If
you wish to read a review of the book, read Julie Davis’ at Happy Catholic.
a
rosary
I’ll tell you s story
about one rosary and let it stand for so very many of these lovely silent
haunting companions in our pockets and cars and purses and drawers and under
pillows and wrapped in the hands of the dead.
This rosary was made
eighty years ago by a boy in the woods of Oregon. He was a timber cutter working so deep in the
woods that there were no roads and the men and boys rode into camp on mules. He was seventeen years old that summer and
very lonely and one evening he began to carve rosary beads from cedar splits
otherwise destined for the fire. He
tried to carve a bead a night, sitting by the fire, and with each bead he would
try to remember the story of the bead as his mother had told him. There were the joyful mysteries of good news
and visiting cousins and new babies and christenings and finding children whom
you feared were utterly lost. There were
the sorrowful mysteries of men weeping in the dark and men beating men and men
jeering and taunting men and men torturing men and men murdering men under the
aegis of the law. There were the
glorious mysteries of life defeating death and light returning against epic
darkness and epiphanies arriving when no doors or windows seemed open to admit
them and love defeating death and the victory of that we know to be true
against all evidence that it is not.
When he had cut a bead
for each of these stories he was finished, for there were at that time no luminous
mysteries on which to ponder and pray.
He threaded thin copper
wire through each of the beads, setting the mysteries apart with larger beads cut
from the yew, and he carved a cross from the shinbone of an elk, and he thought
about trying to carve a Christ also, but the thought of carving Christ made him
uncomfortable, and anyway he did not think he had the skill, and he did not
want to ask one of the older men, some of whom were superb carvers, so he left
the cross unadorned, as he said, and put the rosary in his pocket, and carried
it with him every day the rest of his life.
The rosary went with
him through Italy and North Africa in the war, and into the wheat fields of
Oregon, and back into the woods where he again cut timber for a while, and then
all through his travels as a journalist on every blessed muddy road from Canada
to California, as he said, and through his brief but very happy years in
retirement by the sea, where his rosary acquired a patina of salt from the
mother of all oceans, as he said.
He had the rosary in
his pocket the day he was on his knees in his garden and leaned forward and
placed his face upon the earth and died, almost seventy years after he finished
carving the rosary in the deep woods as a boy.
His wife carried the
rosary in her pocket for the next two years until the morning she died in her
bed, smiling at the prospect of seeing her husband by evening, as she told her
son.
The son carried the
rosary in his pocket for the next three days until the moment when he and I
were walking out of the church laughing at one of his father’s thousand salty
stories of life in the woods and in the war and in the fields and on the road
and by the sea, at which point the son handed it to me, and said Dad wanted you to have it, and hustled
away to attend to his wife and children, brothers and nieces and nephews.
I wept. Sure I did.
You would weep too. Sure you
would.
I have the rosary in my
pocket now. I hope to carry it every day
the rest of my life, and jingle it absentmindedly, and pray it here and there
when I have a moment in the sun, and place it ever so carefully and gently on a
shelf every night before I go to bed, touching the elk-bone cross with a smile
in memory of my friend George, until the morning of my own death, when I pray
for a last few moments of grace in which to hand it to my own son, and then
close my eyes and go to see the One for whom it was made, who made us, amen.
Very
short, very powerful. I can show you how
the distinct images, the combination of long and short sentences, the
repetitions, and the forward movement of the narrative all work together to make
this a powerful piece. But set aside
craft here. That just fills me with
faith.
What a wonderful story. Thank you so much Manny for sharing it with us. It is really moving.
ReplyDeleteGod bless you.
My pleasure.
DeleteGreat story Manny!
ReplyDeleteAlthough, I've never heard this story before, I'm sure that it must have influence others because my mom, God bless her soul, she had a wooden rosary that looked similar to this one on her wall. To my surprised when mom died, all of our siblings believed that I should get this rosary. After I received "IT", i had no choice but to keep "IT" in the little chapel that my wife had created for me. She knew that I prayed and went to church almost every day back then and so long story short, she decided to put me in a closet. Well really back then there was no need for this closet because our five girls were all gone...
Sorry for going off on a tangent again. :)
Anyway! After I received this rosary, "IT" was too large to keep in my pocket cause each beads were about an inch in diameter so I placed "IT" on the wall in the chapel that my wife had created for little old me. Don't tell any body's spiritual reality cells, but when I started praying in my then chapel, it seemed like I couldn't stop. Manny, "I" mean many of our children didn't find it funny when they came for a visit and were told that I would be with them shortly cause i was almost finished.
Hey long story short, man, I mean Manny, I'm out of the closet now because after having burned hundredth if not thousands of candles in my chapel while praying. Longer story shorter, one day I ran out of candles to burn and believe it or not, my wife said that she forgot to buy more but did have only two left. Honest to good old dad, they were two "PINK Candles" that were left and wouldn't YA know "IT", those "pink candles' caused a fire and burned many valuable possessions which included the cross that dear old mom gave me but hey, I'm still out of the closet and no human lives were lost and that's what truly matters. Right?
I hear YA Manny! After having read a little about your theory to prove, that angels really do exist in different forms, all I can ass whom, "I" mean assume is that some angel (S) disguised as gods must have really started that fire! :(
Go Figure! LOL :)
God bless
My mother has one of those huge rosaries too. She's got it hanging from a portrait of my father. It's sort of like a shrine too. That is so sad on the fire. As I was reading I was thinking I would never do that. I have this fear of candles starting fires. I had my mother go with electric candles for her shrines. God bless.
DeleteThank You for the kind words Manny
ReplyDeleteAs for lit candles, I've indirectly heard it from my wife that all of our children feel the same as you do about them. They've given up telling me what to do because I can be very stubborn at times but I'm still not too old to know that I would be silly and many might even call me stupid :) if I continued using lit candles after what happened. GOD (Good Old Dad) must agree with me cause the new church that I've now been attending for about three years had a couple of old electric brass Anthique Lamps Candles that they sold to my wife for a small donation. I honestly believe that these electric candles were sold by chance because they were announced for sale during Mass and my wife was first to get her hands on them.
I hear YA! But then again Victor, Go Figure angels now!?
Manny! Don't tell any body' spiritual reality cells but my wife still has not created a new chapel for me and I don't pray as often as I use to so please don't stop putting in a few good words to The Old Man for me if ya get my drift?
Don't tell anyone but I still don't read the good book, "I" mean The Bible cause I'm afraid that some of my five per sent age "Jesus" cells might fly away and then where would "I" be now? :(
Manny because you've moved my spirit, I'm also going to tell you of a miracle that happened during that fire in my chapel. I had told my wife to call the fire department because it was the right thing to do and I armored myself with one of my very large bath towel completely wet and went into the flames. As I walked in, I noticed that the flames were only scattered in one spot surrounding my best friend family crucifix that he gave me before he was forced by love to change religion. Anyway, believe it or not I saw the flames all around that crucifix and the fire did not seem to be moving from that spot and/or burning nor touching anything else. I must have been in shock because I stood watching those flames not doing any damage which seemed like for a good minute. Call me crazy but a little time later, I thought that I heard the flames quietly telling me that it was leaving to do some real damage and within a split second of sensing that, I threw the towel on the fire and it was completely put out.
I'll start closing by saying that the fire men did a professional job in making sure that no sparks or flame had been left behind. I did tell the chief and/or the one who was in charge in so many words that the two pink candles started the fire but I guess he didn't believe me cause no one took me to a mental hospital and for the record, the only think still wrong with the crucifix is that His Right Hand has been set free from the cross. LOL :)
God Bless
LOL. You're too funny. :)
Delete