The Rosary held in the hands of my dead mother

Yesterday while praying the Rosary along with Mother Angelica and the nuns on EWTN, at the end of the Mystery of the Transfiguration, as I contemplated on being transformed into the image of Christ, I remembered something from long ago. I'd like to share it here.

Someone had placed a rosary into the dead hands of my mother for a proper Catholic funeral, an adornment that I had never seen her pray with. The whole family and friends of my mother came to the funeral home to pray the rosary. That is the first time I ever heard that prayer. I doubt I was the only one who did not even know to contemplate on the mysteries as we prayed the prayers over and over. I assumed this was to help my dead mother in some Catholic funeral ritual of some superstitious nature. Before my mother's burial, I believe I was given that rosary. I did not know it was anything other than a token for remembrance of my dead mother.

After Mom was buried, I never saw anyone in my family ever pray the Rosary again, either. Nor did any priest or nun tell me to pray the Rosary even though I was searching for God, had a lot of questions, and was even ripe for becoming a nun myself. Neither did they suggest this devotion to me for myself or for my deceased parent even as I questioned them about where my mother might be since she had killed herself.

There are so many ironies connected to that memory that I experienced yesterday that I am not going to get into here. But there is something very important that I want to say.

Like many other Catholics, I have a rosary hanging from my rear-view mirror in my car. Yet a rosary is not a decoration. It is not meant to be put into a corpse's hands. It is meant to be for the living to run to and use as a holy weapon of spiritual warfare. Better still, it should be always handy in a pocket, ever ready, as a knight is not w/o his sword nor a soldier w/o his weapon on the battlefield. Use that rosary, pray the Rosary, and pray it often, every day.

If you would like me to help you to learn about the Holy Rosary please contact me or leave me a comment and I will help you. How many years has my mother been suffering in purgatory because there was nobody to pray for her? I do not know. Pray for the poor souls in purgatory. Like me, you may have never been told that you can pray for your deceased loved ones. Now you know. So pray for them.

I sought a close-up picture of a rosary in the hands of a corpse to go with this post. And can you believe it, out of 365 days, this post and the first and best photo that I could find is this one that accompanies this entry. It is a picture of St. Bernadette. And as I looked for information about who is in the picture, I read that today is also her feast day. Yes, it just "happens" to also be her feast day on the very day I publish this entry. And you don't believe in miracles? What, do you think that this is a coincidence?  Think again.