I suspect you can tell a lot about a person from what they carry in their pockets. Examination of the contents of a wallet alone would give a lot of personal and identifying information: credit cards and their type, cash, photos, addresses etc.
Then there are the other bits and pieces that the pocket accumulates over the course of a day or two. Each little object is something that we consciously intended to carry (wallet, keys, phone), or it reveals where we have been in the last few hours. Just now I found an Air New Zealand boiled sweet and a coffee shop napkin.
It could be interesting to consider what judgements people might make about you if they were to go through your pockets or handbag right at this moment. Is there anything there that might identify you as a Catholic or a Christian? Catholics traditionally carried a small card or medal which stated “I am a Catholic, in case of an accident, call a priest.”
Pope Francis yesterday talked to the crowds at the St. Peter’s Square Sunday audience about pocket contents. Encouraging people to meet Christ in the gospels he said:
“It’s a good idea to have a pocket sized Gospel that you can carry with you and read a small passage from at any given time of the day. And there we find Jesus who speaks to us. Think about this, you don’t even have to have all four Gospels, one is enough.”
I opened my handbag to check, and what did I find? Apart from some items too embarrassing to mention, a pair of lost earrings and my ‘lost’ yoga head-band, there was a rosary; my Carmelite lapel pin; a packet of ‘Prayer for Life’ cards and a copy of ‘A Letter of Private Direction’ by the author of ‘The Cloud of Unknowing’.
Q: Do I sound like a Goody Two-Shoes?
A: Absolutely.
Thanks for sharing this Julia. A rosary is as close as I come to your inspiring list!