My Prayer Beads

Last week, I received a set of prayer beads that I ordered from Alan Creech Rosaries.  As a lifelong non-liturgical Protestant, I didn’t grow up with the tradition of praying scripted prayers in church or praying the Rosary.  In the last few years, I have developed a habit of praying nighttime prayers from a prayer book, and always have great intentions of doing morning and noontime prayers as well.

When I read that Alan Creech was doing a special sale of some of his one century rosaries to help raise money for Michael Spencer and his family, I ordered a set for myself and a set for my mother-in-law.

Now, I have the beads so I’ve been trying to figure out how to use them!  I’m not opposed to using traditional or scripted prayers, but I’m not comfortable with the Roman Catholic rosary that includes the Hail Mary.  I can understand that people who use that prayer do not see Mary as a deity, but I’m not comfortable using it.

The first thing I found in my research is that praying a full rosary is complicated!!  It involves quite a few prayers and then meditating on a certain aspect of Jesus’ life (which changes depending on the day of the week and the season).  Wow.  The prayer beads that I purchased, though, are just a single “century” or one repeat of the regular rosary.  A little more research led me to this site which shows a modification of the full rosary to appeal to Protestants who aren’t terribly liturgical.

So, here’s how I’m using my beads:

Crucifix – Apostle’s Creed (which I still need to memorize – sad, I know)

Silver Celtic Knot Bead – The Lord’s Prayer

Silver Celtic Knot Bead – Gloria

Green bead – The Jesus Prayer

Green bead – The Jesus Prayer

Green bead – The Great Commandment  (Matthew 22:37-39)

Green bead – The Great Commission  (Matthew 28:19-20)

Green bead – The Great Commandment

Green bead – The Jesus Prayer

Green bead – The Jesus Prayer

Green bead – The Jesus Prayer

Silver Celtic Knot Bead - Gloria

I’ve been using them for a few days and I really like them.  I don’t use these prayers instead of my extemporaneous prayer time, but to help settle my brain and get me ready to focus on God while I read my Bible and pray.

Have you used a rosary or prayer beads?  How were they helpful?  Have you found other physical items to be useful in helping you keep spiritual disciplines?