Are you attached to your blessed items?

  • Thread starter Thread starter water
  • Start date Start date
Status
Not open for further replies.
W

water

Guest
Items such as - Rosary, Bible, medals, etc
My main focus is on attachment and one should not be so attached to …even blessed items.

Have you ever got a bit panic when you wanted to pray the Rosary and you couldn’t find your rosary?

Do you feel safe to have your Rosary under your pillow when sleeping? and what happens when you could not have it under the pillow?

Thanks!
 
I have some nice things that I like to have around me, but my life doesn’t swivel on them. I have a lot of old medals and ornate crucifixes, etc., that belonged to my mother; if I lost them, I’d be sorry, but more because they were hers than because of their value as sacramentals.

As for the Rosary, I have prayed almost as many Rosaries on my fingers than I have actually using the beads; it is the prayers that are indulgenced, not the beads, so it’s no biggie. But I like to have the tactile sensation of the beads in my hands as well. 🙂

In times of great stress, sickness, or fear, I have often hung on to a large crucifix or a small statue of Our Lady for comfort; and in those times, yes, I’d feel a little nervous if I didn’t have them with me.
 
Actually I cant find my Rosary beads I keep near my oratory which is very strange because they are just always there. Say a prayer to me for St. Anthony, they are my favourite Rosary beads - I have about four pairs in different places…Barb:)
 
If I can’t find something that’s been blessed I feel bad because I can’t guarantee it will be treated with the respect and honor it deserves. I will admit though, that I am attatched my rosary, I just like the way it looks, feels, etc. If I lost it I’d be very upset. It was my first rosary too, so that might be part of it. Other than that…I don’t sleep with a rosary under my pillow, but I use a glow in the dark one sometimes; I wrap it around my hands and I know it’s sturdy enough that it won’t break in bed with me 😛 . I do know that I feel much more secure sleeping under a crucifix. I was watching my cousin’s house the other week and he’s a protestant minister. After the first night I had to bring over one of my crucifixes to feel more comfortable at night. His house was just so protestant!

I’m not really attatched to my medals or statues.
 
Rawb said:
Other than that…I don’t sleep with a rosary under my pillow, but I use a glow in the dark one sometimes; I wrap it around my hands and I know it’s sturdy enough that it won’t break in bed with me 😛
Click to expand...
I did just that, and one day when I didn’t do it, I felt insecured. I’ve got over it now. I am trying not to get attached to things in this way. To me, it is not healthy.
 
Well, this is not blessed but I did panic…

My prayer cards.

I saw my youngest son carrying them around the other day and all of a sudden, they were gone. I couldnt’ find them for about a week. I was almost about to go purchase more, then I found them.

I felt relief. I carry them everywhere with me because I never know when I’ll need a prayer from them…so, I was a little lost for a week without them.

Maybe I shouldn’t be so attached…but I guess it’s a good attachment.
 
I like them, but no disordered attachment. 👍

The attachment is to He who is the Source of all Blessings.

Now, if I had a house fire and all my blessed objects burned down with the house, I’d be bummed. (I have a rather vast rosary collection, what can I say, I’m a bead freak.)

But the only blessed object I’d really miss would be the rosary my dad carried through WWII. 😦
 
I am VERY attached to my Rosary beads. I have at least 5 or 6 of them, but the ones I use everyday (I actually got in the mail for free last year when I was going through a tough time) are in a little pouch that I carry my pocket everywhere I go. I hold them in my hand when I go to bed and if I wake in the night I search through my bed until I find them. DH said he is going to tape them to me.😃 I just feel very secure with them - I know they are only inanimate objects, but it’s kind of like a child with a blanket type of thing. I also have Crucifixes in almost every room in our house - I can’t imaging living anywhere without them!
 
MSParrott said:
I am VERY attached to my Rosary beads. I have at least 5 or 6 of them, but the ones I use everyday (I actually got in the mail for free last year when I was going through a tough time) are in a little pouch that I carry my pocket everywhere I go. I hold them in my hand when I go to bed and if I wake in the night I search through my bed until I find them. DH said he is going to tape them to me.😃 I just feel very secure with them - I know they are only inanimate objects, but it’s kind of like a child with a blanket type of thing. I also have Crucifixes in almost every room in our house - I can’t imaging living anywhere without them!
Click to expand...
Me too. Or sometimes wear it around my neck. I have a quad-link rosary so its not so delicate that it will break.

God Bless
In Jesus through Mary
Steve

P.S. Whats a DH? Darling Husband? Dedicated… Discouraged… What?
 
