“How did Mary become the Rosa Mystica, the choice, delicate, perfect flower of God’s spiritual creation? It was by being born, nurtured and sheltered in the mystical garden or Paradise of God,” Blessed John Henry Newman once explained.
“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. 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.”
Mary has been compared to the mysterious or mystical rose since the earliest days of the Church when Christians regarded this flower as a metaphor of both martyrdom and paradise.
“Eve was a thorn, wounding, bringing death to all,” writes St. Bernard of Clairvaux. “In Mary we see a rose, soothing everybody’s hurts, giving the destiny of salvation back to all. Mary was a rose, white for maidenhood, red for love; white in body, red in soul; white in her seeking after virtue, red in treading down vice; white in cleansing her affections, red in mortifying her flesh; white in her love of God, red in compassion for her neighbor.”
For Reflection:
Mary first appeared to Pierina Gilla, a nurse in a hospital at Montichiari in Northern Italy. It was the Spring of 1947. The apparitions would continue until 1966 culminating in Fontanelle, Italy where Our Lady touched the springs there and proclaimed they had miraculous powers. She asked that the sick should come to the springs and bring the children with them. It was in one of her later apparitions Mary identified herself as the Rosa Mystica. Opening wide her cloak, Our Lady said with a smile, “I have come to bring love, unity and peace to the souls of my children. I ask you, do not throw any mud on the love of your fellow-man.” When asked the meaning of her wide cloak, Mary replied, “This is the meaning of my love which embraces the whole of mankind.” What do you think Mary meant when she instructed “not to throw mud on the love of your fellow-man”? How does this translate into your life circumstance? Is there someone whom you need to forgive? Someone from whom you need to seek forgiveness? What is your response to Our Lady?
