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Third Rose

upon them if they failed to be converted, to amend their lives, and seek the protection of the Holy
Mother of God.
God wished, by means of these supernatural phenomena, to spread the new devotion of the
Holy Rosary and to make it more widely known.
At last, at the prayer of Saint Dominic, the storm came
to an end, 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. In a
very short time a great improvement was seen in the town; people began leading Christian lives and
gave up their former bad habits.

Third Rose


Saint Dominic

THIS MIRACULOUS WAY in which the devotion to the Holy rosary was established is something of a parallel
to the way
in which Almighty God gave His law to the world on Mount Sinai and obviously proves its value and
importance.
Inspired by the Holy Ghost, instructed by the Blessed Virgin as well as by his own experience,
Saint Dominic preached the Holy Rosary for the rest of his life. He preached it by his example as
well as by his sermons, in cities and in country places, to people of high station and low,
before scholars and the uneducated, to Catholics and to heretics.
The Holy Rosary which he said every day was his preparation for every sermon and his little tryst
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 very good, I am 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 Saint John other

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