Oh Mary we crown thee with blossoms today, Queen of the Angels and Queen of the May.
History shows that the rose is the favourite flower of Our Lady herself, the Madonna of the Rose. In her apparition at Guadeloupe, she made use of roses as a sign of her presence and even arranged them with her own beautiful hands in the tilma of Juan Diego. At La Salette she wore a profusion of roses in three garlands and had tiny roses around the rim of her slippers. She brought beautiful roses with her at Lourdes, Pontmain, Pellevoisin, Beauraing, and Banneaux. To Sister Josefa Menendez she showed her immaculate heart encircled with little white roses. Most importantly though she has chosen for her favourite prayer the Rosary, named after a circlet of many roses.
St John Henry Cardinal Newman says: “Mary is the most beautiful flower ever seen in the spiritual world. It is by the power of God’s grace that from this barren and desolate earth there ever sprung up at all flowers of holiness and glory; and Mary is the Queen of them all. She is the Queen of spiritual flowers; and therefore, is called the Rose, for the rose is called of all flowers the most beautiful. But, moreover, she is the Mystical or Hidden Rose, for mystical means hidden.” “But a rose has thorns, and so had the Mystical Rose – the sharpest for herself alone; so she could have compassion on our infirmities. Never did the breath of evil spoil the splendour of this Mystical Rose; never did God’s lovely flower, the Madonna of the Rose, cease to give forth the sweet perfume of love and praise.”
“Mystical Rose, thou hast been hailed to shed thy fragrance sweet, to flood our desert with thy perfume rare. We beg thee, daily kneeling at thy feet, let fall thy petals for our repose, shower upon us thy aroma, O thou Mystical Rose.”
Taken from: www.roman-catholic-saints.com
