The Rosary in My Kitchen

A guest post by Sarah Reinhard

October is both the Month of the Rosary and Respect Life Month, and I find myself reflecting on this in a special way this year.

Maybe it’s because I’m pregnant. Maybe it’s because the beauty of the dying world around me, from the brilliant trees to the harvested fields, reminds me that our family suffered a tremendous loss this year.

I’m usually mostly in my kitchen when I pray the rosary. I start my day in the kitchen, and I also start my day with the rosary. The two are so woven together that it almost seems like I should go to my kitchen whenever I need to pray.

The new life within me will be born before the end of the year. We celebrate an anniversary of a man who’s only a memory at the beginning of the year.

In it, I find food for my rosary reflections. I see the intertwining of life and death and I feel the touch of God’s hand in the little details all around me.

Holding Mary’s hand in the rosary, I find that the living I do, represented so vividly in my kitchen’s bright smells and signs of life, is a precursor to something more.

October is a time to celebrate life even as the world around us dies (at least in Ohio). It is a time to embrace the beauty that comes from the death we see and to hold tight to the lifeline God has given us in the rosary.

The beauty I see around me, in the dying, is a fraction of the hope that God holds out to me through the gift of His Son.

So, this month, join me in crawling into Mary’s lap and practicing the rosary. We don’t have to be perfect – or even good. The hardest part is getting started.

Sarah Reinhard writes about Mary, motherhood, and miscellaneous things that amuse her at SnoringScholar.com. You’ll also hear her Mary in the Kitchen segment weekly on the Catholic Foodie podcast.

***Image courtesy of Alan on Flickr.com.***