I chose you to fight under Jesus Christ’s banner!

During the octave of All Saints' Day of 1465, Blessed Alan de la Roche (1) was in a Dominican church in Paris, deploring his lukewarmness in reciting the Rosary. Our Lady appeared to him, accompanied by several holy virgins. She said to him: "Do not flee, my son! If you have any doubt about me or about my companions, trace the sign of the cross upon us. If we are visions of Hell, we will suddenly disappear. If, on the contrary, we are visions of Heaven, we will remain, and will appear even brighter."

Alan made the sign of the cross, and the light from the apparition became more intense. "O my son, have no more doubts! I am your virgin bride," the apparition told him. "I still love you, and I am always interested in hearing you. But know that no one is without suffering in this world; neither I, nor my Son, nor any of the saints of this world have been without suffering. There is more: shield yourself with the weapons of faith and patience, and prepare for trials even more difficult than those you have experienced so far. For I have not chosen you to be a parade soldier, but to fight as a brave and heroic man under Jesus Christ’s banner and under my own banner.

As for the drought and aridity that you have experienced in the course of a few days, do not be troubled by it. I wanted to put you through this trial. Bear it as a sorrow and as a punishment for your former faults; and also receive it as a means of making progress in patience and in view of the salvation of the living and the dead."

(1) Blessed Alan de la Roche (1428-1475) was a Dominican friar from the monastery at Dinan, in Brittany. He was an eminent theologian, famous for his sermons. He established the Confraternity of the Holy Rosary.

Taken from Dictionnaire des apparitions

by Father René Laurentin - Fayard 2006