The Rosary - Simply Amazing!

Jim Castle
was tired when he boarded his 
plane in Cincinnati , Ohio , that night in 1981. The 
45-year-old management consultant had put on a week long series of business 
meetings and seminars, and now he sank gratefully into his seat ready for 
the flight home to Kansas City , Kansas . 


As more passengers 
entered, the place hummed with conversation, mixed with the sound of bags 
being stowed.. Then, suddenly, people fell silent. The quiet moved slowly up 
the aisle like an invisible wake behind a boat. Jim craned his head to see 
what was happening, and his mouth dropped open. 


Walking up the 
aisle were two nuns clad in simple white habits bordered in blue. He 
recognized the familiar face of one at once, the wrinkled skin, and the eyes 
warmly intent. This was a face he'd seen in newscasts and on the cover of 
TIME. The two nuns halted, and Jim realized that his seat companion was 
going to be Mother Teresa!

As the last few 
passengers settled in, Mother Teresa and her companion pulled out rosaries. 
Each decade of the beads was a different color, Jim noticed.. 
The decades represented various areas of the world, Mother Teresa told him 
later, and added, 'I pray for the poor and dying on each continent.' 




The airplane taxied 
to the runway and the two women began to pray, their voices a low murmur. 
Though Jim considered himself not a very religious Catholic who went to 
church mostly out of habit, inexplicably he found himself joining in. 



By the time they 
murmured the final prayer, the plane had reached cruising altitude. Mother 
Teresa turned toward him. For the first time in his life, Jim understood 
what people meant when they spoke of a person possessing an 'aura'. As she 
gazed at him, a sense of peace filled him; he could no more see it than he 
could see the wind but he felt it, just as surely as he felt a warm summer 
breeze. 


'Young man,' she 
inquired, 'do you say the rosary often?' 'No, not really,'  
he admitted. 


She took his hand, 
while her eyes probed his. Then she smiled.. 'Well, you will 
now.' And she dropped her rosary into his palm. 


An hour later Jim 
entered the Kansas City airport where he was met by his wife, 
Ruth. 'What in the world?' Ruth asked 
when she noticed the rosary in his hand. They kissed and Jim described his 
encounter. 


Driving home, he 
said. 'I feel as if I met a true sister of God.' 


Nine months later 
Jim and Ruth visited Connie, a friend of theirs for several years. Connie 
confessed that she'd been told she had ovarian cancer. 'The doctor says it's 
a tough case,' said Connie, 'but I'm going to fight it. I won't give up.' 
Jim clasped her hand. Then, after reaching into his pocket, he gently twined 
Mother Teresa's rosary around her fingers. He told  
her the story and said, 'Keep it with you Connie.. It may 
help.' 


Although Connie 
wasn't Catholic, her hand closed willingly around the 
small  plastic beads. 'Thank you,' she 
whispered. 'I hope I can return it.' 


More than a year 
passed before Jim saw Connie again. This time her face was  
glowing, she hurried toward him and handed him the rosary. 



'I carried it with 
me all year,' she said. 'I've had surgery and have been on chemotherapy, 
too. Last month, the doctors did second-look surgery, and the tumor's 
gone.. Completely!' Her eyes met Jim's. 'I knew it 
was time to give the rosary back.' 


In the fall of 
1987, Ruth's sister, Liz, fell into a deep depression after her divorce.... She 
asked Jim if she could borrow the rosary, and when he sent  
it, she hung it over her bedpost in a small velvet bag. At 
night I held on to it, just physically held on. I was so lonely and afraid,' 
she says, 'yet  when I gripped that rosary, I 
felt as if I held a loving hand.' 


Gradually, Liz 
pulled her life together, and she mailed the rosary back. 'Someone else may 
need it,' she said. 


Then one night in 
1988, a stranger telephoned Ruth. She'd heard about the rosary from a 
neighbor and asked if she could borrow it to take to the hospital where her 
mother lay in a coma. The family hoped the rosary might help their mother 
die peacefully. A few days later, the woman returned the beads. 'The nurses 
told me a coma patient can still hear,' she said, 'so I explained to my 
mother that I had Mother Teresa's rosary and that when I gave it to her she 
could let go; it would be all rosary in her hand. Right away, we saw her 
face relax. The lines smoothed out until she looked so peaceful, so young.' 
The woman's voice caught. 'A few minutes later she was  
gone.' 


Fervently, she 
gripped Ruth's hands. 'Thank you.' 


Is there special 
power in those humble beads? Or is the power of the human spirit simply 
renewed in each person who borrows the rosary? Jim only 
knows  that requests continue to come, often 
unexpectedly. He always responds though, whenever he lends the rosary, 'When 
you're through needing it, send  it back. 
Someone else may need it.' 


Jim's own life has 
changed, too, since his unexpected meeting on the airplane. When he realized 
Mother Teresa carries everything she owns in a small bag, he made an effort 
to simplify his own life.


'I try to remember 
what really counts - not money or titles or possessions, but the way we love 
others,' he says. 

Dear friends very many of us do recite rosary daily and at times it may look like a mere routine for many. But there is power when we roll or fingers on the beads. We come in union with Christ and His Mother. As we saw how people's life changed through the rosary may we also change and change others life through our daily recitation of the rosary. 

MAY GOD BLESS YOU 
ABUNDANTLY, MAY MOTHER MARY ASK HER SON JESUS TO SHOWER  
YOU WITH GRACE. 


Please feel free to 
pass this mail on, especially to all those in despair so  
that they might know that they are not alone in their hour of 
need.. 


The reason I sent 
you this mail is because I know the power of the prayers of these simple 
beads and I wanted to share it with you. Every sacrifice has 
a fruitful reward. Every failure has a second chance. 



We only have to be strong thru God's grace and persevere in life's many tests!

May GOD bless you always.