Rosary Saints

Hello! I have a question about the rosary. What is the point of making specific rosaries associated with a saint? Such as having a rosary with the charm of a saint on that middle connecting piece (I'm not sure what that is called). Are you supposed to be asking them to pray the rosary with you or is it just to be reminded of a saint you like or something along those lines?

I can't think of anything simpler, or more confusing, than the rosary. A lot of variety, a number of different prayers, five sets of five mysteries, which day of the week each mystery is invoked and during which liturgical season.

And then, throw in some saints in the middle of mediating on the Life of Christ as seen through the eyes of His Mother.  

Here's one easy answer: the charm of a saint on the middle connecting piece? is called "the medal".  

Whew! That was easy.

What's for dinner?

oh...

Okay, so having a specific saint has to do with the specific saint. For example, one might pray a rosary with St. Michael the Archangel on it for the protection of St. Michael the Archangel. Military families might want to to this, as St. Michael is the protector of soldiers.  And to do that you would simply pray the rosary with that intent, and maybe add a prayer for the intercession of St. Michael somewhere in there.  

Well, not somewhere, really...at the end. And you can look up prayers to say.

Or just make one up. That's okay, too. I don't think Heaven is so picky as we religious often lead everyone to believe.

It follows from there that your "saint rosary" would be said for the intercession of what is considered the patronage of that saint. St. Jude for hopeless causes,  St. Gertrude (also the patron saint of cats and cat lovers) for souls in Purgatory, for example. The list is endless.

And at the risk of confusing you more, more common than rosaries with saints on them (the Miraculous Medal Immaculate Conception Mary Self Portrait is the most common rosary medal), are chaplets for the intercession of saints.

The chaplet, like the rosary, is really a way to count prayers. There are dozens and dozens of different types, for different intentions, with varying numbers of beads and lot and lots of different prayers. The Hail Mary might not even be in there.

Here is the St. Benedict chaplet for your perusal.

And then, just to add one more weinie to the roast, there are Novenas, which also might involve saying a rosary every day for nine days, or nine first Fridays, or more timelines that involve doing something nine times AND are said for the intercession of a particular saint for the intention of a particular cause.

Is dinner ready yet?

Are the saints praying along with you? I'm sure they are.  If you imagine that asking me to pray for you is the same as asking a saint to pray for you (although I believe saints, since they are alive in Heaven, are better at being in harmony with God than I am), then you would imagine that you and I would in some sense be praying together, if not simultaneously.

A lot of people feel very connected to their patron saints, or the patronage of a saint for a specific intention. Praying the rosary is a meditative prayer. This involves (one of my new favorite phrases) mental lingering.  So it leaves a lot of room to connect with Heaven.

And finally, it may just be that you happen to have a rosary that has a saint on it instead of Mary because you found it in your Grandma's junk drawer. That's okay, too. We're just glad you found it and got it out of the junk drawer.

Our neighbor brought us some french apple cake.  Maybe I'll say a rosary and then have some.

Ports in a Storm

Hi, Sister. Recently my family sold our house-- a lot more quickly than we expected. This is great, except that now we have to find a new place to live in just a few weeks, and we're having trouble. I know you're supposed to ask for the intercession of St. Joseph to sell your house. Who are you supposed to ask for prayers when you want to find a new house...fast?

That's St. Joseph, too. He buys and sells real estate. You may recall that St. Joseph had to move his family right quick. Over night.  He found a place in Egypt (not that you'd want to go there these days).

Hi sister, I just learned that I had salmonella poisoning, although thankfully it wasn't severe. At about the same time my best friend became extremely ill and had to be operated. All this to say we barely came out and are intensely grateful for our lives. As my friend put it, its like God came down and shook us and said wake up and see that your not immortal, fools. Is there a saint or a particular prayer for situations like these? 

I am a little confused. A prayer for when these things are happening or a prayer of gratitude that you came out unscathed?  I don't think you need any intercessory prayer to be grateful, unless you were already praying for the intercession of a saint and the saint came through for you. I always thank people for praying for me.  I hope everyone does, even if those people were in Heaven at the time that they prayed for you.

So a patron saint then for when the storm is raging. That would be our old pal St. Scholastica. She was the sister of St. Benedict. They were twins.

Not identical twins. Don't you hate it when people cluelessly ask a mother of twins, a boy and a girl, "Are they identical?"  I have actually seen that happen.  "Do you know what identical means?"  I would be tempted to make that my answer. Or, "One is a boy and one is a girl, so, NO."  The mothers in question have always been gracious and simply answered, "No."  Perhaps they were thinking, "...you dumb bunny..."

Anyhow, St. Scholastica was having a swell visit with her brother at his monastery. She was having such a good time that she didn't want to leave.  She prayed there would be some excuse for her to stay and a huge storm blew up. She got to spend the rest of the evening with her brother and then she died the next day.

Now she is the patron saint invoked against raging storms, which is a little odd, since she brought the storm rather than ended it.  She was pretty happy about the raging storm.

The fact remains that she is the patron saint to keep us safe from storms and when there is a raging storm I do think of her.

You might also think about St. Paul.  God came and gave him quite the shake, too.