Page:TheRosaryItsHistory.djvu/5



MIDST the rich variety of Catholic devotions, there is one of world-wide popularity, which appeals in a particular manner to every Catholic heart. It is a devotion that has grown with extraordinary rapidity in the Church of Christ; a devotion which was scarcely proclaimed when it already flourished in various Catholic countries; a devotion that is now, like the Church itself, universal. The devotion of which I write is known as the Rosary.

From our tenderest years we have fondly loved the Rosary. Scarcely had we learnt to lisp our prayers at our mothers’ knees, when the beads were placed in our hands, and, though we were yet unable to grasp all that the Rosary implied, our Catholic instinct already prompted us to cherish it, and to recite it before the image of our heavenly Mother. We were taught to treasure Mary’s chaplet as an emblem