A Continuous Rosary Chain

The rosary has always been a part of my life, and even more so after the events of Medjugorje.   It was shortly after my visit there (and conversion) that the chain on my rosary turned gold; it was the same rosary which my sister had given me at the hospital, where I lay undergoing tests on the day of my high school graduation.  I recalled the priests presenting my diploma to me there in the hospital, sis giving me the rosary, AND the picture taking, which (much to my embarrassment) made the front page of the local newspaper where sis worked.   

I guess that was the start of gift rosaries in my life, and hospitals, and resulting miracles.

Two years ago a stranger made me a rosary and mailed it to me as a Christmas present.  I wrote about it here, and the events associated with that gift  (http://do-not-be-anxious.blogspot.com/2013/01/memento-mori.html ).  I have prayed each night since on that rosary, and the meditations prayed on it gave me much insight into God’s plans for me, and great peace.  It was a most precious possession.  That is until another Christmas day two years later, which I wrote about recently.  The part my rosary played in that day seemed of such minor importance I didn’t think to write about it in my Christmas Day blog post, but that was before the rest of the story unfolded.

That day at the hospital Deb, the dying woman’s daughter, said that she had forgotten to bring mom’s favorite rosary to the hospital, so I offered her my rosary, the one gifted to me two years earlier.  Deb put it into her mom’s hand, and Donna, although only semi-alert, grabbed onto the rosary and held it fiercely. 

Donna’s funeral was the subsequent Tuesday.  I didn’t know if my rosary was being buried with Donna, or if her daughter had substituted her mom’s own favorite one, but I wasn’t worried about it.  In the few nights since Donna’s death I had been using a rosary I long ago purchased for myself.  I didn’t mind losing my precious gift for what seemed such a good purpose, and thought which rosary I used after that didn’t matter much, --- but I guess God thought otherwise.  

That evening I attended my Spiritual Director Formation class, and one of my classmates came over and gave me a Christmas present:  “I was out shopping last week and I don’t know why, but I just thought you might like this: I made you a rosary.”  And so she handed me the box containing the beautiful, glistening rosary --- another rosary Christmas gift from a stranger.  “I didn’t have time to get it blessed,” she said, “so you’ll need to do that.”

For the next week I continued to pray on the rosary I had purchased, until I was able to attend a weekday mass and catch Fr Ed afterward to bless the latest Christmas gift rosary.  That night was again a class night for me, and afterwards I again thanked the woman who had made me the rosary and told her it had been blessed that very day, and I would pray the first rosary on it that night for her and her family.  And so I did.

From sis’s gift to me in a hospital --- and God highlighting that gift, to a Christmas gift from a stranger, to a Christmas gift TO a stranger (in a hospital), to yet another Christmas gift from a stranger.  It seems I have a continuous rosary chain going on, and it seems a most blessed thing. 

Oh, and regarding the rosary I had purchased for myself and used for the last two weeks, thinking my using it didn’t matter:  that night as I took the newly blessed gift rosary to church, I reached into my pocket for the zippered rosary container I used, intending to replace my purchased rosary with the gifted one.  The container I’ve carried for years was gone.  I’ve looked everywhere, and can’t imagine where I might have dropped it, but it is gone. 

Oh well, I guess that must be God’s gift of a nice shiny new rosary to someone else.  I pray it brings them many miracles.