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Twenty-Fourth Rose
 
and to be grateful for all His blessings so that, at the Day of Judgment, He may nvmber us among
His children and His friends.

Twenty-Fourth Rose

Means of Perfection

THE SAINTS always made Our Lord's life the principal object of their study; they meditated on His
virtues and sufferings and in this way they arrived at Christian perfection.
Once Saint Bernard began this meditation he always continued it. "At the very beginning of my
conversion," he said, "I made a bouquet of myrrh made up of the sorrows of my Savior. I placed this
bouquet upon my heart , thinking of the stripes, the thorns and the nails of His passion. I used all
my mental strength to meditate on these mysteries every day."
This was a practice of the Holy Martyrs too; we know how
admirably they triumph over the most cruel sufferings. Saint Bernard says that the martyrs'
wonderful constancy could have only sprung from one source: their constant meditation on the
wounds of Jesus Christ. The martyrs were Christ's athletes, His champions; while their blood gushed
forth and their bodies were wracked with cruel torments, their generous souls were hidden in the
wounds of Our Lord. These wounds made them invincible.
During her whole life the Blessed Mother's chief concern was meditation on the virtues and
sufferings of her Son. When
she heard the angels sing their hymns of joy at His birth and when she saw the shepherds adore Him
in the stable, her heart and mind were filled with wonder and she meditated upon all these marvels.
She compared the greatness of the Word Incarnate to His deep humility and the way He lowered Him­
self; she thought of Him in His manger filled with straw and then on His Throne in heaven and in
the bosom of His Eternal Father. She compared the might of God to the weakness of a Baby-and His
wisdom to His simplicity.
One day Our Lady said to Saint Bridget: "Whenever I meditated on the beauty, modesty and wisdom
of my Son, my heart was filled with joy: and whenever I thought of His hands and feet which would be
pierced with cruel nails, I wept bitterly and my heart was rent with sorrow and pain."

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