Friday, March 25, 2011

“What, You Refuse To Say The Rosary?”

Has this ever been said to you? It ‘s been said to me on several occasions. Here’s some of the reasoning I’ve heard for refusing to say the Rosary: “I have other prayers I say, I don’t have time to include the Rosary, it takes too much time.” “ I go to Church, that’s enough.” “It’s boring.” Etc.

For those who refuse to say the Rosary, please read the following excerpts taken from the book entitled “The Secret of the Rosary” by St. Louis De Montfort I’d bet the following will change some minds…

There was a certain pious but self-willed lady who lived in Rome during the time of St. Dominic. Having decided to ask St. Dominic’s advise about her spiritual life, she asked him to hear her confession. For penance, he gave her one whole Rosary to say, and advised her to say it every day. She said that she had no time to say it, excusing herself on the grounds that she made the Stations of Rome every day, she wore sack-cloth and also a hair shirt, that she gave herself the discipline several times a week, and that she carried out so many other penances and fasted much. St. Dominic urged her over and over again to take his advise and say the Rosary, but  she would not here of it. She left the confessional horrified at the tactics of this new spiritual director who had tried to persuade her to take on a devotion that was not to her liking.

Later on when she was in prayer, she fell into ecstasy and had a vision of her soul appearing before Our Lord’s Judgment Seat. St Michael put all her penances and other prayers onto one balance of the scales, and all her sins and imperfections onto the other scale. The tray of the good works was greatly outweighed by that of her sins and imperfections.

Filled with horror, she cried for mercy, imploring the help of the Blessed Virgin, her glorious advocate, who took the one and only Rosary that she had said for penance and dropped it onto the tray of her good works. The one Rosary was so heavy that it weighed more than all her sins as well as all her good works. Our Lady then reproved her for having refused to follow the counsel of her servant Dominic, and not saying the Rosary every day.

As soon as she came to herself, she rushed and threw herself at the feet of St. Dominic and told him all that happened, begged forgiveness for her unbelief, and promised to say the Rosary faithfully every day. By this means, she rose to Christian perfection, and finally to the glory of everlasting life.

The book The Secret of the Rosary can be obtained from Tan Books & Publishers, 2020 Harrison Ave., Rockford, Ill. 61104