I bought my first rosary in 1960. It was plastic and pink, and it cost a dime. Our Catholic school had mandated that all first-graders purchase a rosary from the principal’s office on a certain day. But when that day came, only three of us arrived at school with ten cents. The principal’s assistant had two kinds of rosaries laid out on her desk: pink and black. I thought th (...)
Short Take
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An Old Devotion Quiets a Modern Mind
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I too find the rosary is how I meditate. When I can't sleep at night, I keep saying it until I go back to sleep. My late mother had a long, beautiful green rosary that people always compliment me on when I wear it around my neck during hard times. I tucked the crucifix behind my shirt, and no one realizes what it is.
I still prayed the rosary during my long years of alienation from the Church. Surely it helped me come home.
I also returned to the church after months of praying the rosary. I prayed it because I couldn't meditate in the Buddhist manner I was attempting. I was forever distracted, had trouble concentrating on breathing, posture, etc. Kneeling seemed more appropriate -- humbling and opening. However, still in my agnostic/secular humanist mode, I was embarrassed kneeling, fingering the beads and saying the words (I had to look up some of the mysteries I'd forgotten after years away). Eventually, I became more comfortable praying this way and more accepting of the church as it was. Now, I still have trouble meditating but I have the support system of the church, including of course the mass and the rosary.