Please excuse me, my consistency has been off as of late. 🙂 Here’s hoping to get back on track as I enjoy very much leaving with you these tidbits written by the great Catholics of old so you may ponder them as I do.

But…as you know, I am a mother and grandma of many and life has its ups and downs. God is good and He sees us through them all.

We have recently had two difficult miscarriages among my daughters. So time was spent in the hospital. 

We also have the Shakespeare Festival going on this weekend which is always a busy time.

Many things make up family life… illness or injury, financial stress, worries and anxiety, conflict and strain. On the flip side…weddings and births, simple joys, answered prayers, family traditions and gatherings, etc.

We have to navigate all of these things… they are the gifts that God has given us. They are gifts that we can learn from, gifts that help us to grow closer to Him…especially the crosses.

In the last few years, I have been saying the three sets of mysteries of the rosary each day. I have many people to pray for and so I have decided that this is what I needed to do as the rosary is a solution to all of life’s problems. Our Lady will take care of things if we put them in her hands. To Jesus through Mary.

I encourage you…if you are going through a difficult time…say an extra rosary. If you have concerns…say an extra rosary (meaning an extra five decades, you don’t have to include the beginning and the end each time).

Take a hold of that weapon and use it. It will ward off the enemies and surround your life with protection, inspiration and encouragement. Just don’t give up…because you will be tempted to.

🍂🍁🍃🍂🍁🍃🍂🍁🍃🍂🍁🍃🍂🍁🍃

Mary’s Answer

Article by Catherine de Hueck Doherty, Bogoroditza, Madonna House Publications

Catherine was brought up in Russia and had many fond memories of her life there….a life that reflected simplicity, family, religion. After fleeing Russia during the Communist Revolution, she eventually came into the Catholic Church. Catherine prayed much that her motherland would be freed from Communist rule so that people could once again openly practice their faith.

Our world remains poised on the edge of an abyss of darkness. I think of scientists in white, working in gleaming laboratories, dissecting the awesome mysteries of the atom. They work in offices that are soundproofed, quiet as tombs, dealing with figures that few mortals understand, but that may spell utter destruction and death, not only to thousands, or millions, but to all humankind.

Atom bombs, hydrogen bombs, nuclear weapons, chemical weapons, weapons of mass destruction are in the minds and under the hands of workers in buildings sheeted in secrecy, guarded like fortresses of old.

Outside is a strange, breathless world of men and women who are living, eating, selling, buying, marrying, yet seemingly also waiting, waiting for something foreseen and terrible to happen. They are waiting in fear, in insecurity, in trembling, their minds so many vital unseen threads all meeting at one point—those buildings where the figures of death and life are dealt with.

Like the pagan god Moloch of old, the atom—its bomb, its weaponry, its death potential—is draining our lives and souls, robbing us of the peace of God and of our true selves, casting us into a desert, alone.

Yet, the answer is at hand. The solution is close by. Gently, softly, the thread that will lead us out of the labyrinth of our fears, doubts and turmoil is placed into our sinful hands. It will close the abyss, and, touching the atom, make it a servant, and not an avenging god. The answer, the solution, is the Rosary.

The Rosary’s Secret

The Rosary: so tiny, so seemingly weak, is to be used against the unseen but deadly power unleashed by the human mind. The Rosary, so foolish a weapon against the millions of fists raised by atheistic communism and the millions of hearts turned toward materialism and life itself.

The Rosary, a prayer of babies, youth, men, and women, is so simple that even the illiterate can pray it, so profound that geniuses have not begun to probe its depths. The Rosary, a simple vocal prayer, can lead us into the realism of the highest mental and contemplative prayer!

The Rosary is an answer to all our fears, to all our unrest, to all our dangers. It finds us everywhere and leads us back from the desert of darkness where we now dwell, where, forever and ever, the prince of darkness tempts us to fall down and adore him. Yes, it is the answer. Our Lady in her many apparitions said so. Especially at Fatima.

Why, then, are we not listening? Why do so many Catholics leave the Rosary unsaid? Why aren’t our days filled with endless Rosaries forming a chain to hold our hearts anchored to the heart of God, through Mary his mother?

It is time to begin now to pray the Rosary daily. We must understand that if we do not, our world will perish, and we with it. And those who are left will dwell in the catacombs, perhaps using only the Rosary, their ten fingers, over and over again, and weeping because they know why they are underground.

Oh, let us pray the Rosary now, so that the children of light may continue to dwell in the light of God’s sun, so that the world may be restored to Christ.

