Beads of Joy Blog II (2025 - 2026)

Dash Worthy Moments #2: The Grocery Store Saint Photo Created by James Dacey Jr using Co-Pilot There's a woman at my local grocery store who's been bagging groceries for probably thirty years. She knows everyone's name. She asks about your kids, remembers your dog had surgery, and tells you to drive safely when it's raining. Last week, I watched her spend five minutes helping an elderly man count out exact change while a line formed behind him. Nobody sighed. Nobody checked their phone impatiently. We all just... waited. Because we know her. And when she retires someday, that store will feel different. Emptier. Like something irreplaceable walked out the door. Here's what gets me: she's never going to be famous. She'll never have a Wikipedia page or a building named after her. Her job title won't impress anyone at a cocktail party. But I guarantee you, when her time comes, there will be people at that funeral who wouldn't have missed it for the wor...

The Heart God Sees Photo Created by James Dacey Jr using Co-Pilot A Reflection on Mark 7:1-13 In today's Gospel, Jesus confronts a painful reality: it's possible to look perfectly religious on the outside while our hearts remain far from God. The Pharisees were meticulous about washing their hands and purifying their cups, yet they had found clever ways to avoid caring for their own parents. They had turned God's law into a performance, a show of external compliance that actually masked a deep interior emptiness. Jesus cuts through this pretense with stunning clarity. God doesn't want our rituals for their own sake. He wants our hearts. He wants the love, the sacrifice, and the genuine devotion that should flow from those hearts into every relationship and responsibility we have. This is where the Rosary becomes such a powerful companion to our faith. When we pray the Rosary, we're not just reciting words or counting beads; we're entering into the mysteries of...

The Touch That Transforms Photo Created by James Dacey Jr using Co-Pilot A Reflection on Mark 6:53-56 In today's Gospel, we witness something extraordinary: people weren't just seeking Jesus; they were desperately reaching for even the smallest connection to Him. They brought the sick on mats, laid them in marketplaces, and begged simply to touch the fringe of His cloak. Think about that for a moment. These people believed so deeply that even the smallest physical contact with Jesus could heal them completely. And Mark tells us that as many as touched Him were made well. Every single one. This was faith meeting Divine Love, and that encounter changed everything. What's remarkable is that this same Jesus, the one whose garment held such power, is even more available to us today than He was to those crowds in Gennesaret. In the Eucharist, we don't just touch His cloak; we receive His very Body and Blood. When we pray the Rosary, we don't just reach toward Him from a...

Light in the Darkness Photo Created by James Dacey Jr using Co-Pilot A Reflection on the 5th Sunday in Ordinary Time The prophet Isaiah calls us to something radical: share your bread with the hungry, shelter the homeless, clothe the naked. But notice what happens when we do this: "your light shall break forth like the dawn." God isn't just asking us to be kind. He's revealing a profound truth about how His light enters the world. It comes through our hands, our compassion, our willingness to see another person's need and respond. When we feed someone who is hungry, we become the answer to their prayer. When we offer shelter to someone in need, we become God's providence made visible. Our acts of mercy aren't just good deeds; they're the very way divine light pierces through darkness into our broken world. Saint Paul tells the Corinthians that he came to them not with eloquent wisdom but "in weakness and fear and much trembling," relying ...

Compassion For The Crowd Photo Created by James Dacey Jr using Co-Pilot A Reflection on Mark 6:30-34 In today's Gospel, the apostles return to Jesus after their first mission, bursting with stories of what they've done and taught. But Jesus doesn't immediately send them out again or ask for detailed reports. Instead, He sees something deeper, their exhaustion, their need. "Come away by yourselves to a deserted place and rest a while," He tells them. This isn't laziness; it's wisdom. Jesus knows that we cannot pour ourselves out endlessly without being refilled. He teaches us that accepting our human limitations isn't a failure of faith, it's an act of trust. We acknowledge that we are creatures who need our Creator, branches that must remain connected to the vine. Yet notice what happens next. When they reach the deserted place, crowds are already waiting. The moment of rest is interrupted, and here we see Jesus's heart fully revealed: ...

Building a Legacy If I Died Tomorrow Photo Created by James Dacey Jr using Co-Pilot If You Died Tomorrow, Would the People You Love Know. Not Just by Your Words, But by Your Life. How Much They Mean to You? Let me ask you something that might make you uncomfortable: If you died tomorrow, what would the people you love remember about you? Not what you “said” you believed. Not what you “claimed” you valued. Not the words you posted on social media or the things you talked about when it was convenient. What would they remember about how you actually “lived”? Because here's the hard truth: Your legacy isn't built on what you say. It's built on what you do when love costs you something, and sometimes everything. We live in a world where everyone has something to say about almost everything. Many people have opinions, beliefs, values they'll defend online or in conversation. People will tell you all day long that they're good people, that they love their spouse, their chi...

Sent with Nothing Sustained by Everything Photo Created by James Dacey Jr using Co-Pilot A Reflection on Mark 6:7-13 In today's Gospel, Jesus does something that seems almost reckless: He sends His disciples out with absolutely nothing. No food, no money, no extra clothes, just a walking stick and sandals. Why would He do this? Because Jesus wanted them to learn the most important lesson of discipleship: that God provides everything we truly need. When we strip away all our securities and comforts, we discover that grace fills the empty spaces. The disciples weren't sent out to fail; they were sent out to succeed in a way the world doesn't understand, through total dependence on the Father's love and the hospitality of those they served. This radical trust mirrors what we practice when we pray the Rosary. Each time we hold those simple beads, we're doing exactly what the disciples did, we're showing up with almost nothing in our hands, offering just our attent...

Dash Worthy Moments #1: The Silent Sum of Our Lives Photo Created by James Dacey, Jr using Co-Pilot A priest once stood at a gravesite, saying prayers over someone he'd known his whole life. It was a small gathering, maybe a dozen people, scattered around the hole in the ground, shifting their weight, waiting for it to be over. After the final "Amen," after everyone had walked away, he stayed. He knelt down and looked at the stone. Really looked at it. Two dates. A name he'd known for decades. And between them - a dash . One small, horizontal line carved into granite. That tiny mark represented seventy-three years of living. Seventy-three years of breakfasts and birthdays of arguments and reconciliations, of dreams pursued, and opportunities missed. An entire human existence, all the love given, all the pain endured, all the choices made, reduced to a symbol half an inch long. And in that moment, the priest understood something he'd never quite grasped before: eve...

When Faith Reaches Out Photo Created by: James Dacey Jr using Co-Pilot A Reflection on Mark 5:21-43 (St. Blaise) Today's Gospel shows us two people desperate for Jesus's touch: Jairus, a synagogue official whose daughter is dying, and a woman who has suffered bleeding for twelve years. What's remarkable is how both of them had to push through barriers to reach Him. Jairus had to humble himself publicly, falling at Jesus's feet before a crowd, risking his reputation to beg for his daughter's life. The unnamed woman had to break social rules; her condition made her ritually unclean, yet she pressed through the crowd to touch Jesus's cloak. Both understood something profound: that being near Jesus, touching Him, asking Him directly, was worth any cost or risk. They teach us that faith isn't passive waiting; it's active reaching. On this feast of St. Blaise, when we ask for the blessing of our throats, we're doing the same thing, physically presenting ou...