Thursday, June 21, 2012

educational too

One of the ladies from Zac's has recently returned from a 'pilgrimage' to ... an ex-Eastern bloc country the name of which escapes me. Possibly Macedonia. Which might not be eastern bloc. Anyway she brought me back this pretty bracelet. Each bead or charm on it has significance in the story of Jesus and is supposed to be used as a way of telling others about Christ. Well, maybe I won't be doing that but it was very sweet of her. 


I haven't heard much about her trip but I know she went with a group* of nuns and they were very strict. Mostly I've heard that she's 'never going in a plane again.' As far as I can gather from this lady, who is one of the real characters at Zac's, nothing out of the ordinary happened while on the plane but she didn't stop shaking for three weeks. 

* I googled the term for a group of nuns. Wikipedia suggested a superfluity, which sounded as though it could be of doubtful origin so I checked a bit more and, according to Oxford dictionaries, this is a fanciful term from the 15th century that probably was never in popular use. They suggest a community of nuns.

3 comments:

Katney said...

I think community is probably the best term.

I am not familiar with the bracelet as pictured-- probably more properly called a chaplet -- but the image of Christ is known as The Divine Mercy and the devotion was promoted by St. Faustina who, I think, was Polish. A chaplet is a devotion that uses beads as reminders more or less as your friend describes. The rosary is a kind of chaplet, as we use the beads to keep us on track as we meditate on aspects of the life of Christ.

Liz Hinds said...

It's quite pretty, katney. A chaplet, hmm.

Katney said...

Then again, it may be a charm bracelet with particularly thoughtful charms. I see a star (Bethlehem) and a cross (Golgotha). Can't see in the picture what the others are.