“It is something to focus on when chaos is all around…”
It should humble many of us “good” Catholics when a non-Catholic can attest to the power of the Rosary!
Interview
EWTNews Vatican correspondent Colm Flynn, interviewed Tammy Peterson about her devotion to the Rosary during an illness though she was not Catholic: click on the image below to see the interview. (Some know of Tammy’s husband, but this is her story.)
In 2019, Tammy was diagnosed with an almost universally fatal type of kidney cancer. She went through two surgeries and later spent 5 weeks in hospital due to serious surgical complications. During that time a friend invited her to say the Holy Rosary and they continued to pray it together on a daily basis — what a friend!
After the complications resolved, Tammy was found to be cancer free and she attributes her cure to God. Tammy joined RCIA [Rite of Christian Initiation of Adults] late 2023 and will be confirmed in her Catholic faith during the 2024 Easter celebrations. (Curiously, her friend Queenie Yu, is also a Catholic convert!)
Tammy is a podcaster with ~60 thousand followers on YouTube so is a wee bit more comfortable than most before a camera and microphone. That said, she speaks very gently, and authentically, during the interview:
The Rosary
There are several things Tammy says which resonate with me.
The Rosary: “…can center you for the day, or even for the hour, or even for the minute. So it can center you for a moment in a profound way that you would not have been able to attain. One day you’re going to need it.”
Tammy talks about ‘the rhythm’ of saying the Hail Mary’s and though she is meditating on the Mysteries, she finds that touching the beads “keeps you present” in the moment.
As an amateur Rosary maker / repairer, I love the way Tammy cherishes her 104-year old Catholic-Polish great-Grandmother’s Rosary, but that she stresses we must practice the prayer primarily. Too many people consider the physical beads to be a sort of talisman which keeps ‘evil’ away!
Below is her interviewing Bishop Barron on the importance of prayer.
At ~36 mins into the interview Bishop Barron discusses how praying the Rosary lapsed after Vatican II. Indeed, they were discouraged from saying the Rosary: “…your grandmother prayed the Rosary” but “we’re beyond that” in this more modern ‘social-justice’ Church. He was a 40-year old priest before rediscovering its beauty.
Good Irishman, Colm Flynn’s Bio from 𝕏 / Twitter / Twi𝕏:
Kevin Hay
You can follow Kevin on 𝕏 / Twitter / Twi𝕏 @kevinhay77