March 17, 2003
A certain politician, one with whom I share an on-again-off again, reporter-politician relationship, promised me a pair of special rosary beads during Pope John Paul II’s visit to Toronto last summer. As a dignitary, the politician was part of the official departure team waiting to see the Holy Father off at Pearson International Airport. As it happened, the politician picked up his cell phone when I called him during the pontiff’s departure. A big fan of John Paul II, I mentioned wishing I were there. The politician, who had been one of the organizers of Youth Day, offered me rosary beads blessed by the Pope himself. After the original wreaths of rapture, the promised rosary beads began to cause me problems.
First, I began boasting about them to almost everyone I knew. Non-Catholics did not get overly excited. But a close friend whose wife happens to be Catholic asked me if I could get another pair for his wife in time for her birthday. Thinking I could always prevail upon the politician for an extra rosary, I promised I would.
Weeks went by with no rosary. Once an envelope, engraved with the politician’s name arrived at the office. Ripping open the flap with expectation, I was disappointed to find only a press release.
The birthday of the friend’s wife passed in November with no rosary beads from her beloved hubby.
"Christmas," I convinced myself. "He’s keeping them back for this special season." Just before the holidays, another envelope arrived. I ripped it open, only to find a picture of my ‘friend’, the politician.
Now I confessed to my friend, the doting husband that he shouldn’t count on my ever getting the rosary beads.
Other friends began teasing me about my original belief in the politician who had offered them.
I tried to explain why having this rosary was so important. A huge fan of the Holy Father, I shouted along as loud as anyone when tens of thousands of young people were chanting, "John Paul II, we love you."
There is no doubt that behind the white robes of John Paul II lingers a little guy who was once Bishop Karol Wojtyla. The brave bishop often led mass in open fields in the face of brutal Communism. To so many, Karol Wojtyla is one of history’s proven true-life heroes.
Besides, I could imagine my new-found piety when I could say prayers for troubled friends on a rosary blessed by the Pope when I turned up to light the occasional candle at St. Basil’s or St. Michael’s Church.
Prayers said on the beads blessed by Karol Wojtyla himself, I thought, would surely find themselves heaven-bound faster than the ones offered on ordinary rosary beads.
The only other pair of rosary beads that held such awe for me was made of knotted string. They were prayed on by a shoeshine boy in Santo Domingo. The reason why those beads stand out is simple. The sincerity of the shoeshine boy’s face when he prayed to his hero, the Blessed Virgin.
Then, of course, there are the plain black rosary beads I go nowhere without. They are the ones my late mother had blessed for me. She took them to a simple little priest in her tiny village of Tignish, P.E.I.
Those beads are special by the humbleness of their origin.
Prayers are just as heaven-bound when said over a knotted string or a plain black rosary blessed by a village priest.
The politician who promised a gift of a rosary blessed by the Pope is another lesson.
Everyone who knows me knows the gift-bearing politician of this story, and that our relationship is more off-again than on-again these days.
It’s not because of his promised rosary. It’s because he’s the ultimate politician.
Canada Free Press founding editor Most recent by Judi McLeod is an award-winning journalist with 30 years experience in the print media. Her work has appeared on Newsmax.com, Drudge Report, Foxnews.com, Glenn Beck. Judi can be reached at: judi@canadafreepress.com
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