Tuesday, May 27, 2014

Car rosaries, and reflecting on my happy Catholic community...

Hello all! Very happy to be back with you. I had an absolutely smashing Memorial Day weekend, and as ever, despite my love of routine, it was difficult to come back to work today. But we persevere, no?

As I spent time with Mike and the kids this weekend, I got to thinking other happy thoughts. This is always dangerous, when I think too much. ;-) But I was thinking about how much it means to me that I have not only my parish community, but my Catholic online community whose support is so, so valuable to my day-to-day spiritual life. I have written about this before, shortly after I returned from the 2013 Catholic New Media Conference, wherein I met people whom I had only ever heard on a podcast or "seen" on Twitter. Knowing that all of these people are out there with whom I share such a pivotal common interest, that we can encourage each other via our blogs, Tweets or Facebook posts...this just truly picks me up when I am down. To know that all of these friends are out there, who care about what is going on in my life and I in theirs, who pray for me and make jokes on Twitter to make me laugh...it just means the world to me.

My new car rosary in action...
And so, this is where my new car rosary comes into the story, pictured above. Allison, of Rosaries by Allison fame :) made it for me, as she had many other rosaries that I own or have gifted to others. The car rosary that had been currently residing in my car was looking old in the tooth, and to be frank, was a giant pain in the backside. It never sat right, and anytime I had to add a new parking tag or something to my review mirror the rosary got ticked off and hung all disjointed. Trying to adjust it was a nightmare since the fastener was up at the top, and there is no room up there to either manuever or see what I was doing. So I asked Allison to come to my rescue. Could she make me a new car rosary?

She did, exactly to my specifications. Pink and green please, and long enough so that I can actually see it when my parking tag is hanging up as well. I got to pick the centerpiece, and I chose a Guardian Angel. :)

*heart*

Allison used milky pink pressed glass beads, and a light green pearl for the Our Father. The fastener is down near the centerpiece, so I can ACTUALLY ADJUST THE ROSARY WITHOUT SWEARING. I would say this is a very good quality in a car rosary. :0.

I LOVE it, and every time I look at it, I think about Allison, and wing up a prayer for her. I have never met Allison in real life, but I feel like I know her very well on Twitter and Facebook. And thinking about Allison makes me think about all of the other Catholics that I know on Twitter and Facebook, most of whom I've never met in real life, and who all know each other on there as well (a very happy Catholic circle :)). I hope to meet more of them in coming years at conferences and such, but regardless, even if I never meet them in person, I have a relationship with them that is *meaningful*. They lift me up, and hopefully I do the same for them. I love thinking about that every time I get into my car now. I am part of a much larger community, one that I value immensely and the people therein see little old me as a meaningful contributor. And for that I am so grateful.

If you don't already follow me on Twitter, I'm @CatholicTiffany, and I'd love to meet you on there. :) It's my favorite of the social media sites. I check it every day and interact as much as I am able.

Anybody else find other Catholics on social media? Leave me a comment! And come back tomorrow for the Catholic Book Club. I'll be reviewing Vocation in Black and White: Dominican Contemplative Nuns Tell How God Called Them. See you then!

2 comments:

  1. I'm @KerriBaunach on twitter, though I don't use it a whole lot. Most of my tweets are auto tweets with blog posts from either my blog or Catholic Sistas. I use Facebook a lot more and am a member of a "secret" group on Facebook of approximately 250 Catholic women from around the country. We all met (for the most part) via social media and Catholic Sistas actually grew out of that group. Kind of cool!! I feel like some of the women there are some of my best friends now and I've only ever met a handful of them in person. Without social media I wouldn't know any of them. It's pretty amazing, this world we live in.

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