40ème Rose — L'excellence du saint rosaire dans les merveilles que dieu a opérées en sa faveur
The Transforming Power of the Rosary
The author encourages the reader to experience the Rosary's transformative power firsthand rather than relying solely on the accounts of others.
114. Blessed Alain de la Roche, Father Jean Dumont, Father Thomas, the chronicles of Saint Dominic, and other authors who were often eyewitnesses report a great many miraculous conversions of sinful men and women who, for twenty, thirty, and even forty years, had been sunk in the worst disorders—people nothing else had been able to convert—and who were converted by this marvelous devotion. I won't recount them, for fear of making this too long. I don't even want to recount the ones I saw with my own eyes; I'm passing over them in silence for several reasons. Dear reader, if you practice and preach this devotion, you'll learn more from your own experience than from any book, and you'll happily experience the effect of the promises the Blessed Virgin made to Saint Dominic, to Blessed Alain de la Roche, and to those who make this devotion flourish—this devotion so dear to her, which teaches people the virtues of her Son and her own, leads them to mental prayer, to the imitation of Jesus Christ, to frequenting the sacraments, to the solid practice of the virtues and of every kind of good work, and to gaining so many beautiful indulgences that people know nothing about, because the preachers of this devotion almost never speak of them and content themselves with giving a fashionable Rosary sermon that often produces only admiration and no instruction.
The Rosary as a Storehouse of Grace
A summary of the spiritual benefits of the Rosary, including the promises of the Blessed Virgin for those who recite her Psalter.
115. Finally, I'll content myself with telling you, with Blessed Alain de la Roche, that the Rosary is a spring and a storehouse of every kind of good: 1º P — To sinners it grants penance; 2º S — To the thirsty it drips satiety; 3º A — To those in chains it brings absolution; 4º L — To those who mourn it bestows joy; 5º T — To the tempted it gives tranquillity; 6º E — From the needy it drives out destitution; 7º R — To religious it restores reform; 8º I — To the ignorant it brings understanding; 9º V — For the living it conquers ruin; 10º M — To the dead it sends mercy by way of suffrage.12 (1º Sinners obtain pardon; 2º Thirsty souls are satisfied; 3º Those who are bound see their fetters broken; 4º Those who weep find joy; 5º Those who are tempted find tranquility; 6º The needy receive help; 7º Religious are reformed; 8º The ignorant are instructed; 9º The living triumph over decline; 10º The dead are relieved by way of suffrage.)3 "I will," the Holy Virgin said one day to Blessed Alain, "that those who recite my Psalter, in life and in death, and after death, should have blessing, the fullness of grace, and freedom, and be free from blindness, hardness of heart, want, and slavery."4 I want the devotees of my Rosary to have the grace and blessing of my Son during their life, at their death, and after their death, and to be freed from every kind of slavery and to be kings—with a crown on their head, a scepter in their hand, and eternal glory. Amen.
Read the original Latin
114. Le bienheureux Alain de la Roche, le Père Jean Dumont, le Père Thomas, les chroniques de saint Dominique et d'autres auteurs qui ont été souvent témoins oculaires, rapportent d'une grande quantité de conversions miraculeuses de pécheurs et pécheresses, qui, depuis 20, 30 et 40 ans étaient dans les derniers désordres, que rien n'avait pu les convertir et qui l'ont été par cette dévotion merveilleuse. Je ne les rapporterai point, de peur d'une trop grande longueur. Je ne veux pas même rapporter celles que j'ai vues moi-même, de mes propres yeux; je les passe sous silence pour plusieurs raisons. Cher lecteur, par votre expérience, si vous pratiquez et prêchez cette dévotion, vous en apprendrez plus qu'en aucun livre et vous expérimenterez heureusement l'effet des promesses qu'a faites la Sainte Vierge à saint Dominique, au bienheureux Alain de la Roche et à ceux qui font fleurir cette dévotion qui lui est si agréable, qui instruit les peuples des vertus de son Fils et des siennes, porte à l'oraison mentale, à l'imitation de Jésus-Christ, à la fréquentation des sacrements, à la pratique solide des vertus, et de toutes sortes de bonnes œuvres, à gagner tant de belles indulgences que les peuples ignorent parce que les prédicateurs de cette dévotion n'en parlent quasi jamais et se contentent de faire un sermon du Rosaire, à la mode, bien souvent qui ne cause que de l'admiration, point d'instruction.
115. Enfin, je me contente de vous dire, avec le bienheureux Alain de la Roche, que le Rosaire est une source et un magasin de toutes sortes de biens: 1º P Peccatoribus praestat poenitentiam; 2º S Sitientibus stillat satietatem; 3º A Alligatis adducit absolutionem; 4º L Lugentibus largitur laetitiam; 5º T Tentatis tradit tranquillitatem; 6º E Egenis expellit egestatem; 7º R Religiosis reddit reformationem; 8º I Ignorantibus inducit intelligentiam; 9º V Vivis vincit vastitatem; 10º M Mortuis mittit misericordiam per modum suffragii. (1º Les pécheurs obtiennent le pardon; 2º Les âmes altérées sont rassasiées; 3º Ceux qui sont liés voient leurs entraves brisées; 4º Ceux qui pleurent trouvent la joie; 5º Ceux qui sont tentés trouvent la tranquillité; 6º Les indigents reçoivent du secours; 7º Les religieux sont réformés; 8º Les ignorants sont instruits; 9º Les vivants triomphent de la décadence; 10º Les morts sont soulagés par manière de suffrage.) «Volo», dit un jour la Sainte Vierge au bienheureux Alain, «ut psaltae mei in vita et in morte, et post mortem, habeant benedictionem, gratiae plenitudinem ac libertatem, immunesque sint a caecitate, obduratione, inopia ac servitute.» Je veux que les dévots de mon Rosaire aient la grâce et la bénédiction de mon Fils pendant leur vie, à leur mort, et après leur mort, et qu'ils soient affranchis de toutes sortes d'esclavages et qu'ils soient des rois, qu'ils aient la couronne sur la tête, le sceptre à la main et la gloire éternelle. Ainsi soit-il.
Notes
- 1 ↩The ten Latin clauses form the acrostic PSALTERIUM (Psalter), Alain de la Roche’s usual name for the Rosary as Mary’s Psalter. The initial letters are kept as in the source.
- 2 ↩French magasin here means storehouse or treasury of goods, not a shop.
- 3 ↩Suffrage here is the traditional term for prayer offered for the dead (as aid, not as a political vote).
- 4 ↩Latin psaltae mei: those who recite Mary’s Psalter (the Rosary), not professional psalm-singers in the ordinary sense.
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