis Marie Grignon de Montfort -- Founder: ‘Missionaries of the Company of Mary’ (Montfort Fathers) and ‘Daughters of Wisdom’. A great lover of Mary, he wrote “The True Devotion to the Blessed Virgin Mary”.
“We ought to perform all our actions through Mary, with Mary and in Mary in order to perform them better through Jesus, with Jesus, in Jesus.” -- St Louis Marie de Montfort
“The Holy Spirit, upon entering a soul and finding there Mary, His beloved Spouse, communicates His life to that soul and fills it with gifts.” -- St Louis Marie de Montfort
Ref: Rev Joseph A Viano, SSP, “Two Months with Mary”, 1984, p19
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