A Tribute

Our Lady of Fatima
"This is how you are to hold the rosary."
Each of us looked at my mom carefully as she wound the plastic beads around my hand and into my little pinkie.  My younger siblings were in awe that I was deemed mature enough to hold a full-length rosary.  They only got to hold the little finger ones during our family prayer.  I was eight.

"That way, the rosary doesn't slip off your hand and it keeps moving smoothly from decade to decade," mom continued.

I've never quite seen anyone hold the rosary like my mom.
Literally.  Most people's rosaries dangled unexpectedly into their armpits or near their behind.
My mom held the rosary as any fantasy game character would hold her sword.

Carefully and consciously.

Never letting it leave her sight.
Ready to do battle for justice and mercy.

As mom ages, she's beginning to forget which pieces of jewelry marked which occasion.
She's beginning to forget recipes to our favorite dishes.
She never forgets where she puts her rosary.

Today dawns and my mom is over 1500 miles away as like the past twenty Mother's Days.
Hers is a bittersweet joy because my perseverance as a religious sister is joy of a mother who knows that my eyes and my heart has been captured by Eternity.

Today dawned 95 years ago and a mother visited Fatima.
She comes with the hope that the world will cast their hopes and dreams into her maternal heart and not into the abyss of hedonism and materialism.
She comes with rosary in hand, hoping that we will learn to wield it powerfully and effectively.

Today dawns and our Irving community has been established for ten years.
Have we been harbingers of our Lady?

Have I been a worthy harbinger of the beautiful mom entrusted to me?

ps.  More on Our Lady of Fatima, in which today marks the first apparition.
http://www.ewtn.com/fatima/index.htm

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