Caption reads: "Little Rose" 18 yrs. hiding her cruch so it can not be seen (1920)

When Rose came to Woonsocket in 1925, she was unable to walk and had been in that condition for three years.  During that time, she was almost always confined to her bed, and when she moved about, it was with the help of crutches.  It was a sad life, one full of suffering and loneliness.  It was in such circumstance that she met Father John Potmet St. Lidwina; he taught her the art of suffering and became a mystical victim.  Rose was no less fortunate in having Father Gauthier.  From him, she learned to suffer.  Being reconciled to do the will of God, she accepted her sickness as a state of life and finally rejoiced that she was found worthy to suffer with Christ.
Excerpt  - Father Boyer's  "She Wears a Crown of Thorns"

In the revelations of Fatima, the children were constantly asked to make amends for all the blasphemies committed against the Immaculate Heart of Mary.  Our Blessed Mother in her first apparition on July 13, 1917 told the children:  "Sacrifice yourselves for sinners, and say many times, especially when you make some sacrifice; 'Oh Jesus, it is for love of You, for the conversion of sinners, and in reparation for all the offenses committed against the Immaculate Heart of Mary' ".

Father Gauthier told me that although she wept often, she was never discouraged.  This oblation did not reduce her sufferings nor the feeling of her misery, for they asserted themselves quite often at this time.  Let us listen to what Rose herself has to say about it:  “When I was seventeen, one summer day, as the windows were open, I heard someone chattering and laughing down below, I leaned forward to see what was going on.  There were a number of girls of my age; my friends and sisters were there.  They were all dressed up in their Sunday clothes and leaving for the church.  I heard them laugh from the window, they chatted, laughed and joked.  The life that bubbled from those young girls seemed to be the best the world could give, and when I contrasted their condition with mine, I was literally crushed.  I saw myself miserable, destitute and God-forsaken; I thought of my infirmities, of my crutches.  I was heartbroken.  I wept bitterly.   Oh, if you only knew how I felt!”
 
There was another affliction which affected her very much.  Rose had left school when she was still young and was practically without education.  In her crippled state, confined as she was to her room, like a bird in a cage, an education would have been so useful.  “I felt as if I were blind,” said Rose, “and groping in the dark, with nothing to look for and with no hope to better my situation.   My ignorance was constantly before me, and depressed me more than my infirmities.  Time that smooths out everything, even our sorrows, increased mine; they broke my heart.  And to my confusion, the very thought of my misfortune would cause tears to stream down my cheeks.”  At the time when I got to know her, she had gained the victory over herself in this matter.  She was a victim and meant to be one.  She cared no longer for an education, all she wanted was her Jesus, for whom she lived and suffered;  her Jesus, whom she loved and whose name she pronounced with an unction that no one could imitate, save those who were consumed with the same charity.

UNDERSTANDING REPARATION

At various times Our Lord has asked certain souls and through them souls in general, to make reparation for certain specific faults.  Our Lord through St. Margaret Mary asked souls to make reparation for all the coldness, negligence and ingratitude shown by so many towards the Blessed Sacrament.  Here is how Our Lord spoke to St. Margaret Mary, "Behold this Heart which has loved men that It has spared nothing, has emptied Itself and died to show them Its love; and in return I receive for the most part only ingratitude in the insults, the acts of irreverence, the sacrileges and the coldness that men show towards Me in this Sacrament."

Reparation means to make up for damages done to our relationship with God and also the damage to another's rights or to pay back another for losses for which we are responsible.  When sin is committed, the order of things as established by God is disturbed or damaged.  This damage must be repaired, as far as it is possible for us to do so, and this we are to do by reparation.

Some souls are drawn to this task of reparation by their great love of God and also out of love for their neighbor.  They realize that making reparation for their neighbor's sins is to do something more precious than the giving of any material gift; they realize that their neighbor's soul was redeemed at a great price by Our Lord, and that a soul is worth more than the entire material universe.  Thus these great lovers of Our Lord give of themselves generously for this great work of reparation for souls.

The life of Marie Rose Ferron was an unending story of such suffering for souls.  Long before she relived the crucifixion in her body, she relived it in her soul by the grace of contemplation.  From her Jesus and from the life of her beloved friend, Saint Therese, she learned that God uses suffering to dispose of His graces.  She knew how dear and precious each soul is to God.  Thus, like the Little Flower, she did not perform miracles, lead armies or preach great sermons but in the silence of her room, hidden from the eyes of the world and bound to a bed of pain, she lovingly and thankfully accepted the trials and sufferings that God sent her, and she offered them with great love in behalf
of souls.

Here is what Rose once said to a friend:
"I will pray hard and my suffering will always be for souls.  I give myself to our dear Jesus to do with me just as He pleases, to use me for anything He pleases.  I must ask you to pray for a very important intention - It is for souls and at any price I must have these.  They are so dear to God.  Pray, pray hard!"

Excerpt from  "My Heart Speaks to Thee, The Life of Marie Rose Ferron - Little Rose" written by Wanda Sadowski.