1,000 pounds, of Catholic books and devotional objects
It was a most unexpected blessing.
St. Peter's Church took in two free truckloads, about 1,000 pounds, of Catholic books and devotional objects thanks to the efforts of a former altar boy.
David Soto, 32, an employee of a junk-collection company, contacted the Roman Catholic church after the company was hired to clear out the apartment of an elderly man who was moving into a nursing home.
The man, whom the company and church officials declined to identify, had amassed enough items to pack his apartment, floor to ceiling, with boxes and bags.
Items included crucifixes, crosses, rosaries, devotional cards, medals and icons. The collection also included an encyclopedia of saints and books on Augustinian and Carmelite spirituality.
The company delivered the items earlier this month.
Rev. Arthur Rojas said the books were high quality and speculated that the former owner _ coincidentally a former St. Peter's parishioner _ might have once aspired to a life in the church.
'For all we know there was a calling to the priesthood or monastic life that was never fully actualized,' Rojas said.
Well if tonnage of books and devotional items was an actual sign of calling then there must be a lot of missed vocations in St. Blogs.
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Yeah, I thought it was normal for Catholics and Orthodox to have mountains of icons and statuary and books?
My Grandmother had a 4 ft statue of the Virgin and Child and a 2ft crucifix on the wall. I remember some nuns visiting my mom's house and commenting that she had more religious art on the walls than some rectories! (I don't think they saw the baskets of devotional booklets on the end table, or the reliquaries in her bedroom.)
You should see my hometown in PA. On some streets, almost every little row-home has at least 2 or 3 statues or icons or Divine Mercy pictures in the window. Little old ladies at church w/ a bundle of novena booklets the size of a brick held together w/ a rubber band. The Byzantines all have little icon corners w/ candles and crosses and bottles of holy water. At Theophany (Epiphany) when holy water is blessed in the Eastern tradition, people were filling up gallon jugs!
Not only Byzantines have icon corners. Some of us Roman-types have adopted the practice.
Now I know what my obituary will look like.
(Please tell them it's okay to identify me by name.)
That smacks of clericalism - that people who have lots of Catholic books are somehow missing a vocation.
Well, who knows the fellow's plan, but my first reaction was "He must not have had a religious vocation!" POVERTY, chastity, obedience...?
Maybe he missed his vocation or maybe he was just a very pious shoplifter!
The real problem is whether he actually read/contemplated it all. My theory is that he was given all the stuff by scores of well-meaning parishioners out to aid his soul. How many of us have been given a book or holy card by someone, only to set it aside and forget to read or pray with it? You can't morally give the thing away until you have benefitted from it yourself. And then I'm sure you all know the pains of going through old papers and debating whether you are allowed to throw away that old crumpled scrap of paper, just because it happens to have a novena or a picture of a saint on it...
I'll bet when my elderly aunt finally allows us to lighten her load of papers and books her house will lose 200 lbs or so. And I may have 100 lbs in my own bedroom. But a THOUSAND pounds? Maybe he was planning on starting a library or a religious store, or something. Maybe he was collecting articles for a mission and grew too sick to finish his project. Or maybe he's happy to leave us with a good mystery...
He was probably a squaloree or a hoarder. If people gave him things, he kept them until he could find a "good home" for them. I myself have become heir to most of the crucifixes, rosaries, and religious books that belonged to my elderly relatives. Just this past fall, one of my aunts gave me a small chest in which my grandparents had collected all their prayer cards, as well as a decade of the Father Coughlin (the Radio Priest) bulletins and brochures they received! They hadn't much money, but they had quite a fill of freebies!
Incidentally, didn't one of the Angry Twins write about the problem of what to do with religious "gifts" from charities seeking donations? I thought about this the other day when I received a Miraculous Medal keychain the mail. I also have 2 rosaries just from this past year...
MissJean - go to anysoldier.com, pick a soldier, and send him/her a care package with the added bonus of a rosary with an instruction pamphlet. Works for me.
Rosary Army makes and gives away rosaries; I'm sure they'll take already made ones, too!
Good idea about the soldiers except that there are specifications to be met with regard to their rosaries. Twine/string/rope rather than beads, no metal (it glints), etc. A good thing to check out via the Rosary Army, I think...
I've been considering nursing homes for some of the freebies. Lots of "cheap" metal that won't find a home around a younger neck because of its inferior material comes as a Godsend to folks in nursing homes. They value cards, too. Most of all, I hear they value attention, but in the interim, the material remembrances give them a personal something to hang on to.
Unfortunately, I don't know these things first-hand. I've been too busy (but never busy enough) with a homebound relative to consider visiting the elderly in nursing homes.
Perhaps one of you who has first-hand experience can give us ideas?
Actually, for soldiers' rosaries, beads are more than okay. Check out Ranger Rosary.
Thanks, everyone~!
Ok, so now I can't find where I read the specs about non-metal crucifixes (Rosary Army only accepts twine, but adds their own metal crucifix.)Another idea, in addition to the military and nursing homes for Rosaries, etc, are the missions. Some parishes have adopted foreign missions and ask for donations of Rosaries and religious articles as well as clothing and food, etc.
"One man's trash is another man's treasure", one man's storage is another man's food, one man's junk mail is another man's life preserver?