Feast of the Holy Rosary - October 7

   October 7 is the feast of Our Lady of the Rosary

Michael Dubruiel conceived and put together the small hardbound book, Praying the Rosary.  I wrote the introductory material. Click on the cover for more information.

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Also, check out this post from 2003, in which Michael Dubruiel narrates the events of one of his "rosary walks."

At the end of the trail I emerge upon the road lined with trees that leads back to the convent. I notice the deer’s head staring at me from across the road, his ears flicking. I imagine the deer thinking that I’m following him. I walk closer to him and he doesn’t move this time. Perhaps they feed him too, I think. I am now only five feet from the deer and I talk to him. He only cocks his head this way and that but doesn’t flee until I turn to continue my journey. The fourth luminous mystery–the Transfiguration, an invitation to encounter Jesus in the Old Testament, I think,  meditating on the significance of Moses and Elijah the prophet.
The sun beats down mercilessly and the tar is soft under my feet. I look back and see the deer still peering at me,  watching to see if I really am going in a different direction. I am. My lunch time nears its end. The maintenance worker is mowing the grass. His plump body hangs over the sides of the seat of the mower and his beard covers his chest. As I make my way to the parking lot I notice his car’s license plate –  “Rode Kill” misspelled,  I imagine,  because someone must have already had “road kill” in this state of connoisseurs of varmint meat. On the side of his truck he has a bumper sticker, “I love animals…they taste real good.” The fifth sorrowful mystery–the Crucifixion. In the way a sinner is attracted to the cross of salvation, I reason, perhaps this man with his desires was attracted to the environmentalist sisters.
So be it! Amen.