"My prayer beads are strung on my life span.
I am not allowed to skip a single bead:
Sometimes the bead is a seed. Or a bone.
Or jade. Or dry blood. Or semen. Or crystal.
Or rotted wood. Or a sage's relic. Or gold.
Or glass. Or a prism. Or iron. Or clay. Or an eye.
Or an egg. Or dung. Or a ball. Or a stone.
Or a peach. Or a bullet. Or a bubble.
Or lead. Or pure light.
No matter what the next bead is, I must count it,
Perform my daily austerities.
Repeat. Repeat. Repeat.
Until repetition becomes endurance."
No doubt many people look at us Catholics and our rosaries--what my nana said my great-great-grandfather, a Mason, would call devil beads--and say we are babbling like heathens. What they fail to understand is that in the tracking of our prayers this way, we have choices: To engage our minds, to engage our senses; To focus on the life of Christ and God's mysteries therein; To pray to God, along with Mary, for and to her Son; To illuminate the meanings of the words of the prayers, and their applications to my own life.
So far I am not so strict in a practice of daily disciplines, letting the seasons of my life dictate my involvement in prayer. As I face the uncertainties--and austerities--of the coming year, may I not fear to embrace as fully as possible the prayer life I have chosen as an expression to my God. It will be much needed--indeed, it already is--by me and by all!
I am not allowed to skip a single bead:
Sometimes the bead is a seed. Or a bone.
Or jade. Or dry blood. Or semen. Or crystal.
Or rotted wood. Or a sage's relic. Or gold.
Or glass. Or a prism. Or iron. Or clay. Or an eye.
Or an egg. Or dung. Or a ball. Or a stone.
Or a peach. Or a bullet. Or a bubble.
Or lead. Or pure light.
No matter what the next bead is, I must count it,
Perform my daily austerities.
Repeat. Repeat. Repeat.
Until repetition becomes endurance."
No doubt many people look at us Catholics and our rosaries--what my nana said my great-great-grandfather, a Mason, would call devil beads--and say we are babbling like heathens. What they fail to understand is that in the tracking of our prayers this way, we have choices: To engage our minds, to engage our senses; To focus on the life of Christ and God's mysteries therein; To pray to God, along with Mary, for and to her Son; To illuminate the meanings of the words of the prayers, and their applications to my own life.
So far I am not so strict in a practice of daily disciplines, letting the seasons of my life dictate my involvement in prayer. As I face the uncertainties--and austerities--of the coming year, may I not fear to embrace as fully as possible the prayer life I have chosen as an expression to my God. It will be much needed--indeed, it already is--by me and by all!
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