During the first half of the last [nineteenth] century, a Carthusian nun lay dying in the convent of Holy Cross at Beauregard in the Dauphiné in France. It has always been her delight to lavish every possible mark of her love on the Queen of virgins, above all by reciting the Rosary. As she lay dying it was noticed that her eyes rested with evident joy on a certain spot from which she seemed unable to withdraw her gaze. The Sisters who were attending her asked her what it was that she saw. ‘Oh, do you not admire’, she replied, ‘that wonderful succession of Rosaries which form a ladder by which I hope to reach heaven’?This mystical ladder is within the reach of us all, and we mount a step of it every time we say with fervour: Holy Mary, Mother of God: pray for us sinners, now and at the hour of our death.
