Rosary on the Headboard — Poetry from Donna Sue Berry

I stumbled through my daily grind
Right up until midnight,
Then fell in bed without my prayers;
I knew it wasn’t right.

So tired I was, almost asleep,
But thoughts kept waking me,
To rise and pray a rosary
Upon my bended knees.

But my rosary beads were knotted
Around my headboard rail,
And tired attempts to pull them down
Ended to no avail.

Our Lady knows how tired I am,
Was my last waking thought.
Should she want me to pray her beads
Then she’d untie the knot.

Then suddenly I heard a sound
As I began to snore,
My rosary beads unwound themselves
And fell upon the floor.

I quickly slid down to my knees,
A humbled, shameful heap,
And prayed our Lady’s rosary beads
In meditation deep.

Much later as I crawled in bed,
My rosary in my grip,
I shut my eyes and fell asleep;
Hail Marys on my lips.

Donna Sue Berry
written July 9^th, 2014
and originally posted on her blog.
Used with permission.

Editor’s Note: Donna Sue wrote this poem based on the experiences of Louis Kaczmerek, now deceased (pictured below with the Pilgrim Virgin Crew in Oklahoma), who for years was the custodian of the International Pilgrim Virgin Statue carved by José Thedim, based on Sister Lucia’s description of Our Lady of Fatima, and blessed by Venerable Pius XII in 1947. When Louis was in the military, after long hours of not sleeping, he crawled into his bunk one night still in his uniform. He remembered he’d made a promise to Our Lady never to go to sleep without praying her rosary. He began to have that internal struggle of “I need to get out of bed and say my rosary” vs “But you are so tired, our Lady will understand.” So he was just about to drop off to sleep when he heard the rosary uncurl itself and hit the floor. “He told me personally,” Donna Sue recounts, “that he jumped out of that bunk and onto his knees on the floor to say the most devout rosary of his life!” This story is recounted in Louis’ book “Mary & the Power of God’s Love”. Of course, as many of you know, the devotion to “Our Lady, Undoer of Knots” is a favorite of Pope Francis.

Art/Photography: Courtesy of Donna Sue Berry, all rights reserved, used with permission. Feature Image: Modified detail of A sterling silver Catholic rosary, Aprilwine, 13 November 2010, CCA-SA 3.0 Unported, Wikimedia Commons.