Disappearing Rosaries

Here's a post by Michael Iafrate about the part which the rosary has played in his life, and how he likes to meditate on an alternative set of Gospel scenes called the "Subversive Mysteries". I got to the post via Tom's post which provides a gentle critique and warning of the practice of "rolling one's own mysteries". I recommend people who pray the rosary or are interested in private devotion read both posts, preferably not "out of order" as I did.

But one thing struck me in Mr. Iafrate's piece which is completely incidental. He writes, "Sometime in grade school, probably first grade, I received a really nice Italian rosary from my uncle who is a priest. It was blessed by Pope John Paul II, and I remember being very proud of it. I was crushed when it was stolen from my desk one day."

The reason I was struck by it is that I have lost almost all my "prized" rosaries somehow. For the most recent example, a priest went to Rome to see Benedict XVI and brought back a nice Rosary personally blessed by him for me, and we're talking a $30.00 rosary here, not a cheap-assed plastic jobby made by old people in a nursing home somewhere. However, about a year and a half ago, this rosary I so highly prized just up and disappeared.

This is only the last in a long line of incidents where my cool sets of beads disappear and I'm left with those little metal rings and plastic models made in Thailand. My theory is that my Guardian Angel, Our Lady and the Holy Spirit—who we all know are totally in kahoots anyway—have arranged all these disappearances so I won't be tempted into some kind of weird, low-grade idolatry or superstition about my rosaries. This theory has been corroborated over the years by stories of others who have lost all their best rosaries regardless of the meticulous care they've given them. This story might sound a bit superstitious in and of itself, or at least an excuse for my own negligence. But on the whole, I'm not a big loser of items and when I do misplace things, they generally turn up within a day or two. Not so with my rosaries. Hopefully if others find these they'll say a few decades for the previous owner; I'll take what I can get.