Christian virtues she spreads around her the fragrance of a God-
pleasing life, and encourages those who associate with her to imitate
her virtues.

Mary is the immaculate virgin and mother, mother of God, and of all
mankind. She is the most noble and perfect of all mothers. Like a
magnificent rose she shines in the splendor of her virtues, and is the
perfect example for all mothers. Because her heart is fired with love
for God and man, she is, as St. Jordanus says, likened to the flaming
red rose.

There is no rose but has its thorns. The thorns are a figure of
suffering, of sorrow, of the temptations in life, under which only a
truly virtuous life can thrive.

St. Brigid relates in her revelations how she at one time was downcast
because the enemies of Christ were so powerful, and how she was
consoled by the mother of God herself, who told her to remember the
rose among the thorns. "The rose," so said Mary, "gives a fragrant
odor; it is beautiful to the sight, and tender to the touch, and yet it
grows among thorns, inimical to beauty and tenderness. So may also
those who are mild, patient, beautiful in virtue, be put to a test
among adversaries. And as the thorn, on the other hand, guards, so do
wicked surroundings protect the just against sin by demonstrating to
them the destructiveness of sin."

The life of Mary was interwoven with many sorrows and she is justly
called "a rose among thorns." St. Brigid says: "The Virgin may suitably
be called a blooming rose. Just as the gentle rose is placed among
thorns, so this gentle Virgin was surrounded by sorrow."