expresses the desire that all the faithful practise daily the devotion
of the rosary. If, therefore, the rosary is considered of such great
power and efficacy by the head of the Church, the representative of
Christ, it is befitting that we heed his words and pray often and
devoutly by means of the rosary.

If this prayer were better understood it would be prayed with more
devotion, and greater benefit would come from it. In order, then, to
spread a better knowledge, and to urge the devout recital of the
rosary, let us contemplate this devotion in a course of instructive
addresses. The name rosary may be the subject of to-day's discourse.

The devotion of the rosary consists in the recital of a fixed number of
Our Fathers and Hail Marys, combined with the meditation on certain
mysteries from the lives of Jesus and Mary. The name rosary is
significant. It is a symbol of Mary, also of the devotion to her. We
will endeavor to make this clear.

The realm of nature is the symbol of the realm of grace, as the realm
of grace is a symbol of the realm of glory. It was God's intention to
let His earthly creation be a reflection of the divine perfections, of
the supernatural, of divinity, so that man might perceive the
supernatural through created things, and thus more readily understand
it. "For the invisible things of him, from the creation of the world,
are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made" (Rom.
i, 20).

Our first parents obtained a clear conception of the supernatural
through the natural things of this life. Nature was to them an open
book, in which they could read the divine perfections. Through sin the