About Trendy Traditions
Trendy Traditions is an online shop specializing in Catholic gifts and keepsakes. Our initial product offering comprises handmade rosaries. The idea for Trendy Traditions was born in prayer during the month of the rosary, October 2009. For quite some time, I had been praying about the future of our growing family and the practical issues associated with being a wife, mother to four children, returning to work full-time after maternity leave, nursing a newborn, and maintaining my spiritual life in the mix of it all. God's response to my prayer was to inspire this business. So I added this to my list of daily responsibilities, trusting in His providence. My husband and I devoted every available moment to launching Trendy Traditions. Before officially opening the website for business, I was getting orders through word-of-mouth recommendations. With each rosary I made, I was more peaceful about the direction that I was being led. We saw grace flow in our lives in so many ways through the process. Finally, during the 2010 Lenten season, things started to really take form and we opened for business a few weeks before Easter. The scripture that came to mind during this time was, "For I know the plans that I have for you," declares the LORD,"plans for welfare and not for calamity to give you a future and a hope." Jeremiah 29:11
About Our Ministry
The rosary is one of those Catholic traditions that most people recognize and know is a unique form of personal prayer. I was born into a Catholic family but this form of prayer was not introduced to me in a personal way. I watched my grandmothers; both had a devotion to the rosary, but no one ever shared it with me. As I grew older, I would encounter situations from time to time in which the rosary would be prayed in a group setting, and I always felt uncomfortable at my lack of understanding of this tradition. This was not helped by the fact that I grew up in a very rural area where Catholicism was misunderstood, and I was frequently accused by locals of worshipping the Virgin Mary. I was not equipped to accurately and lovingly respond, which only caused deeper confusion. Over the years, my discomfort would turn to impatience. My heart had turned cold to this form of prayer.
Many years later, while living my vocation I was confronted by an opportunity. My oldest daughter's second grade teacher lost her husband to cancer. As part of her grieving, she started a rosary club one morning each week before school. I was excited to teach my daughter about comforting those who grieve. There was one small problem--my hang up about the rosary. The entire drive to school that morning, I prayed. I prayed that God would help me get over this block and that I would have an openness, not only to the rosary but the whole concept of Marian devotion. An amazing gift from that morning was a peace that settled in my heart. None of my questions were answered but my heart was open. I did not have a radical change and start praying the rosary daily but the seeds were definitely planted for a deeper conversion.
The following years, I would pray the rosary on occasion and feel very connected to my grandmothers and their faith walks. It would give me strength and encouragement in living my own vocation. Just before I was inspired to start Trendy Traditions, I began praying the rosary each week on a conference call with my mother and four sisters. It has been a beautiful ritual and brought grace and healing with each prayer as well as deepening that feeling of connection for me.
It is my sincere hope that I can share the peace I have experienced with others through the products I make in this business. As I started praying the rosary more often, I could not quite find what I was looking for in terms of actual rosaries. They all looked like a rosary my grandmother would have prayed 50 years earlier. So I set out on marrying the concept of trendy styling with the sacred traditions that I love so much about my faith. It mirrors the relationship of my husband's deep love of the faith traditions and sacraments and my own passion for worship and liturgy. The same principles that guide us in our personal lives apply to this business--that we will grow in faith, love, and obedience to God. Ten percent of all profits will be donated to Catholic ministries. For more information, see our giving page.
Melanie Gillespie
Trendy Traditions Founder
