My Favorite Rosary/Petition Thursday

Tonight I will be with our Lord in the Blessed Sacrament for my holy hour. I ask you to leave your petitions in my comment box by clicking on the word comments at the bottom. I will pray for your intentions and bring them to our Lord Jesus. He waits for us to come to Him. I only ask you to pray too.

My little brother, Jordan, gave me this rosary about 13 years ago, on the day our Perpetual Adoration Chapel opened at our church. (we actually belong to a different church now, but in the same cluster) As I type this, and add up the years, I realize he was only 9 years old at the time, and what a sacrifice this was for him to buy this rosary for me. I had moved home and was going through a divorce. (yes, I said divorce) I may blog about this another time, if anyone is interested, it is really part of my conversion story. I was young, (married at 23) and 2 priests told me to leave. The marriage was annulled, and so actually was not a marriage at all.

Anyway, it was one of the most painful things I have ever been through. I was staying in my parents basement (well sleeping there) and my little brother cheered me up all the time. He was such a blessing. He hated seeing me cry all the time. He hated seeing me sad. He always made me laugh. I cry as I type this, it was such a humbling time for me. He wanted to do something special for me, (as if he hadn't already, just being there to cheer me up) so he ordered this rosary for me and waited for the opening of the Adoration Chapel, he gave it to me right before Mass. (my mom insisted that I keep it, that he really wanted me to have it)

SO, this is my Adoration Chapel rosary. This is the rosary that I always pray in the chapel. This is the rosary that I always have in my purse. This is the rosary that I have prayed for you with, many times.

The medals have been given to me and were special at the time, so on they went, they actually make it a jingly kind of rosary. 2 St Gerard medals given to me by people who knew how badly we wanted children. (we tried for almost 3 years before conceiving) The other medal is the Miraculous medal and well, that is my favorite medal, so it is on my favorite rosary.

This rosary used to be all silver.
 I hesitate to show you this, but I am, in the hopes of inspiring someone out there to pray the rosary. 2 or 3 months after the opening of the chapel, while praying there, I looked down and couldn't believe my eyes. I blinked, blinked again...then kept praying and looking at our Lord in the Blessed Sacrament in pure awe of His blessings on my life. Why did He give me this gift? I am nothing. He is everything. My rosary had turned gold.

Within a few months we (my family and I -all except one brother who is not Catholic) went on a trip to Medjugorje. I quit my job to go, as I did not have enough vacation time to go on a 10 day pilgrimage. Which means it was no vacation, it was hard traveling and took a huge leap of faith to put all our trust in God and Mary to wrap her mantle around us and get us there safely. Our first trip was cancelled because of unsafe travel, we went with another tour group a week later. We traveled there during the war. While we were there you could hear bombs going off in the, somewhere!

 At night you could see them going off in the distance. We were in this safe little village that was untouched by any war and it was totally felt by everyone there.

It took 2 days of travel to get there. Our luggage came 2 days late. We were sick the first couple days. On the 2nd day we climbed up Cross Mountain and when we returned, our luggage was waiting for us. The mountain is unbelievably hard to climb! it is rocky and steep. Yet, on the way up, you can't help but think of all the people of the village in 1934 climbing up the mountain carrying concrete and water to build this magnificent cross for God. Amazing! Once we were at the top, it was breathtaking. It was SO beautiful at the top. There is this amazingly huge concrete cross at the top and a view of the world!

On the 3rd day we went up Apparation Hill. This was not as steep and not as rocky. It was actually easy compared to the other climb. We all (our group) prayed a rosary at the top, I had my little brother laying on my lap and my sister's interpreter's daughter, also 9 yrs old resting on me. While praying the rosary, while on Apparation Hill, while these 2 children are praying on my lap, the crucifix on this rosary turned gold. I blinked, I blinked again, I couldn't believe my eyes.

 Now, I wanted to jump up and tell everyone, but couldn't really do that, it would be rude, so I kept praying and staring at my crucifix. Afterward, (it's amazing how I could forget something so wonderful) there was a lot going on up there and I just didn't say anything and kind of forgot about it until the next morning. That morning, a friend and I decided to get up early and walk across the village and go up the Apparation Hill and pray a rosary and talk. When we got to the bottom of the hill, I remembered what had happened as I took out my rosary, and I started to say, "Oh, my gosh, Victor, I forgot to tell you..." He interrupted and said, "your crucifix turned gold, didn't it?" He said "mine too!" Just during that time, just on the hill, both our crucifixes turned gold and then turned back to silver after the rosary.

Now you can doubt it, say it is from the oils in my hands. But my dad said he sweated his butt off in Vietnam and prayed the rosary every day while there (for 11 months, I think) and his rosary never turned gold. It is not a tainted color, it is a pretty gold.

I don't know why it turned gold. I think it is a gift. A gift to say "keep praying!" "Keep going!" "Keep changing!"

I really do hope this post inspires someone out there to pray the rosary, to pick up a rosary and pray it gold. Pray from your heart. Change what needs to be changed. Our Blessed Mother will lead you right to her Son's Heart.

I believe some of the fruits of Medjugorje were coming home and finding a job working with children as an assistant teacher for a Montesorri school, (having always wanted to work with children) and just being hired based on my smile, literally, my boss told me this! (she's a very nice woman) Then meeting my now sister in law, who at the time was dating my hubby's brother and she then set us up on a blind date! (after months of begging me) We married the brothers and the rest is history. -Did any of that make sense?

Did I see the miracle of the sun? Yes.
 Did you?
 Do you still?
 What do you see?
 Anyone have Medjugorje stories?
 I'd love to hear about them.

Again, for free CD/tapes of the rosary go to The Mary Foundation!

My favorite book about Medjugorje is The Visions of the Children.

I actually have 4 copies for borrowing to people, it's that good.

God Bless you all, remember to leave petitions in the comment box!