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The Rosary, a Catholic prayer cycle, is practiced with beads that many people also make use for necklaces or bracelets. Buddhist beads are similar in some ways to the rosary beads.
Parents and grandparents are eager to pray the Rosary for their children and for those who need special prayers. Like my mother who prayed the Rosary passionately all her life, faithful Catholics are constantly and sincerely praying the Rosary.
"A Single Bead" written by Stephanie Engelman in 2016 is a touching story of faith awakened by the Rosary. The Korean version has been published this year with the title, "In Search of the Rosary Beads."
Stephanie Engelman spent most of her teen years devouring one novel after another. She enjoyed reading until the wee hours of the morning. She even enjoyed reading while she blow-dried her hair or ate her breakfast. Such a passionate love for reading was transformed into a passion for writing, and "A Single Bead" is a fruitful result of her passion.
She studied psychology, and now she has five children. "A Single Bead" is the first book that she wrote to share the grace she received with love and faith for God and the church.
In the story with a well-constructed plot, a plane crash that took the life of 16-year-old Kate's beloved grandmother and threw her own mother into deep depression leads Kate to discover a single bead that bears her initials (K.M.R.: Katelyn Marie Roberts) from her grandmother's rosary beads that were lost in the accident.
Her grandfather specially made her grandmother's silver rosary beads bearing the initials of each family member's name.
Kate searches for more beads. On her journey in search of the remaining rosary beads, she is drawn into other people's lives and encounters a series of inexplicable and miraculous stories. This journey leads her into a world of hope where the miraculous power of the Rosary is realized.
"I keep walking toward the trees, and it's almost like I'm being drawn by some kind of invisible force. Stooping down to push the flowers aside, I discover a small, silver bead, and my heart flutters. I have to hold it, touch it ― feel the ridges of the letters imprinted on three sides, and run my nail along with the cross on the fourth… Everything I am zones into that tiny, little bead… It's just a little fragment of a piece of jewelry, right? But it's not. It's a bead from grandma's rosary. And not just any bead. My bead… This rosary bead has a special power that is not like the power of witchcraft or science fiction. The power of a single bead completely comes from prayer. Prayer has a marvelous ability which is the ability of God who listens to our prayers, heals, and loves us."
"A Single Bead" is a beautiful testament to the power of prayer and a touching story of the love and reconciliation in the family, the value of faith and the marvelous power of prayer.
The author is a member of the Daughters of St. Paul (fsp.pauline.or.kr.) living and giving the Good News to the world by means of social communication.
