I grew up in a fairly religious Catholic family.
We all went to church every Sunday, and dad occasionally served as an usher. For a number of years, our mom helped out with funeral lunches.
For at least a few years, our family would migrate to the living
room after dinner during Lent, and we would pray the rosary on our knees.
It's been decades since I have owned a rosary, but the topic came up today when I was reading a James Patterson book titled "Diana, William, and Harry".
Princess Diana was well known for her charity work, which brought her into contact with Mother Theresa. One on occasion, Mother Theresa gifted her with a rosary, which she took back to London.
After her death in Paris in 1997, her butler brought a suitcase
containing that rosary with him to Paris, and he wrapped it around her
fingers for the flight back to England. It was a rosary that Diana had
received from Mother Theresa. He pressed the rosary into Diana's hands, and it
went back to England with her in the coffin
Mother Theresa gave rosaries to a lot of people - and some of them have led to some miracles. Listed below are some samples.
The rosaries of Mother Theresa have led to a few miracles.
Jim Castle was
tired when he boarded his plane in Cincinnati, Ohio, that night in 1981. The
45-year-old management consultant had put on a week-long series of business
meetings and seminars, and now he sank gratefully into his seat ready for the
flight home to Kansas City, Kansas.
As more
passengers entered, the place hummed with conversation, mixed with the sound of
bags being stowed. Then, suddenly, people fell silent. The quiet moved slowly
up the aisle like an invisible wake behind a boat. Jim craned his head to see
what was happening, and his mouth dropped open.
Walking up the
aisle were two nuns clad in simple white habits bordered in blue. He recognized
the familiar face of one at once, the wrinkled skin, the eyes warmly intent.
This was a face he'd seen in newscasts and on the cover of TIME. The two nuns
halted, and Jim realized that his seat companion was going to be Mother Teresa.
As the last few
passengers settled in, Mother Teresa and her companion pulled out rosaries.
Each decade of the beads was a different color, Jim noticed. The decades
represented various areas of the world, Mother Teresa told him later, and
added, "I pray for the poor and dying on each continent."
The airplane taxied to the runway, and the two women
began to pray, their voices a low murmur. Though Jim considered himself not a
very religious Catholic who went to church mostly out of habit, inexplicably he
found himself joining in. By the time they murmured the final prayer, the plane
had reached cruising altitude.
Mother Teresa turned toward him. For the first time in
his life, Jim understood what people meant when they spoke of a person
possessing an "aura." As she gazed at him, a sense of peace filled
him; he could no more see it than he could see the wind, but he felt it, just
as surely as he felt a warm summer breeze. "Young man," she inquired,
"do you say the rosary often?" "No, not really," he
admitted.
She took his hand, while her eyes probed him. Then she
smiled. "Well, you will now." And she dropped her rosary into his
palm.
An hour later Jim entered the Kansas City airport,
where he was met by his wife, Ruth. "What in the world?" Ruth asked
when she noticed the rosary in his hand. They kissed and Jim described his
encounter. Driving home, he said. "I feel as if I met a true sister of
God."
Nine months later Jim and Ruth visited Connie, a
friend of theirs for several years. Connie confessed that she'd been told she
had ovarian cancer. "The doctor says it's a tough case,"
said Connie, "but I'm going to fight it. I won't give up."
Jim clasped her hand. Then, after reaching into his
pocket, he gently twined Mother Teresa's rosary around her fingers. He told her
the story and said, "Keep it with you Connie. It may help."
"Although Connie wasn't Catholic, her hand closed willingly around the
small plastic beads. "Thank you," she whispered. "I hope I can
return it."
More than a year passed before Jim saw Connie again.
This time, face glowing, she hurried toward him and handed him the rosary
"I carried it with me all year," she said. "I've had surgery and
have been on chemotherapy, too. Last month, the doctors did second-look
surgery, and the tumor's gone. Completely!" Her eyes met Jim's. "I
knew it was time to give the rosary back."
In the fall of 1987, Ruth's sister, Liz, fell into a
deep depression after her divorce. She asked Jim if she could
borrow the rosary, and when he sent it, she hung it over her bedpost in a small
velvet bag.
"At night I held on to it,
just physically held on. I was so lonely and afraid," she says, "yet
when I gripped that rosary, I felt as if I held a loving hand." Gradually,
Liz pulled her life together, and she mailed the rosary back. "Someone
else may need it," she said.
