Does the rosary hanging from my rearview mirror mean I won’t get a flat tire?
The rosary is one of many sacramentals in the Church. When I was a child at St. Columban’s school, I was taught that a “sacramental is anything set apart or blessed by the Church to excite good thoughts and to increase devotion, and through these movements of the heart to remit venial sin.” I’m tipping my hat here to the Baltimore Catechism.
So the rosary is set apart by the Church not as decoration but as a real means of increasing devotion and virtue in us. The more and more that we make use of the sacramentals of the Church, the more we grow in friendship with God and move away from sin. So what about the flat tire?
When I was assigned to St. Joseph Church in Santa Ana I remember a gang member who was known in the neighborhood to be very violent. Around his neck he was wearing a rosary. I asked him if he didn’t think there was a contradiction as to what he was wearing and how he was living. His answer was simple and direct: “The Virgin will protect me from getting killed.” I responded that instead, the wearing of the rosary while involved in so much violence and human destruction was offensive to the Virgin and that he most certainly would not find the Virgin an accessory to his crime.
So even holy things can be misused and become superstition. When I wear or use a sacramental like the rosary or the scapular, it should signal to the world that I am a believer. The sacramental speaks of that which I hold in my heart. With right intention, the rosary hanging from the mirror may indeed provide spiritual protection, but its real purpose is that it marks me as a believer in Christ.
Full story at OC Catholic.
Keep a rosary in the car but to pray it.
Father I too see the rosary in my car as a public declaration of faith. Recently, within the same week, 2 kids in parking lots were pointing at my rosary as I opened the car door, then pointed to theirs. Wonderful moments.
Joe Biden keeps a rosary in his pocket. Maybe he thinks the Virgin will protect him.
Not if the Democrats decide he is no longer useful if he wins the election. They might just arrange his “retirement”. After all he and the Dems support euthanasia. Whatever could go wrong with that?
Joe Biden is no longer Catholic. He hurts Our Blessed Mother very much, with his evil support for Abortion and Planned Parenthood, and Same-Sex “Marriage.”
Well, if he becomes president, who has Mary been listening to with all those rosaries prayed to her about the election? Seems she hasn’t been listening to the faithful praying Catholics. Seems she favors Uncle Joe.
I have a car rosary and a Jesus Prayer Rope over my turn indicator, prayer books and a saint’s visor clip in my car. Having something dangling from the rear view mirror is usually illegal, although rarely enforced unless the item is too large. I see the reason for such laws as I put one there a couple of times and found them too distracting dangling back and forth while driving. I wrapped one higher up, so it did not dangle back and forth, but it was too hard to take off for prayer. To me that defeated the whole purpose of having one, so I just keep them in more handy places.
I do not pray the Rosary in traffic but while sitting in my car or walking in the park, and the Jesus Prayer Rope in traffic – not distracting.
I proudly have a Rosary wrapped up on my rear view mirror. It helps me pray. We got here because the revolutionary Vatican Council II degraded St. Christopher as protector of travelers. I still keep my forbidden St Christopher medal carrying the Holy Child across the river in the glove compartment in case Francisco, Cupich or Gregory catch up with me. So far so good.
I must confess that I don’t have a rosary in my car, but I tell the world that I’m Catholic with the Relevant Radio bumper sticker on my car.
If this is a sincere representation of an active sacramental life I am all for it.
I don’t have one on my mirror. I do have a nice laminated sacred heart image in one of the trays that I see all the time. And, for me, is a reminder of His sacrifice for me and what I owe Him.
A Rosary in my car hanging from the mirror is my statement to anyone who sees it: I believe in the power of the Rosary as a prayer and I believe in and love the BVM and have consecrated my self to her. Same with the Miraculous Medal.
I keep a Rosary, i have two, and Miraculous Medal on the rear view mirror. I also wear the Miraculous Metal at all time. They’re there to remind me of who I am and where I wish to go in life, along using them when travelling. If someone might notice them, and should return to the Faith, so much the better!
Gallium isn’t a miraculous metal, but it’s amazing.
I was wearing a Miraculous Medal when I went to take those “birth control” pills about thirty years ago. The samples the doctor gave me were outdated. I called his office and told him. He said to come in for a prescription, but I felt I should ask my priest first. The priest told me not to take them but to use Natural Family Planning because of a medication I was using that might cause birth defects.
A pro life female, Catholic doctor, who helped with my cancer surgery, was the one who told me the cancer would have grown faster If I had taken those pills. For me the Miraculous Medal worked.
Stop the Madness!
My bumper sticker: The Holy Rosary – Don’t display it; pray it!