"This Structure, Order and Tradition and the Truth Which Accompanies It is Not Only Assuring…it is Ennobling."

Tod Worner on doing that which many abhor:

I had never had much experience with the Rosary prior to meeting my wife. Singing with a college choir in Paris’ Notre Dame Cathedral, I bought a Rosary for a Catholic friend (regretting to this day that I didn’t buy a second for myself). It seemed like a nice enough thing to do. It had a souvenir quality and after all, you wear these things like a necklace, right? I know, I know…sheesh. The Rosary seemed harmless enough and perhaps a bit enchanting.

But, several years later, when I was in the throes of debating my future wife about which church we would attend, the rosary came to represent another thing wrong with the Catholic Church. Isn’t saying the Rosary, I would argue, countering what Christ taught about prayer? Didn’t He teach His disciples the value of being brief and heartfelt when He said,

And when you pray, do not keep on babbling like pagans, for they think they will be heard because of their many words. Do not be like them, for your Father knows what you need before you ask him.

- Matthew 6:7-8

Isn’t the Rosary a sacrilegious devotion to Mary which, in practice, is a distraction from God? I had concluded that the Rosary was just another wrong-headed, distracted part of a Catholic faith in need of reform.

And yet. And yet…something was amiss. 

Do read the rest... you'll learn about a Catholic politician in England a century ago telling his potential constituents about his "telling the beads", you'll learn even more about Catholicism and you might just learn that Tod Worner should be a regular stop on your way 'round the 'sphere.

The piece took me back to my own struggle with the Rosary, one I chronicled nearly 3 years ago. I'm glad to today report that my daily prayers continue and I don't see myself ever giving this habit up.

It truly is ennobling.