at our sunday gatherings we are focusing on the spiritual disciplines, meaningful ways to connect with God that might feel a little odd, foreign, maybe even wacky. Because of some people’s religious histories, some babies get thrown out with the bathwater. good practices got warped so now there’s a little fear of venturing into certain territories. what we are trying to create is an exposure to some new ideas and give folks a chance to give some new (or old) spiritual practices a try.
during our conversation on the spiritual practice of prayer, the idea of mindfulness—turning our hearts toward God in intentional ways—was tossed around. what came into the conversation was the use of prayer beads to guide prayer. we know in some circles, such a thought is a little taboo. our thought is that things that turn our hearts toward Jesus are worth looking into. our friend sage had created some prayer beads that were helping him with mindfulness toward God. we were intrigued. so what cropped out of that was a house of refuge beading party where people could create prayer beads that were uniquely theirs. no “here’s what you need to pray”—just a venue to get creative on what people might want to focus on intentionally for a while. the finished products were amazing!
so here’s a little backstory from sage, a little history, a little practical example of how his beads work for him & also some pictures of the refuge creations. we will have a bead table & supplies at our sunday february 24th dinner & gathering for those that want to have a chance to create their own.
SAGE: I pray with beads.
I grew up Protestant, spent 20 years away from the church, and have been following Jesus actively for about 3 years now. I love the way folks in the evangelical church pray for and with each other. On my own though, I didn’t.
To help encourage myself in prayer, I peeked over the fence at the practice of using beads to structure prayer. Others do this too- beyond our Catholic bretheren and the less well known practices of Orthodox and some Anglican traditions.
So I made a string of beads (a circle was too much for me), put a cross on one end, and to remind me of rabbi Jesus’ tassels, I put one of those on the other end.
A while after I made it, I was looking into the history of praying with beads. The old english word for prayer was ‘bid’. The word bead came from the word ‘bid’. Very early Christians fled into the deserts of Egypt to escape Roman persecution. Some had 150 pieces of gravel in a little bag. They’d pull out the handful and remember all 150 psalms as they walked around keeping the faith alive. As it turns out, the very early form of prayer beads (which evolved from that), and pre-dates the rosary, was called the “pater nostrum”–or “our father” beads. It was a string of beads with a cross on one end and a tassel on the other. I had absolutely no idea that what I had created was the same as these early beads. Sometimes you get lucky.
Here’s what mine look like:
When making my prayer beads, I chose what fits based on the Bible, creeds, plus spontaeous and “family” prayer. I structured mine this way-
•On the cross I say the Lord’s Prayer.
•The next one is red, and I use it for the opening prayer (invocation)
“Lord, open thou my lips, and my mouth will bring forth thy praise”
• After the red bead, I spelled out ‘refuge’ (the name of our little faith community) friendship bracelet style out of block letters, with blue-green round beads in between.
• So (to keep from babbling, and knowing that thanksgiving is good and I’m lazy) I say a unique and spontaneous prayer of thanksgiving on each blue bead. then
• On each letter bead I say the greatest commandment, also known as the “Jesus Creed”
“I love the Lord with all of my heart, my soul, my strength, and my mind, and I love my neighbor as myself”.
• I alternate between thanks-givings and the Jesus creed ‘till I get to the BIG red bead, where I stop and remember all who are in need around me. I stay on this one as long as I can, trying to remember well. (intercession)
• The next one is gold. I don’t pray with that one. sometimes a bead is just a bead.
• The last one is like the first, and it is for my closing prayer. I sing the doxology (“praise God from whom all blessings flow…”).
and I’m done.
As friends, we got together the other day and made more prayer beads. Each one was a beautiful and unique expression of a prayer life.
In the end, the beads haven’t done a darn thing for me.
The prayers, however, have.
here are some refuge creations. the pictures don’t do them justice. we wish we could share what each one meant but just use your imagination. they are truly beautiful prayers:
