What does it mean to call the Blessed Virgin Mary the Rosa Mystica? The phrase Rosa Mystica means Mystical Rose. But all true mysteries are of God. And the Virgin Mary, as the Mother of God, certain is closest to God, after her Divine Son Jesus. All that is mysterious of Mary is of the mysteries of God.

Mary is compared to the rose flower as that flower symbolizes purity (white rose) and love (red rose). She is most pure in her love for God. She is perfect in purity and perfect in love. She is the most pure and most loving human person, only because she imitates perfectly her Son Jesus, who is one Person with two natures, human and Divine. Jesus and Mary are perfect virgins, perfect in purity, perfect in love. Mary’s human nature exceeds in purity and love and glory all created things, other than the human nature of Christ, which alone is greater than she.

God is three Persons and one Nature. But this is not four things. For the three Persons are the one Nature, and the one Nature is the three Persons.

Speaking of the one Nature, God is truly and absolutely One. Therefore, all the mysteries of God, which pertain to the Nature, are one Mystery. And Mary, as the mystical rose, is the most pure and holy flower created by the most holy Trinity. She is the created expression of all the mysteries of God, in so far as infinite divine perfection can be expressed by a finite created thing. Therefore, the human nature of Christ is also the created expression of all the mysteries of God. Thus, the mystical rose, perfect as she is in her imitation of her Savior, is a reflection of Christ. She is the flower that represents Christ, our Savior, and she assists Him in all that He does for our salvation, by being His most perfect imitator.

Mary is the mystical rose because she is the perfect imitator of Christ, of God made man. She is the mystical rose because she is the created expression of the mysteries of God. She is the mystical rose because she is most pure and most holy and most loving. And the only created thing greater than Mary is the human nature of Christ, Son of Mary and the Son of God.

RLCJ