Maybe not appropriate. The Eucharistic Congress yesterday was an exciting event. We got to the convention center a bit before 8, and wandered around looking for the Rosary Army booth, which we missed over and over again because of its prime location, but eventually caught a glimpse of Greg’s shiny head and were able to settle in with our food and junk.
The girls took off to see the procession, and somehow, I didn’t even have time to get the new shirt over my head before the people were clamoring for the free rosaries. I didn’t stop until about 5, when we totally ran out of everything, otherwise, I think I’d still be there.
There were a couple of breaks to run to the ladies room, and I took like 15 seconds to wolf down a sandwich, which I had to put down because of a crowd (and which Greg almost threw away) and maybe not a nice image of me wolfing down food, but I was getting faint.
I have no idea how many knots I tied, and I lost track of how many rosaries I made on the spot and gave away, but I can say I easily made over a dozen chaplets for people while they waited. That was the most fun—I managed to talk most of them out of taking the full twine, and use a starter kit to get them going. Consequently, I got a lot of practice putting on crucifixes, because I’d give people the twine, get them started, pocket THEIR crucifix and send them off to a seminar with instructions to finish the chaplet neatly and return for the crucifix.
HA! Sneaky? Yes. Effective? Most definitely. At the very least, I was able to experience many many expressions of joy and accomplishment when they returned with their completed chaplets, and I pulled out a crucifix to complete it for them. At the end of the day, I had only TWO crucifixes in my pocket. That’s amazing.
There were several people who then went off with full twine and returned with completed rosaries. I think those will be very meaningful to them. One gentleman came back with his finished rosary for me to seal the twine, and by then we had run out of rosaries. As soon as I sealed the ends, he gave his just-completed rosary to a woman I had to turn away. That’s what it’s about!
It was the most work-fun/fun-work I’d had in a while, and let me say it was non-stop work. I could fill up volumes about the day, but let me just share a list of highlights:
- Father Roderick rocks!
- I like this year’s RA t-shirts—nice dark blue.
- I have a gigumbous blister on my finger.
- Walt and Sam are funny guys.
- Blue is a very popular rosary color, followed by many requests for purple.
- I met Father Krunk, who does a culture spot on Q-100.
- I met a lot of people who only know me as Jellybean.
- I met a lot of people who now know me as Mumblty Mumble.
- I can’t keep up with GregsMom and Joe’s Flying-Fingers-of-Rosary-Making.
- Communion at the convention center was not only organized, but efficient.
- Did I say Father Roderick rocks?
- Even the clumsiest people can make good knots if they stick to it.
- And finally—it is better to give than receive—what a day full of blessings for me.
check out Fr. Roderick's pictures here.
3 comments:
You're still queen of the world for how hard you worked yesterday. Many, many, many, many thanks.
Meant to say this earlier ... Thanks for taking the time to share your EC experiences/thoughts, Maria! I wish we could've gone, but at least I had the consolation of living vicariously through your post. :-)
I wish I could've gone too!
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