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Forty-Eighth Rose

enemies to conquer before you will have stored up enough treasures of eternity, enough Our Fathers
and Hail Marys with which to buy your way to heaven and earn the beautiful crown which is waiting
for each faithful Confraternity member.
"(Let) no man take thy crown":4 take care that your
crown is not stolen by somebody who has been more faithful than you in saying the Holy Rosary. It
is "thy crown"  Almighty God has chosen it for you and you have already
Won it halfway by means of the Rosaries that you have said well. Unfortunately someone else may get
ahead of you in the race someone who has worked harder and who has been more faithful might
possibly win the crown that ought to be yours, paying for it by his Rosaries and good works. All
this could really happen if you stand still on the beautiful path where you have been running so
well: ''You did run well.''5 "Who hath hindered you?"6 who is it who will have prevented
you from having the Rosary crown? None other than the enemies of the Holy Rosary who are
so numerous.
Do believe me, only "the violent bear it away."7 These
crowns are not for timid souls who are afraid of the world's taunts and threats, neither are they
for the lazy and indolent who only say their Rosary carelessly, or hastily, just for the sake of
getting it over with. The same applies to people who say it intermittently, as the spirit moves
them. These crowns are not for cowards who lose heart and down their arms as soon as they see hell
let loose against the Holy Rosary.
Dear Confraternity members: if you want to serve Jesus and Mary by saying the Rosary every day, you
must be prepared for temptation: "When thou comest to the service of God prepare thy soul for
temptation."8 Heretics and licentious folk, "respectable" people of the world, persons of
only surface piety as well as false prophets, hand in glove with your fallen nature and all hell
itself, will wage formidable battles against you in an endeavor to get you to give up this holy
practice.
To help you to be better armed against their onslaught I am going to tell you some of the things
these people are always saying and thinking. This is to put you on your guard against them all, but
not so much in the case of heretics and out and out licentious people, but particularly those who
are
4 Apoc. 3:11.
5 "Galat 5:7.
6  "ld. 5:7.
7 Matt 11:12.
8 Ecclus. 2:1.

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