Loneliness hid a blessing

Luky;
When I was a teenager at boarding school, I was very unpopular and had no friends. At school this is a terrible humiliation. You want to be like everybody else. Everyone else seems to have someone to talk to and laugh with, and you tend to get the feeling all eyes are on you. You wish you could shrink into the wall.
"If everyone dislikes me, I must be a terrible person", you finally admit to yourself. I found myself praying that on Sunday one of the girls would be sick so that I could partner her friend on the long walk to Naval Hill.

Now I know why
In those days I never believed that the time would come when I'd see a good reason for my loneliness, but now I have. You see, being unwanted by everyone was the cause of my wandering into the church every day, and reading the pamphlets on the stand at the back. The riches I gleaned there have upheld me through all subsequent sorrows and trials. Besides, once I got the message God wanted to convey to me, my luck changed. I got my husband and children, and lots of friends too.

I think the main thing I learned from the pamphlet, was to say the rosary every day. This has been the key to my tranquillity through trials which otherwise might have destroyed me. The Archconfraternity of the Rosary had some very eloquent pamphlets there. Make a commitment to say five decades of the rosary three times weekly, they urged. Fill in your name on the dotted line and send it to us.

At the time I must have been saying more than fifteen decades per week. We said five daily with the nuns for a start, but I didn't feel that counted. For about four months I said those rosary prayers on my own. Then I took a deep breath, filled in the pledge card and sent it to the confraternity.

Memorable man
I was in standard nine when Fr Patrick Peyton came to school. He was a holy man. Although everybody in South Africa thronged to him as they had done in other continents, he breathed humility. When I shook hands with him, I had the feeling I never wanted to wash my hand again.

I have always been attracted to the Irish. The nuns at school were Irish, and they were so good to me. So I was all ears when Fr Peyton told us about the strength of Irish family life.

The family that prays together, stays together
He told us of his travels. "People were so much better off than those in Ireland. They all seemed to have a little house and a little car. When I compared their affluence to the poverty of the people back at home, I thought they must be very happy." Fr Peyton further told us that he found people of affluence had their own sorrows, and that the rate of family breakup was high. He started wondering why, and found that the strength of the Irish was that they prayed together.
"That is when I first felt the need to propagate my slogan: 
The family that prays together, stays together."

Misfortune brought us back to prayer
Father Peyton was eloquent, and he convinced me. I started saying the rosary with my husband during the six months of our courtship, and we said it daily with our children when they were still at home.
There was a bad patch in the sixties when we tried not saying the ten Hail Mary's and instead spent two minutes in silence, pondering on each mystery. My husband soon became fed up with that, and we shelved the rosary for two years - until we had some new misfortune. This brought us back to our knees.

Blessings and miracles
If I told you the blessings and miracles that have happened to us, but I won't even try. Just start saying the rosary daily in your own family, and the miracles will start happening to you. Why not make a commitment! Sign your name on the dotted line! Pray daily with your family or community. It will bring you only happiness and blessings untold.