Beauty for Ashes

Today marks the beginning of the Lenten season. For Christians, this is the symbolic period that marks the time that Jesus spent in the wilderness, fasting, and fighting temptation from Satan.

Traditionally, many Christian groups receive ashes on their foreheads on Ash Wednesday, to symbolize the mourning of Jesus, a period of repentance from sin , and for some, a time of fasting and remembrance that we come from dust and will return to dust.

This set of Rosary Beads was given to me several years ago, and although I am not a member of the Catholic Church, these prayer beads spoke to me, and caused me to learn the prayers of the rosary, which I said faithfully for almost 3 years, and credit for the strength I required when my husband had a massive stroke in 2007, and one of my sisters died from Congestive Heart Failure in 2009.

Do these pretty beads make me a religious fanatic? No.

What they have done is to help me focus, teach me discipline and respect, help me to have reverence for God, and to keep me having purity in my intentions. Saying the rosary is a form of deep meditation that symbolizes love, and serves as a method of prayers of intercession.

Whether one is a believer or not, the rosary is distinctively Catholic, but for me, it is a symbol of hope, and the undying love of the most famous mother in history, The Virgin Mary.