my prayer beads
One of the areas of my life that I have been working towards deepening this year has been my spirituality. So, I was intrigued when I came across an article on prayer beads. We had a leadership retreat at the church I attend not too long after that, and I led a session on creating prayer beads for the retreat, and then was asked to lead creating prayer beads as part of our Church Family Camp worship service several weeks ago.
As noted in the article, every religious tradition except Protestantism uses some form of prayer beads. With each bead representing a different pray focus or concern, use of the beads can help us to focus our thoughts during prayer, return to them when our minds and heart wander, and have a structure that gives us a wider, full spectrum of prayer. They can also be of help in those situations that we can’t find words for – in times of adversity or suffering. In times like that, just holding each bead and reflecting on its purpose can bring some comfort and focus to our thoughts.
The first bead is for God. It’s color is gold, and the gold beads I chose were slightly larger than the other beads. This bead is for offering prayers of thanksgiving and praise to God. It could also be an appropriate bead for remembering all the things that you are grateful for.
The second bead is for self, and is a clear bead. It seemed appropriate to me that it was clear, because no matter how hard we try, we can’t hide from God or our Higher Power. Another person mentioned that the clearness reminds her to let God’s light shine through her to the world.
The third bead is for worries, and was described as a triangular black bead, which I couldn’t find. I choose several different styles of black beads which were angular and/or jagged. That reminded me that worries can be dangerous and chaos inducing. The worries bead is used to tell God all your worries, and then leave them with God.
Next comes a light blue bead for silence – for listening for God. I think it is a good place for the silence bead, after we’ve just handed all our worries over – to listen for God’s response and assurance. Someone else in the group said she likes to put the silence bead at the end, as the last bead.
The wooden bead is for “desert of faith”. This is for reflecting on where you are in your faith journey at this time. This has been a hard one to explain to my grand-daughter (who is almost six) when she does her prayer beads at bed time, but I think that we are going to use this one for talking about how God wants us to live – being kind, being respectful, being truthful, and so forth.
This is followed by a black and white bead signifying “Night and Day”, for reflecting on things that you are struggling with in your life, and offering them to God.
Next is a green bead, for a special concern.
There are two red beads – one for people we love who are easy to love, and one for people that are hard to love. My grand-daughter usually puts me, her mom and her grandpa in both categories, though she qualifies it with ‘sometimes’.
After praising God, taking care of our own needs, thinking about other people in our lives, or people/groups of people we have difficulty with loving, we move to three purple beads, for three more concerns we may have. I like the intentionality of being led to think of more concerns than I might have thought of otherwise.
Last, is another blue bead, for prayers for the world. The bead I chose for this was a blue bead with some lines in it, which can suggest the world by signifying outlines of land, or can also remind us of the ‘damage’ in our world – the suffering and pain that exist in far too many places.
I have two sets of prayer beads – one which I keep on my nightstand by my bed, and one which I carry in my purse so that I have it available through the day, or at times when I am not at home. There are times when just holding on to it, and moving the beads through my fingers can be a comfort when I am sad or angry, or when I need to feel the presence of God.
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