At Barnes & Noble, I couldn't resist IL Divo's newest CD: SIEMPRE which has the following songs:
1. Nights In White Satin
2. Caruso
3. Without You (Desde El Dia Que Te Fuiste)
4. Come Primavera
5. Have You Ever Really Loved A Woman (Un Regalo Que Te Dio La Vida)
6. La Vida Sin Amour
7. Una Noche
8. You Raise Me Up (Por Ti Sere)
9. Tell That To My Heart (Amour Venme A Buscar)
10. Musica Includes very special bonus track Somewhere
I actually restrained myself from getting too many books (actually only picked up a couple) as I had left my wish list at home.
Then we stopped at Christian Family Bookstores where I picked up some new prayer beads for a friend who had asked me how to use them. There I picked up a book on Prayer Beads which not only included the Catholic version but a lot of history about prayer beads in general....it was a fascinating read.
Some things I learned:
1. Prayer beads are traditionally used to keep count of the repetitions of prayers, chants or devotions by adherents of religion.
2. There are three widely accepted uses for prayer beads:
a. Repetition of the same devotion a set (usually large) number of times. This is the earliest form of prayer beads (the Japa Mala) and the earliest Christian form (the prayer rope). This is also the type of use in the Bahá'í Faith. The most common mala have 108 beads.
b. Repetition of several different prayers in some pattern, possibly interspersed with meditations. Meditation on a series of spiritual themes, e.g. Islam. The contemporary Pearls of Life, invented by Martin Lönnebo, Bishop Emeritus of the Linköping Diocese of the Swedish Lutheran Church, is a set of 18 beads, some round and some elongated, arranged in an irregular pattern. Each one has its own significance as a stimulus and reminder for meditation, although they can also be used for repetitive prayer.
c. Roman Catholics and Anglicans use the Rosary as prayer beads. In the mid-1980s Anglican prayer beads or Christian prayer beads were developed in the Episcopal Church and have since been adopted by some Protestants. The set consists of 33 beads (representing the 33 years of the life of Christ) arranged in four groupings of symbolic significance.
I actually still have the Rosary I was given at my 1st Communion, plus I have my paternal grandfather's and my materal grandmother's rosaries but I prefer my wooden one I was given from my cancer buddy. I use them to not only recite the Catholic version of the Rosary but I will also use each bead to recite a gratitude (things I am grateful for). It helps me to see the positives of the day instead of focusing on the negatives. And today I really needed to focus on the positives.
So tonight when I go to bed, I will be listening to IL Divo and saying my gratitudes.
Edited to add the picture of my rosary bead bracelet:
