Today is the beautiful feast of the Holy Rosary, formerly known as Our Lady of Victory.
[It is also my brother Michael’s birthday, so if you could spare a prayer for him, he needs it.]
My love of the rosary includes both saying the prayers and clutching the beads. Given a choice, I would have as many sets as I do moods—you know, kind of like coffee mugs. Let’s see, am I in a purple amethyst mood today…or am I feeling more rose-scented? None of the above! I need my sturdy wooden beads in this mood.
In reality, I do have a single favorite set of beads that were given to me when we lost Francis. I have told Alice and Kimberlee how much I love my Our Lady of Guadalupe rosary but really, it is more than that. I love it…and I need it. Mary knows how I ache to have a baby one last time. Mary also knows the purpose served by my last four miscarriages. It’s a good and comforting thing, this maternal trust I have for her. It takes a lot of weight off my shoulders!
With as much as I love the rosary, you would think that I say it religiously. (Ha. That’s a little joke to lighten the tone.) I do not say the rosary every day, alas; I am too much of a nervous little dog to stay put for too long and that includes long devotions. (This is my excuse, anyway, and that’s all it is—an excuse.) I do take great comfort in our daily decade that the kids and I say each evening. We have activities almost every night—be it Boy Scouts on Monday or Choir on Wednesday or Cub Scouts on Thursday, etc.—and we always used this drive time to say a decade.
Suddenly, though, it’s not enough. It’s not nearly enough…and I know I need the discipline to fit in the other four.
We’ve a baby to pray for, and a family, and a nation, and a world.
Our Lady of Victory is there to help.
Ad Jesum per Mariam,
PS. For a great idea to celebrate today’s feast, (and one that involves food, to boot!) see Jessica’s post at Catholic Cuisine.
PPS. Would you like a chance to win an absolutely gorgeous rosary? Stop by Barbara’s and leave a comment by midnight.
We will be praying for your family, and the new little one especially! God Bless!
Last year, I was in the same boat as you, wanting to make time for the Rosary every day. We found a way to conveniently fit in 5 decades in our day. We pray 2 decades with our Morning Offering (often in the van on the way to morning Mass), 2 decades after lunch clean-up with the Angelus, and the last one with dad at bedtime prayers. It works well for us and it never takes much time at any one stretch.
You and your babe are in our daily Rosary intentions, dear Margaret!
You’re in my intentions, as always. Congratulations on this blessed news. {{hugs}}
We will say a prayer for Michael, and continue to pray for you and your little one! Happy Feast!!
Oh! And thank you for the link! 🙂
I have a favorite set of rosary beads–they’re the ones a friend brought me from the Vatican. They are rose-scented, and since my patron saint in St. Therese, it’s quite appropriate! But I do alternate between my different sets. 🙂
I am praying for you and your family, as well as our country (we need it!)
I, too, have different rosaries depending on the mood I’m in. I have one for the van, one for walking, one under my pillow (that I can wrap around my wrist), one in my living room and one in my purse (that’s my favorite one, my chapel one)! Barbara’s rosaries are beautiful too and her’s is in my kitchen and I pray it when I go to pray on the porch!!
Prayers continued for you Margaret. God is already where you are worrying.
Your faithful nightly decade will lead to more, I’m sure of it!
When bought my first Rosary I had no idea that four years later I would own so many – or be slightly addicted to making them myself. 🙂 (I never seem to have enough supplies!) My favorite one I keep on my nightstand so I have it nearby during the night. There’s nothing like being able to “run to Mother” after a bad dream or troubling day. 🙂
~Jenny
I have many different rosaries which I keep in different rooms of my house. Whenever I have time and depending where we are in the house, there is always a rosary close by. Of course I gotta keep one in the car too. I pray Our Lady of the Rosary will watch over us all.
Our two oldest children have my favorite rosaries–my mom gave them my grandparents’ rosaries for their First Communion gift.
I’ll say a prayer for your brother, Michael. Today is the 21st anniversary of my brother Michael’s death. So, October 7th has always been dear to my heart.
The Rosary provides great comfort…when all of us sit still long enough to say it!
I enjoy your blog, and I’m also a Minnesotan–transplanted now in Texas.
Blessings…
praying for you!!
included your special intention in a young adult rosary group i went to last night.
blessings!
Beautifully written, and so true. There is much we need to pray for right now, personally and globally!
You are beautiful. Praying for you and baby.
Lovely, Margaret, simply lovely. And I know what you mean…”It’s not enough.” I go through spurts with the rosary, where I pray it religiously (ha! no pun intended, but I’m keeping it there anyway…) and then I fall off, go away from it, and feel something missing.
Praying for you, family, and baby. 🙂