Centuries of Love

How many centuries of love and prayer brought the Rosary to us in the simple, childlike form we have it today? The hand of God must have slowly fashioned it, as he himself let the beads of years slip to the earth, one by one, each containing within itself his loving care, his providence, his mercy, his justice and his infinite charity, each a gift of his loving-kindness to us.

It grew slowly with the infant Church. How many chanted it throughout Christendom in the days when Christians sought first the kingdom of heaven, knowing that all the rest would be added to them.

When did it become a string of beads? Our Lady must have liked the simplicity that made it available to all—children, youth, and all the ages of men and women, both the learned and unlearned.

“The Psalter of Mary” it was called: three times fifty Hail Mary’s said by anyone in the place of the one hundred and fifty psalms of the Office, in the days when many could not read. Tradition has it that she blessed it and gave it to St. Dominic to give to others. It is a heavenly lasso, perhaps, to entice her wayward children back into her motherly arms.

It is part of so many recent apparitions, in which she has so emphatically told the world, through the lips of children, to pray the Rosary. How slender a thread to hold our disintegrating world up! And yet how strong. It consists of a short string of a crucifix, one large bead, three smaller ones, and then another large one. This short string is attached to a circlet of beads: five decades, or sets of one large bead and ten smaller ones.

How childishly simple these beads, made of anything and everything, strung in orderly rows, beginning with the cross. It is her Son’s cross, which she never can or will forget.

On the crucifix, we recite the Apostles’ Creed: “I believe in God, the Father Almighty…” Then on the first large bead, the Our Father: “Our Father, who art in heaven…”—her Father and ours. The Father who chose her to be the mother of his Son. The Father who is so pleased with her. The Father who made her immaculate, a vessel of predilection.

Then on the three small beads three Hail Mary’s, Gabriel’s angelic salutation, “Hail, Mary, full of grace, the Lord is with you…” which forever resounds in her ears. The last large bead for the Glory Be, “Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit.” She must love that so, she who is Our Lady of the Trinity! And then the measured, evenly recurring Our Father, ten Hail Mary’s, and Glory Be said for each decade.

While reciting each decade we meditate on a particular mystery, or event in her life, as she leads us through the whole of her life, so full of mysteries. Joyful, Sorrowful, and Glorious Mysteries—deep as the seas of eternity. Simple as the smile of a child. Leading us to the very heart of God, through her who gave him his human heart.

Rosaries are held by millions of hands: the chubby ones of babies, the smooth, beautiful, strong and manly hands of youth, the capable and gentle hands of women and men, the gnarled and work-worn hands of the old, the transparent and weak hands of the sick. Sinners and saints hold them, and, letting them pass through their fingers, bead by bead, enter an unspeakably beautiful symphony of love, woven of two prayers—the Hail Mary, given us by an angel; and the Our Father, revealed by the Son of God. They are music that leads us on to heights uncharted and unknown, to where God dwells.

A promise of salvation and peace! As we pray, we will remember her promise that she will hold our disintegrating world together and will help us restore ourselves and it, to her Son.

A good Catholic woman learns quickly that to love is to hurt….They go hand in hand. Her life is spent spreading love and gathering crosses. And when God allows her to suffer, she understands it is not to do her harm but to gather her into His arms.

“It is worth while now for me, – now while the brief occasion lasts – to overcome one temptation, to do one small kindness, to improve my mind by one half hour of study, to wait in patience when there is nothing else to be done, to bear a headache, or sleeplessness, or some small pain….” If you enjoy this video , please Like and Subscribe.

Beautiful Blessed Mother Wire Wrapped Rosary! Lovely, Durable ~ Available here.

Each link is handmade and wrapped around itself to ensure quality.

Package Special! The Catholic Young Lady’s Maglet & The Catholic Young Lady’s Journal!

Available here.

To trust in God’s will is the “secret of happiness and content,” the one sure-fire way to attain serenity in this world and salvation in the next. Trustful Surrender simply and clearly answers questions that many Christians have regarding God’s will, the existence of evil, and the practice of trustful surrender, such as:

• How can God will or allow evil? (pg. 11)
• Why does God allow bad things to happen to innocent people? (pg. 23)
• Why does God appear not to answer our prayers? (pg. 107)
• What is Trustful Surrender to Divine Providence? (pg. 85) and many more…

This enriching classic will lay to rest many doubts and fears, and open the door to peace and acceptance of God’s will. TAN’s pocket-sized edition helps you to carry it wherever you go, to constantly remind yourself that God is guarding you, and He does not send you any joy too great to bear or any trial too difficult to overcome.

This post contains affiliate links. Thank you for your support.