Prayer Beads and Rosary

Maybe next year the Gospel sayings “The Last Shall Be First” and “The Least Shall be the Greatest” will come true. On this last day of the year I know it was not true for a friend of mine that needed medication and does not have insurance and money. We needed to get up very early to wait in line for an appointment to wait for a doctor and finally to wait for the medication. Reflecting while waiting in lines like this one I have noticed the poorer you are the longer you wait. The less you have, no matter your need, the more you wait.

I had intended to bring some reading material along while I was waiting with my friend. However, in our haste to leave early to get in line I had forgotten the material. So at times while waiting I turned to the old standby, “prayer beads”, repeating the Jesus Prayer over and over again while I waited. Prayer beads in the East, like the Rosary in the West, are for repeating of a simple short prayer over and over again on each bead. It is a good way to wait, since the repetition can help free up one’s mind and be relaxing.

Would it not be nice that on the first of the year, tomorrow, the last and the least would be the first and the greatest? A garden knows something about the last and least being first and great. Often the smallest seed, like a mustard seed, produces the largest plant. Also Kale, the last plant to stop growing in the garden in the fall, is the fist one to start growing in the spring.

Tomorrow, New Year’s Day, in the Catholic Church we celebrate a woman Mary the Mother of God, who certainly knew a lot about the lowly being lifted up. The Gospel assigns a song, psalm, called the Magnificat to her, in which she proclaims how God will “cast down the mighty from their thrones and lift up the lowly” and how God will ”fill the hungry with good things and the rich will be sent away empty.”

Turning the world upside down and making the least the greatest and the last first would make an excellent New Year’s Resolution.

A Blessed New Year to All! Soon I will start a new feature on the www.nonviolentworm.org site. It will feature what is new, like the new Jokes page on this site.

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