“Each morning I would stop in church, to pray the rosary novena.”

When I was in high school, I would stop at my maternal grandparents’ on my walk home. Very often my grandmother would be sitting in her rocking chair praying her rosary. That made a lasting impression on me. During those years, there was also a small booklet called The Rosary Novena (nine days of prayer). This novena for a special intention was 27 days of praying the rosary of petition followed by 27 days of thanksgiving. After my younger siblings were put to bed and the house was quiet — no TV in those days — my mother would pray this novena with the accompanying prayer and rosary. In the back of the booklet were little boxes for each day to be checked off.

In 1949, early in my senior year of high school, I was “inspired” to ask my mother if I could borrow her novena booklet. Each morning I would stop in church, which was next to the school, to pray the rosary novena. I don’t remember now what intention I was praying for, but it was during that year that I decided that, with my parents’ approval, I wanted to become a Pittsburgh Sister of Mercy, which I did in September 1950. Was it by persevering through this rosary novena of 54 days that, somehow, God nudged my heart? I think so, and I am most grateful for that nudge!

Sister Jeanne Snyder, RSM, a Sister of Mercy

Source: https://www.newstimes.com/local/article/Forum-on-Faith-The-meaning-behind-praying-the-16462237.php