Then one night in 1988, a
stranger telephoned Ruth. She'd heard about the rosary from a neighbor and
asked if she could borrow it to take to the hospital where her mother
lay in a coma. The family hoped the rosary might help their mother die
peacefully.
A few days later, the woman
returned the beads. "The nurses told me a coma patient can still
hear," she said, "so I explained to my mother that I had Mother
Teresa's rosary and that when I gave it to her she could let go; it would be
all right. Then I put the rosary in her hand. Right away, we saw her face
relax! The lines smoothed out until she looked so peaceful, so young." The
woman's voice caught. "A few minutes later she was gone." Fervently,
she gripped Ruth's hands. "Thank you."
Is there special power in those humble beads? Or is the power of the human spirit simply renewed in each person who borrows the rosary? Jim only knows that requests continue to come often unexpectedly. He always responds though whenever he lends the rosary. He says, "When you're through needing it, send it back. Someone else may need it."
Jim's own life has changed, too,
since his unexpected meeting on the airplane. When he realized Mother Teresa
carries everything she owns in a small bag, he made an effort to simplify his
own life. "I try to remember what really counts-not money or titles or
possessions, but the way we love others," he says.
https://www.catholiceducation.org/en/faith-and-character/faith-and-character/mother-teresa-s-rosary.html
****************************************
The funeral of Princess Diana was on June 6, 1997. Ironically,
Mother Theresa died of a fatal heart attack exactly two days earlier.
Have you ever wondered who made the first rosary? If you have, the answer can be found in the link posted
https://www.theirishstore.com/blog/story-behind-catholic-rosary-beads/
Along with the cross and the sacred holy water fonts, the small beads that makeup Rosary beads are one of the most familiar and recognized symbols of Catholicism. According to Catholic tradition, the rosary was instituted by the Blessed Virgin Mary herself. In the 13th century, she is said to have appeared to St. Dominic (founder of the Dominicans), given him a rosary, and asked that Christians pray the Hail Mary, Our Father and Glory Be prayers instead of the Psalms. The original rosary of St. Dominic had 15 decades.
Rosary Beads Meaning
The main function of the
rosary beads is to count prayers, the prayers that are counted on rosary beads
are collectively known as the rosary. The purpose of the Rosary is to help keep
in memory certain principal events or mysteries in history. There are twenty
mysteries reflected upon in the Rosary, and these are divided into five main
mysteries which correspond to the five decades of the rosary.
- Five Joyful Mysteries are prayed on
Mondays and Saturdays. These events all have to do with Christ’s birth.
- Five Luminous Mysteries are recalled
on Thursdays and were instituted by Pope John Paul II in 2002.
- Five Sorrowful Mysteries relate to
Jesus’ suffering and death and are recalled on Tuesdays and Fridays.
- Five Glorious Mysteries remind the
faithful of Jesus’ resurrection and the glories of heaven and are prayed
on Wednesdays and Sundays.
Although a variety of
prayers might be used in saying the rosary, a selection of standard prayers is
most commonly used. They are Apostle’s Creed, Our Father, Hail Mary and Glory
Be. A decade consists of one Our Father, ten Hail
Marys and one Glory Be.
Apostle’s Creed:
I believe in God, the
Father Almighty, Creator of Heaven and earth; and in Jesus Christ, His only
Son, Our Lord, Who was conceived by the Holy Ghost, born of the Virgin
Mary, suffered under Pontius Pilate, was crucified; died, and was buried. He
descended into Hell; the third day He arose again from the dead; He ascended
into Heaven, sitteth at the right hand of God, the Father Almighty; from thence
He shall come to judge the living and the dead. I believe in the Holy Spirit,
the holy Catholic Church, the communion of saint, the forgiveness of sins, the
resurrection of the body, and life everlasting. Amen.
Our Father:
Our Father, Who art in
heaven, hallowed be Thy name; Thy kingdom comes; Thy will be done on
earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread, and forgive us
our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us; and lead us not
into temptation, but deliver us from evil. Amen.
Hail Mary:
Hail Mary, full of grace.
The Lord is with thee. Blessed art thou among women and blessed is the fruit of
thy womb, Jesus. Holy Mary, Mother of God, pray for us sinners, now and at the
hour of our death. Amen.
Glory Be:
Glory be to the Father,
to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit, as it was, is now, and ever shall
be, world without end. Amen.How Many Beads In a
Rosary?
There are 59 beads in a
rosary.
The following are the
steps for praying the rosary using rosary beads:
- On the crucifix, say the Apostles’ Creed.
- On the next large bead, pray the Our Father.
