The Rosary Dilemma

...one woman's anguish...(a true story)

I'd like to start out by saying that there is no one that I know of, that has a greater Marian devotion than my wife, the 'Curly Red Haired Girl' that I've talked about on past posts. She has a problem, she goes right to Our Mother for help. If the kids or I have an issue, you can bet that the Blessed Virgin will be called upon for Intercession. A friend in need? She's gonna make sure her 'Momma' has their back. I would not be where I am today without her deep, true love and trust of Our Lady.

All that said, I fear I am at the cause of a bit of a dent in the relationship between my dear wife and Our Queen...

I'll need to go back three years to give this picture some clarity. It was then that I volunteered to become a Catechist for the Faith Formation program at our parish. That's right, I was gonna become 'part of the solution', imparting my wisdom and knowledge on those young malleable minds, eager to absorb what I was teaching like thirsty sponges...ahem...anyway...one of the things we had to do during the course of the year, was come up with a service project (because God forbid parents get their children involved in service to the Church on their own initiative...) for the class to partake in. Not wanting to do the usual scrub the pews or clean and weed the Church grounds, I came across an article on a retired Army Ranger who started a ministry making Rosaries out of the same parachute cord he use to make his out of when out in the field and sending them to Catholic Servicemen. I thought this was perfect, especially with the majority of the class being male. I pitched it as we were sending the guys defending our country, one more weapon to defeat Islam with! They ate it up and enjoyed the project, there were two problems though. One was that you had to buy 2 spools of parachute cord, which was enough to make over 400 rosaries and two was that a lot of the kids were not very good at it. The other Catechist, who was a military brat and real gung ho about the project as well, had to make up the slack with me and it forced us to make about 150 Rosaries each, on our own.

...the picture is probably becoming clearer for some of you now...

For about a month, my house became Combat Rosary Central. Parachute cord, beads, plastic crucifixes everywhere. Mini sweat shops with my younger guys crying, 'can we go play now?', and me answering 'c'mon guys, let's string together one more decade, for the troops!' All my normal fatherly duties fell by the waist side as my OCD tendencies flared, turning me into a renegade rosary stringer, run amok in my own house. My wife patiently tolerated the chaos until one day she just exploded...'I'm sick and tired that all you're doing around here, is make rosaries...' We all fell silent. Everyone recognized the enigma I'd created. My wife left the room without another word, I'll assume to our bedroom to make amends with the Blessed Mother.Me, I Was trying to pluck pony beads out of the carpet fibers and act like everything was normal to a bunch of kids who thought we'd soon be converting to the Baptist faith. The final rosaries I made, I did like an alcoholic who slipped off the wagon. Slipping a decade or two of beads on when no one was looking. Finally, the project was completed, the rosaries delivered to a MEU leaving out of Camp Lejeune and normalcy returned to our home.

Two years later and I've moved up two grades and have the same group for Confirmation prep. Discussion came up for our service projects and one of the guys ask, 'can we make those rosaries again?' So here we are, another challenge for my wife, who took the news that we'll be making rosaries again with a feigned smile of support, saying what a great project it is and more than likely wondering how long the 'other Woman' will be taking her husband away...

I'd just like to close this post with a final question...

...has the Blessed Mother ever caused such contention in anyone else's house?

Saint Michael the Archangel...

Defend Us in Battle!!!