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THE IMPOSSIBLE MYSTERIES
Like many Catholics during a long season with no public liturgies to attend, I picked up the rosary again last year. This familiar and traditional prayer practice has become a daily companion during long solitary walks, sleepless nights, and regular reports of sick and troubled friends. For many months, I patrolled the 20 Mysteries like a soldier on night watch: Joy, Sorrow, Light, and Glory became the territories I guarded fiercely for the sake of my loved ones.
In time, I found myself yearning for other territories to roam. I longed for Healing Mysteries to pray for our sick world, and even wrote some from the gospel stories. I considered the Frustrating Mysteries, the Unfair Mysteries, and finally the Impossible Mysteries. Maybe someday I’ll include them all in a book, if it seems the world could use them.
The Impossible Mysteries seem especially significant in our community today. You’re welcome to compile your own, but these are the ones I pray. The First Impossible Mystery: The great and scary sickness will be banished from the earth soon. The Second Impossible Mystery: Everybody who wants a job can find one. The Third Impossible Mystery: Republicans and Democrats learn to work together with respect. The Fourth Impossible Mystery: White privilege will come to an end, and people of every color can live in peace. The Fifth Impossible Mystery: Global citizens take climate change to heart and rescue the earth in time.
Are these really so impossible? They don’t have to be.
—Alice Camille,
reprinted with permission from TrueQuest Communications
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