- On the next three small beads, pray three Hail Marys.
- On the chain, pray the Glory Be.
- On the large bead announce the first mystery (Joyful,
Luminous, Sorrowful or Glorious) then say the Our Father.
- On the next ten beads, pray ten Hail Marys while
meditating on the Mystery/
- On the chain, pray the Glory Be.
- Repeat steps 5 through 8 for the next four decades.If
you were to ask what object is most emblematic of Catholics a large number
of people would say the rosary. We’re familiar with the images: the
silently moving lips of women and men in the church and the rosary hanging
from their wrist. They truly are a symbolic treasure of Catholicism and
something that remains with you throughout your life, being given to you
as early as your first communion.
Most of us are familiar with the stories of Mary's appearance at
Lourdes, Fatima, and Mexico City (the Lady of Guadalupe), but there have been
credible sightings at a number of other places around the world. Click on the
link below to view them
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Marian_apparitions
I have not been to any of them, but I ALMOST got to the shrine in Knock, Ireland when I was in that country in 1999. The van I was driving held me and 5 women, but none of them wanted to stop – so we didn’t.
Knock (Irish: An Cnoc, meaning The
Hill – but now more generally known in Irish as Cnoc Mhuire,
"Hill of (the Virgin) Mary") is a village in County Mayo,
Ireland. Its notability is derived from the Knock Shrine,
an approved Catholic shrine and
place of pilgrimage where the faithful believe that the Blessed Virgin Mary, Saint Joseph and
Saint John the Evangelist appeared on 21 August
1879.
In the 20th century, Knock became one of Europe's
major Catholic Marian shrines, alongside Lourdes and Fatima. It was one of the focusses of Irish
peace pilgrimage during the Second World War,
when the Catholic Irish prayed for peace and to prevent the spread of war to
the island. One and a half million pilgrims visit Knock Shrine annually. Pope John Paul
II, a supporter of devotion to the Virgin Mary, visited Knock in
1979 to commemorate the centenary of the apparition. Knock is also a civil parish in the ancient barony of Costello.
On 26 August 2018 Pope Francis visited the shrine at Knock as part of a visit to Ireland for the 9th World Meeting of Families.
The Catholic faith is not the only one that has prayer beads,
since Muslims do also. Since the Muslim faith requires prayers 5 times a day,
prayer beads are fairly common among Muslims. I once worked with a devout
Muslim at a car dealership in Evanston, and he would occasionally go into a
small room by himself and work on the beads for a while.
A misbaḥah is a tool which is
used as an aid to perform dhikr, including the names of God in Islam, and after regular prayer It is
often made of wooden or plastic beads,
but also of olive seeds, ivory, pearls, and semi-precious
stones such as carnelian, onyx,
and amber.
A typical misbahah consists of three groups of beads,
separated by two distinct beads (called imāms) along with one
larger piece (called the yad) to serve as the handle.[2] The
exact number may vary, but they usually consist of 99 beads to assist in the
glorification of God following prayers: 33 Tasbeeh (subhāna-llāh
), 33 Tahmeed (ʾal-ḥamdu
li-llāh), and 33 Takbeer (ʾAllāhu
ʾakbar).
Some suggest the 99 beads also refer to the 99 names of
Allah. Smaller misbahas consist of 33 beads, in which case one
cycles through them three times to complete 99. However, misbahas may also
consist of 100 or 200 count beads to assist in the dhikr duties of
certain Sufi orders.
It is often carried by pilgrims, dervishes,
and many ordinary Muslims of all groups, except for Wahhabis,
who consider it heretical innovation (bid'ah)
and only allow dhikrs to be counted on the fingers. Many Shi'is use beads
made from clay from Karbala, sometimes colored red in memory of the killed Imam Husayn's
blood or green in memory of his brother Hasan (who
supposedly turned green from poisoning).
Misbahahs are also used culturally to reduce stress or
as an indication of status in society.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Misbaha
Rosaries can be purchased at a wide variety of religious stores,
but if you're Irish, the website below offers some intriguing options.
https://www.theirishstore.com/celtic-jewelry/rosary-beads-religious
I'm no longer a very religious man, but if I decided to buy one
sometime in the future to buy one, it would be because of the words of James
Patterson, on page 198 of his latest book.
Elton John recorded a tribute to Marilyn Monroe in 1974. For his mom's funeral, Prince William asked Elton John to sing the same song for his mother's funeral - and he did.
Even today, that song still brings years to my eyes.
Goodbye, England's rose.
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