Two Lost Rosaries

New Zealand Tablet, Volume L, Issue 1, 4 January 1923, Page 51

Two Lost Rosaries

A priest who was a prominent pastor m the city of New York a few years ago recently told us the following story of the conversion of a man with whom he was well acquainted and who was one of his own parishioners: The gentleman in question had in his service a pious Catholic girl, who happened to lose her beads, which were picked up by her employer. After wondering what sort of thing they could be, he put them in his pocket, supposing { ever, as he saw a cross and a medal, that they were the object of some Catholic superstition. V At the end of a week he heard his servant bewailing the loss of her precious beads. They were, she said, the souvenir of a friend, one very dear to her: they had been blessed by the Holy Father himself; in fine, she would give everything in the world to find them. Mr. — , hearing her, was reminded of the object he had found eight days before, and drawing the beads from his pocket, he showed them to the girl, saying: “Are these what you lost?” .“Yes,” she cried, in joyful surprise; “those are my beads! Oh, give them back to me please!” “I will,” was the answer, “on condition that you tell me what use you make of them.” l The happy girl at once consented, and clearly explained how she used the beads, not only to count the beautiful prayers which compose the Rosary, but also to help her meditate on the principal mysteries of the life and death of Our Lord Jesus Christ and His holy Mother. She assured him it was a very easy manner of praying, and at the same time a very efficacious one; that many graces and favors were infallibly obtained by it. / The gentleman, who had begun by smiling at the simplicity of the good girl, was, however, very much impressed, by what she said, and for many days the thought of his servant’s beads could not be blotted out of his mind. ■ Some time later, as he was passing through one of the city streets, he happened to see in the show window of an humble little shop where religious articles were displayed, several pairs of beads exposed for sale. The thought of* going in to /buy a pair of beads struck him. But he hesitated, thinking also how absurd it was for him, a Protestant, to buy such an article of Catholic superstition. Nevertheless he entered and bought a pair. Once in possession of his purchase, he did not know exactly what to do with it. Certainly his servant had told him that the beads were used for saying “Onr Fathers” and “Hail, Marys,” but what about the “mysteries of religion” of which she had spoken? Nevertheless, he carried them constantly in his pocket, and the thought of them was ever in his mind. A few days afterwards he happened to be. again passing the little shop where he had bought his beads. This time he entered to inquire if they had not for sale some devotional book explaining the method of saying the beads. Such a book was immediately shown to him. Ho bought it and when seated in the street car a few minutes later, at once opened it and began to look for an explanation of “the .beads,” He knew them only by this name, and so was much disappointed on searching the table of contents to find no mention of the word beads. i Next day he returned to the store with his book, complaining that he had been deceived, that the explanation of the “beads” was not in the book. , * The saleswoman looked at him in surprise, then took the volume from him, and opening it quickly' read aloud: “Explanations'of the Fifteen Mysteries of the Most Holy Rosary,” adding sharply, “"Well, you must be- a pretty ignorant Catholic not to know that beads and Rosary mean the same,’ thing.” . -: ; Our poor friend, somewhat' taken aback, murmured his thanks, bowed, '- and left. V It was with the greatest interest that he read the explanation of the fifteen mysteries. He was charmed with the clear and concise way in which the great truths • of, the Christian^' faith were thus set forth, while he was lost.in admiration of the beautiful prayers accompanying the mysteries, which seemed to him sublime in their ! very simplicity. ' , , V ' : '/ ’' -

;He set himself to learn the “Hail Mary” ,by heart, ’ using his book in order to aid his memory in recalling the different . mysteries. „ But one day it happened, that ho* lost his beads, and they were found by his servant. She was naturally surprised to see a rosary in the house, and wondered to whom it could possibly belong. As she stood thus, lost in astonishment, she heard a step behind her. Turning, suddenly, she confronted Mr. — . At the same instant he saw the rosary in her hand, and exclaimed: “Why, —— ! those are my beads: give them to me, please.” “What, sir!” cried the girl, “are you then a Catholic?” “No,” was the answer, “but . I am thinking seriously of becoming one.” In effect, soon after he called upon a priest, who gave him some preliminary instructions and then directed him to the Paulist Fathers, who received him into the true fold. ” Later, his wife and young children followed him into the Church, and all form to-day a -fervent Catholic family, in which the holy Rosary is held in the greatest honor. — The Sentinel of the Blessed Sacrament, " THE MOST POTENT BULWARK ■ Catholics Need Spirit of Esprit do Corps. The individual is comparatively powerless. Unity is strength. Many Catholics, unfortunately, give this maxim the go-by, complacently leaving it to the other fellow. The spirit is fundamentally wrong and is most unworthy. Some are so despicably poor-spirited in this respect that they will not afford a penny for a Catholic paper. When you subscribe for a Catholic paper either for yourself or for a friend or neighbor, you do your share to render innocuous the calumnies of the antiCatholic lecturer. You may get angry and excited and raise your voice, and be tempted to raise even your hand, against the Church’s enemy—but all this only advertises him and his foul campaign. Hut when you subscribe to a Catholic-paper, dedicated to the spread of truth and good-feeling among citizens—then you are doing something that may not be so spectacular as the other method, but that is much more effective. Indeed, unless you are doing something to support the Catholic press, your righteous indignation against the anti-Catholic campaigner is open to question. — HOME TRUTHS FROM NEW ZEALAND ' Miss Jessie Mackay, whom the Irish of New Zealand delegated as their representative to the Irish Race Congress in Paris, has, on her return to the Dominion, been giving her views publicly as to what was and is the true state of affairs in our land (says the Irish Catholic for October 29). She is qualified to do this, as not only did she attend the Race Congress, but she visited Ireland and investigated conditions there for herself. She says that she went to the’ Paris Conference a detached seeker , after truth, and left it “entirely convinced that Ireland’s good rested with the party of peace, reconciliation, and reconstruction; also that the war party was led by men and women of tremendous sincerity who were determined to throw their own personal wealth, comfort, and life itself, on a fantastic altar of duty they had built for themselves.” The only explanation of the attitude of these that she can possibly discover is that they were “untimely born souls— of the. Middle Ages, never people of the twentieth century at all.” ’