"Hail Mary Full Of Grace..."

It's October - the Month of the Rosary. Mom, being her devout, religious self is no exception from the many Catholic homes that are taking the chance this month to recite more rosary. Believe me, I get quite a handful when it comes to reciting the rosary, especially when you wake up from a nap that might as well lasted till the next morning 15 minutes before your parents decided to start off the rosary without you. God's way of waking me up to recite the rosary, I suspect. I guess reciting the Most Holy Rosary of the Blessed Virgin Mary is inevitable once in a while, especially when you have a mom like mine, making numerous rounds into my room to tell me that they're waiting for me to start. Admittedly, sometimes, I'm not that much of a Holy person either. I did however, as you may have noticed, reluctantly relented to reciting the rosary, given the circumstances of a bugging mom and to remain faithful to my Catholic ways.

It may have taken me a little bit of difficulty to detached my butt from the computer chair to spend the next half an hour sitting on the floorboard with folded legs and my back against the wall, chanting (albeit dreamily) the 5 decades of Hail Marys, but I did managed to grab hold of the rosary itself from my room's altar (mom had an altar built in my room during the renovation) and fumble my way to the living room. Obviously needed a little dusting (both my altar and my rosary) considering the amount of times the family actually recites the rosary. Well, we're not exactly the role model of a proverbial Catholic home, if you ask me. Even the candles on our altar gave out a sort of weird sound when I lighted them clumsily. I'm guessing that it was burning the tiny specs of dust collected at the tip of the candles over the months from the last time we recited the rosary. I gave it a thought before settling down comfortably with my rosary and the rosary book in hand, that the number of times we recited the rosary after moving back in after the renovations were actually numbered. Quite shocking, isn't it? Pretty much reflects how lazy the family is when it comes to spending an extra half an hour every night before bed.

"...Pray for us sinners now and at the hour of death. Amen."

Not that the parents are to be blamed, instead, we, the children are to be held responsible for the lack of prayers. We definitely aren't the sort of children who jump in excitement with the rosary ready in hand at the very sound of mom calling for a rosary session. More to the sort who whines, complains, and gives all sorts of crappy and lame excuses just to slide our way through reciting the rosary. As the saying goes, we're not all that holy and we all have our fair share of sins. The only times we actually relent to recite the rosary are the times when someone is in peril or desperately in need of some prayers. Guess it only comes to show we're still human in our little sinful ways and we're definitely not a family who produces priests and nuns (maybe "nones").

Still, doesn't remove us from the fact that it felt extremely awkward reciting the rosary as a "family" with the absence of Grace and Edmund. That little scoundrel managed to trick his way out of it and went to bed before mom even had the chance to utter the word "rosary". What else with me deliberately trying to create impromptu prayers considering that I didn't have a copy of "Intentions" that has little prayers on it that we usually recite and dedicate the decade to after every decade of the rosary. I was also beginning to get tired of reciting those same printed words of intentions over the years of my rosary recitation that I thought it brought little significance to what we actually had in mind to pray for. I went ahead and blurted out my intentions for Carina's PMR examinations tomorrow and some other stuff that wasn't in the book like the Pope's ongoing case with the misunderstood statement. Some seriously impromptu shit, seeing that I barely even follow the news or keep myself updated with the Pope's misunderstood statement. Though, I did manage to get a glimpse of Malaysian demonstrating against the Pope Benedict XVI in the front page of Herald today.

Certainly, this sudden act of reciting the rosary with the mere excuse of the Rosary Month is only the beginning. I'm not having my hopes high up that this is only going to be a one time thing. We're still expecting the BEC to show up tomorrow night for prayers. Prayers will be held in rotation at the houses of various BEC members throughout this entire month, if I'm not mistaken. It seems to me, we're not only reciting the rosary at our own home. But I'm sure mom will jump at every opportunity she gets to get us chanting the Hail Mary again. Not that I have anything against it. Seriously, I don't. In fact, after our first time just now, since a very long time, there was a certain sense of calmness and serenity during and after the recitation of the rosary. Kind of make all your reluctant-ness dispersed into the air. Which is strange and great at the same time when you're experiencing Mother Mary first hand.

Oh, please don't freak at all this religious talk from me. I kind of realised how much I've never talked about my religion since I started blogging. Decided it was about time I stop being shy about my religion. Not that I was before this but I was kind of afraid that I needed to do alot of explanation when it comes to religious terms and the like. But after identifying who my main readers are, I don't mind giving it a shot at my religion. So, to my fellow non-Catholic brethrens, if there's any questions about terms on religious matter that might strike your interest, don't be afraid to ask me. I'll try my best to explain things to you, if I can. But hey, there's always Google, you know!