Yesterday, Jay and I drove downtown to the Basilica of St. Mary for a prayer service at noon. It was held in the choir loft behind the altar. There were less than a dozen of us and it was really cool being in the church practically alone. The service was only about a half hour long, really beautiful and I'm really happy we went.
I also got to meet the man who takes care of the Basilica. Jay knows him because he's down there all the time. He'd given the young man one of the rosaries I'd made. He thanked me, which was very nice.
Oh yeah: my sister Margy got me making rosaries with her last autumn. As usual, I've completely lost my mind and gone overboard. It's a ton of fun!
Every Sunday, I check the ads to see if any of the three different stores in my neighborhood have beads on sale, then I stock up. I've got 3 or 4 different websites I visit also, where I can get crucifies and centerpieces. I've gotten a lot of equipment on Amazon, as well.
Margy has been giving spectacularly beautiful rosaries to people as gifts for a few years. Making them is a fun, productive outlet for her creative energy. I think it's a blast but after a week or two, we were discussing what we should do with all of them. We've both given a lot to friends and family but we had a lot more...
She suggested an Etsy page but we were concerned that supply chain issues could be a serious problem if we allowed people to order actual designs we'd come up with.
I woke up one morning with the distinct impression that I'd been given a message. I called Margy and said "We're not supposed to make money on these. We're supposed to give them away. And don't worry about running out of stuff: that's not our problem."
So, we contacted a few churches and offered to donate rosaries to the kids making their First Communion, their Confirmation and the adult Catechumens. Since this idea was not presented to us until Lent had already begun, after three parishes accepted our offer, we were content to supply them. Two parishes had rather small requests: under 40, in total. The third parish I contacted, however, had nearly a hundred people making their sacraments this spring! We've been cranking out rosaries like nobody's business.
We aren't making 'kid friendly' rosaries, either. Some of them are definitely not for kids; too large, too heavy, etc. But we're not pawning off silly, plastic, cheap rosaries just because we're giving them to 7 year olds. Every one of our rosaries is a gorgeous work of art (if I may say so myself). The point is to make rosaries people want to touch; to pick up and run through their fingers; to hold onto.
The way we figure it, the world is packed with boring rosaries no one wants to pick up. Why not fill it with beautiful ones you can't wait to touch?
In every one of her visitations, the Blessed Virgin has begged the world to say the rosary every day. So, we're doing our part. Once my sister in law Heidi saw what we were doing, she offered to help, too.
Next year, I plan to contact parishes nice and early so we have months to make them rather than just weeks. We can get to a lot more kids if we know how many are needed. I'd like to include kids being confirmed, as well. That way, the more sophisticated rosaries will be appropriate.
My brother Joe issued a challenge as soon as he saw what we were up to: He said we should come up with designs to illustrate the Divine mysteries of the rosary. There are 20 in all, five for each of the joyful, sorrowful, glorious and luminous mysteries. I just laughed and said that would be too hard.
A few days later, I woke up with an idea for the Wedding at Cana in my head.
A day or two later, the Transfiguration presented itself.
I take no credit for these designs; they were given to me.
Since then, I've done the Nativity and the Visitation (joyful mysteries); the Agony in the Garden, the Scourging at the Pilar and the Crown of Thorns (sorrowful); The Descent of the Holy Spirit (Pentacost) and the Coronation (glorious mysteries) in addition to those first two luminous mysteries.
Most designs are inspired by the beads themselves. I found a string of beads at Hobby Lobby that looked just like coins so naturally I had to come up with an illustration of Jesus throwing the moneychangers out of the temple. I thought wooden chunks for the Our Father beads could symbolize the tables but I found something far better: wooden disks with the holes drilled through diagonally, so the tables are in a permanent state of being flipped over!
My favorite design so far is the Parrothead rosary. I've given versions to both my sons and one brother in law (so far). Each one is unique ( I never repeat myself verbatim) but a variation of this:
All of this is just my way of avoiding work. I have a long list of orders waiting to be filled but none of them look like fun today, so I'm posting this instead.
But I really have to get back to work or I won't be able to afford to buy more beads.