Sacrifice

I walked into a shop the other day to buy a gift for a friend and ended up buying something for myself too. The salesperson pointed out a St. Benedict bracelet, suggesting it would make a nice gift. "But my friend isn't Catholic," I said.

" Neither am I" she replied, holding up her wrist to show me an identical bracelet.  "They have become very popular."

Feeling a little self-righteous, I asked whether she even knew who St. Benedict was. Yes, it turns out she did. Pointing to the information on the package, she noted that St. Benedict had lived during the fifth century. He wrote the prayer on the medal to be reminded of Christ's sacrifice on the cross for the sins of humanity.  "The Holy Cross be my Light," is found on one side of the medal. She continued reading, " The wearer of the medal is reminded that each of us has the chance to make the world a better place, to choose good and avoid evil."

I bought the bracelet and have been wearing it since, and I was more than a little embarrassed that it took a non-Catholic to remind me of one of the primary reasons we Catholics wear our beautiful sacramentals.  It is not in wearing them that we are protected but in remembering the sacrifice of our Lord that we become strong.  May the Holy Cross be my Light!