I would have said I am not attached in a disordered fashion, but then I will say that I cannot imagine not having a Crucifix up in my home or wearing a Crucifix around my neck, nor can I not imagine not wearing my Brown Scapular especially after certain events.

I think to have an attachment because it inspires devotion and is a sign of devotion is not disordered, this has to be a good thing. What is disordered is to place more importance on the object than on Jesus. I think it was St John of the Cross who noticed this disordered attachment in one of the Brothers and so he took the Rosary off of the Brother. But I can’t imagine St John of the Cross going about the monastry taking down the Crucifix’s and taking everyone’s Rosary beads from them.

A long while ago, I took off my Brown Scapular because of a situation in our community which I stood alone in at that time with support from some quarters but not those in my community, but now I do not stand alone and the matter is resolving and I placed it in a box at the time because I stood alone and felt there was no place for me. Sometime later I went to the box and the Scapular was not there. No-one had taken the Scapular nor had they moved it. No-one knew I had taken it off and placed it in the little box. I went repeatedly to the little box over a period of a few weeks and it wasn’t there. I said to God ‘I am a Carmelite, I desire to wear my Scapular, if You will it that I be a Carmelite, let me find it’ I went to the box and it was there, folded neatly with the wool curled up around the cloth. God took it from me and He gave it back to me and that was my clear answer to persevere as a Carmelite. Perhaps one day I will find out more about my Scapular and exactly where it went, God willing.🙂

These Blessed items are not merely items, they are Sacred and the wearing of them affects our soul and our devotion and love for Jesus and is a sign of that devotion and love. They are also a sign of God’s Love for His children.

In the Living Prayer of my life
 
I have an attachment to what they represent, that is, the doctrine that is symbolized by the rosary, scapular etc. I have a personal preference for various rosaries, bible etc.–easy to hold and use, easy to read, large type, nice binding, beads don’t tangle or whatever, but not to the point if I lose one it disturbs me. I have rosaries they way some people have mice. There is one in every purse, one in each top dresser or desk drawer, ring rosaries on key rings, one in each car etc. plus usually extras for evangelization purposes. I can see 8 bibles from where I am sitting in my home office, there are at least 4 more around here (English, there are 3 Spanish as well). I have one I prefer because it has tabs, large type, easy to hold, no notes, but I grab the first one at hand if I am going out. I have a bible in my chapel bag, one in my Oblate meeting bag, one in my Disciples in Mission bag, one in my DRE tote bag/brief case, one in my RCIA bag.

by the end of the year most of these bibles, rosaries and other sacramentals will have been given away, a few lost or mislaid to turn up months later, but so what. Even if I was stranded on the desert island I have so much scripture in my head, including that encapsulated in the rosary mysteries, and my fingers, I will be fine.
 
I am somewhat attached to 2 of my blessed items. I have 2 rosarys in particular that have some extra meaning to them. One is with my husband (it’s broken to shreds). It was given to me after my first communion and it was a gift that brought us both together via a novena. I haven’t seen it in a few years, but I know that he has it.

The other one is a cheap plastic one that I keep with me at all times and I use it daily to pray the rosary. If I lose it, I’m sure I would be disappointed but I have some others just like that can easily replace it.

I always like to have at least one blessed item with me at all times.
 
I would say that at times I do think I have a very strong attachment to a blessed statue of Our Lady of the Rosary that I have. I don’t know if it’s due to the fact that I had been looking for this particular statue for a long time or whether I do indeed have a negative spiritual attachment to this statue.

When it comes to spiritual issues such as this I tend to talk it over with my priest.

Peace
 
I have a Pope John Paul II Rosary hanging in my car that a Religious Brother sent me before he was transferred to another parish due to the organization of his order not having enough funds.

I have a Brown Scapular (and a few more, in case mine tears or I give one away) that I wear every day under my shirt… considering family, etc.

I have another Rosary on my bed post.

I carry a Green Scapular in my wallet.

I have a fiber optic Crucifix statue of Christ on the Cross standing on the Bible.

I have a statue of Our Lady.

Several Angel statues…

But I feel that they are reminders…

OH! And definitely not to forget… my St. Anthony Medal that was sent to me by the Franciscans St. Anthony’s Guild that I wear daily, proudly!

I feel that even though I may not be Catholic fully, at heart I’m more Catholic than I’ve ever been Pentecostal. (And that’s saying something!)

These things should be holy reminders… and if you feel that you have too many or it’s just losing value… don’t feel afraid to either keepsake it or pass it on… they are great witnessing tools.

Just my few pennies for thoughts… LOL!
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Back
Top