Wednesday, July 08, 2009

For the Love of God!

One of the practices I regularly encourage others to participate in is saying the Rosary. My Rosary beads are seldom far from reach. Long road trips, take-offs and landings in airplanes, waiting rooms, evening walks, and the time before mass: each provides enough downtime that I can knock off a decade or more of prayer. It's not my main source of prayer, by any means, but it is a practice that I continue to find very helpful.

So could someone explain to me how it is that I have managed to lose no less than six sets of Rosaries in the past year? I know that one pair was left in Los Angeles last September. If you come upon a gray fleece vest, they're the nice wooden Rosary beads in the right-hand pocket. Another pair was lost in the purple PT Cruiser I rented from Budget back in March (I didn't choose the color or make...it's all they had). A third pair has probably flown the route from JFK Airport to Denver several dozen times since April. One set is in a Detroit hotel. The fifth one is probably in Lake Erie, because I tripped and dropped it into a drain. The sixth and final pair I seem to have lost somewhere in the yellow PT Cruiser owned by the John Carroll Community, even though I tore through the car three times looking for them.

While I admit responsibility for five of the losses, the sixth one is simply beyond me. I was actually being ATTENTIVE to where I put them. Nevertheless, I've managed to lose yet another pair. The trouble is, though, that I'm really particular about the kind I use (they have to be small but sturdy, light, preferably smooth, and be able to fit into my pocket easily). So this just adds further stress: not only do I need to buy several pair, but I have to stress out about what kind to buy.


6 comments:

+ Alan said...

Good Lord man - you're a rosary loosin' machine! At least you know where you lost most of 'em. I keep a set I made in my pocket all the time as well - a one-decade. I started selling them last year - check them out and let me know if there's anything you like on there. You never know. Peace.

Anonymous said...

Hey Ryan,

I used to lose my rosaries all the time too. Finally I got fed up with it enough and had a full rosary tattood on my right forearm. It took the tattoo artist ten tries or more before he got the counts right on the sketch. ("No!" I told him, "You can't just make up how many beads go there!") Anyway, I still prefer to use beads I can feel so I don't have to keep an eye on my arm the whole time, but in a pinch, or when my latest set seems to have disappeared, the rosary is always with me.

God bless!

Anonymous said...

Ryan, your irresponsibility makes Baby Jesus cry.

Matthew Spotts said...

i've finally destroyed mine via laundering often enough that my incredibly generous sister was unable to cobble it together again. sadness.

Unknown said...

I look at it this way Ryan, maybe Our Lord wanted you to loose your rosaries so someone else will pick them up and use them. Think of it as spreading a little prayer.

Tim Irish said...

Rosaries are an odd thing to me. I have many, though never the one I'm looking for (which belonged to my college Philosophy professor). I'm afraid I don't say the Rosary much; in the era of my Jesuit education, it (and most devotions to Mary) were regarded as passe' superstition. Old habits die hard, I guess, since daily I find myself saying the prayers of the Rosary so frequently that I probably complete a full one every twenty-four hours.

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