Rosary Show and Tell

Suscipio is hosting a "Show and Tell" link-up celebrating the month of the Most Holy Rosary.  So fun!

We have a lot of rosaries.  Most of them reside in our sacramental drawer (the drawer itself isn't sacramental...you get it.  "Sacramental drawer" just sounds nicer than "Catholic junk drawer").

This is after removing two hand missals and a copy of St. Louis de Montfort's Secret of the Rosary.

My favorite rosary was the first one I ever used.  It was a gift from Paul right before I started RCIA.  He got it from the priest who was the chaplain of the college Newman group.  It was blessed by JPII.

It is relatively small, the result of which is that most normal rosaries intended for adults feel awkwardly long to me.

It's not the most beautiful rosary in my collection, but it does mean the most to me.  As I said, it's the first rosary I ever used, the one I learned on.  The hyperdulia afforded to the Blessed Virgin was one of the things that drew me to the Church--it just made sense to me that we ought to love Jesus's mother and ask her to pray for us.  I was excited to learn to pray in this way, and Paul taught me, mostly over the phone.  I'd say this is my second favorite sacramental he's given me over the years (with #1 being my wedding band).

Join in the show and tell fun over at Suscipio!

Queenship of Mary

Let's pretend the handful of chocolate chips that got blended into my ordinarily-healthful coffee smoothie this morning was in celebration of today's feast and not just because I needed a sugar-boost to offset the fact that Rita Mae came in to give me snuggles before 6:00 am.

Some reading in honor of the day:
-Fish Eaters has a lot of information about Mary's Queenship, including scriptural references and a beautiful sermon from St. John Damascene. 
-Here is a lovely reflection on the topic from Fr. William G. Most.
-You can find Ad Caeli Reginam, Pope Pius XII's encyclical proclaiming the Queenship of Mary and establishing this feast, here.  Take special note of this paragraph at the end:

By this Encyclical Letter We are instituting a feast so that all may recognize more clearly and venerate more devoutly the merciful and maternal sway of the Mother of God. We are convinced that this feast will help to preserve, strengthen and prolong that peace among nations which daily is almost destroyed by recurring crises. Is she not a rainbow in the clouds reaching towards God, the pledge of a covenant of peace? "Look upon the rainbow, and bless Him that made it; surely it is beautiful in its brightness. It encompasses the heaven about with the circle of its glory, the hands of the Most High have displayed it." Whoever, therefore, reverences the Queen of heaven and earth - and let no one consider himself exempt from this tribute of a grateful and loving soul - let him invoke the most effective of Queens, the Mediatrix of peace; let him respect and preserve peace, which is not wickedness unpunished nor freedom without restraint, but a well-ordered harmony under the rule of the will of God; to its safeguarding and growth the gentle urgings and commands of the Virgin Mary impel us.

Let's be sure, as we celebrate today, to beg for Our Lady's intercession on behalf of Christians in Egypt and Syria.

Salve, Regina, mater misericordiae: vita, dulcedo, et spes nostra, salve. Ad te clamamus exsules filii Hevae. Ad te suspiramus, gementes et flentes in hac lacrimarum valle. Eia, ergo, advocata nostra, illos tuos misericordes oculos ad nos converte. Et Iesum, benedictum fructum ventris tui, nobis post hoc exsilium ostende. O clemens, O pia, O dulcis Virgo Maria. Amen.