Have Hands, Will Pray

Cait Winters shares how the aid of Jesus, through Mary, is always at her fingertips.

I’ve been blessed to hold many Rosaries in my life. I’ve been gifted beautiful beads for birthdays and babies’ baptisms, with custom beads and pretty saint medals. I’ve prayed on knotted rope, sterling chains, and beads made of flower petals, wood, and plastic on nylon. I’ve even made my own before. Even so, I most often find myself counting decades on the pads of my fingers.   

I know how I’d prefer to pray every Rosary if I could: on my knees, beads in hand, next to someone I love or before the Blessed Sacrament. Yet, running a home and family, being a busy wife and Mama, I am always on the go. I don’t always have a lot of time, and rarely do I have true silence. Thankfully, the aid of Jesus, through Mary, is always at my fingertips.  

The Holy Spirit meets me where I am  

Holding beads feels romantic but praying on my hands always happens organically. I love the weight of a Rosary, the clack of the beads, the guidance they offer, and a crux to kiss. But I know I can come to Jesus with empty hands, like Mary with an empty wine jug, and He will fill my soul (see John 2:3). Prayer with my hands is usually spontaneous, but no matter how I show up, I know the Holy Spirit meets me where I am.  

Though the 5-decade Rosary is iconic, the prayer has never been limited to beads or string. The earliest iterations of the holy Rosary were the Psalms prayed and counted with stones or pieces of wood. In the Middle Ages, it became popular to use of strings of beads to count the prayers as the devotion spread.   

The Rosary is such a powerful prayer, thanks to the unmatched intercession of the Blessed Mother, that it is stunning how accessible and simple it is to pray. Anyone can do it, anywhere at any time. Like the early Church in the desert, I use what I’m familiar with, what surrounds me in my daily life to reach out to the divine. Whether it's steps, dishes, little baby toes or the tips of my fingers, if I’m on my bed, on the road, at practice or in a waiting room — in good times or bad, Jesus hears me just the same.  

A Rosary prayed is better than one left unsaid  

Saint Josemaría Escrivá, who had a great devotion to the holy Rosary, wrote:

(If) you always leave the Rosary for later ... you end up not saying it at all because you are sleepy. If there is no other time, say it in the street without letting anybody notice it. It will ... help you to have the presence of God. (Furrow, Escriva.org) 

Because prayer is so beneficial and essential to our lives and growth in virtue, a Rosary said in imperfect circumstances is infinitely better than a Rosary never prayed!  

This state in life of motherhood and this stage of raising children does not always afford me the ability to offer the reverence I feel every single Rosary deserves. But I know I can come to Jesus with nothing but my heart; I can come to Mary with nothing but the hands that praise her Most Beloved Son. Even at my best, I have nothing to offer of myself apart from the goodness of Christ within me. If I have hands, I will pray, and pray I do. 

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Copyright 2024 Cait Winters
Images: Canva