By Sister Justine Nutz, SSND
It was Lent,1963, and the 8 of us at Our Lady of Hope in Baltimore were getting our new habits ready for The Change, March 25th. Sister Mary Lea Abell, our superior, put a shoebox on her desk to collect our large cincture rosaries.
After wearing my rosary for 6 years, I had become very attached to it. I decided to keep it out of the box, figuring it would not be noticed, and it wasn’t. So today, after 62 years, I still have my Profession rosary!
It adorns this year’s Lenten bulletin board at The Watermark in Bridgeport, CT.
See how the rosary begins the Way of the Cross at the feet of Jesus, travels toward the flowers, then up and over to the Cross and Resurrection?
It is Lent again, and the First Sorrowful Mystery of the Rosary, Jesus’ Agony in the Garden, continues in our time. Together in hope, we pray for wisdom and courage to end hunger, war, devastation, cruelty, racism… all the agonies we inflict upon one another, the peoples, and the creatures of our precious Garden Earth.
As for the old cincture rosaries?
Maybe someone knows what happened to those sent to the Baltimore Motherhouse in 1963.
The fate of the Wilton rosaries is not a mystery because many years ago a few of us were entrusted with their disposal.
We wanted a special way to honor our Sisters who had worn and prayed with these rosaries for years.
And so, behind Villa Notre Dame, down near the pond, we dug deeply and then gently laid the rosaries to rest in the soft earth. Someday, somewhere on this dear planet, my rosary and I will join them!
