www.byzcath.org Forums Mysteries: The Life of Worship The Other Sacramental Mysteries On the Prayer rope

+JMJ
I am wondering if it would be appropriate for me to use a Rosary to count Jesus Prayers and if any Saints are known to have done this.
Thanks! :)
FKC

Sure it's appropriate, why wouldn't it be? You can use your fingers, pebbles, a computer, whatever you want really. A counting tool is a counting tool.

The Hallowing of a Tibetan Mala

I would not encourage any Orthodox parishioners to buy and use a Tibetan rosary, even though they can be very beautiful.

That said, twenty years ago I had a friend who was a serious Buddhist (Tibetan, three years in a Nepalese monastery) and he converted to Christianity... he brought his much loved mala (rosary) and asked what to do with it. We stood in front of the icons and prayed and it came to me that it was no more an object of demonic worship than his own lips and mouth which had once prayed to the demons and murmured Tibetan mantras. Just as his lips could be redeemed for Christ, so could his prayer rope. So we placed it in the Altar for 40 days for God to hallow it in His presence and after that he took communion on a Sunday morning and we then blessed the mala and signed it with the Cross of Christ.

Noisy rosaries. Spiritual fathers and mothers discourage people from using prayer ropes made of materials which will click and clack. The noise can be distracting during a time when you are giving yourself fully to the prayer of silence (hesychia.)

Noisy rosaries...I can't tell you how many times I have been in ROman churches and been totally unable to pray such was the click clacking of the delicately made rosaries in the hands of old Italian widows...;)

Seriously, all of this stuff about hesychia and silence is very good.

But spiritual fathers also caution us about getting more attached to the outward appearances of prayer and ritual than to the substance. And there is a lot of pharasaical empty ritualism around at times.

If someone wants to pray, they should pray with whatever they want or have at hand rather than get scruples about it. It is always better to pray than wait for the perfect prayer rope, lestovka, or whatever to come in the mail. Most converts to the east go through this phase of attaching mystical power to the object rather than the prayer itself. We need to get past it.

Christ is Risen!!

While we're on the subject of prayer ropes, how old and worn should one be before it is replaced? Or should it?

MIne is about 35 years old and I've stretched it to the point that the knots have separated from each other so that there are gaps between them. I fall asleep with and, over time, it's really gotten to be worn looking.

Bob

You and I are on the same page!! Mine is 34 tears old, made for me in the monastery in Serbia and I was given it at my tonsuring. It has four green knots, a gracious acknowledgement of my Irishness :-)

It's made from some durable synthetic material, a mix of wool and whatever, and the spaces between the knots have now stretched to almost half an inch. I dread the day when it breaks. But two weeks ago one of my NZ converts who is now a monk in Serbia at Bodjani came back to visit his New Zealand family and lo and behold! he presented me with a new prayer rope from Serbia. So I am a happy old man with two prayer ropes and that should see me out.

Father Ambrose:

Father bless!!

Mine came from a monastery here in the U.S. and was made for a bishop--so they told me. When I wrote to them and asked for one, it was all they had available. It was originally completely bishop's red--that faded red that Latin bishops were, not cardinal red. All the knots are the same color. Right now it's worn to almost white in spots and my spaces are about a quarter of an inch.

Asking for your blessing anc continued holy prayers,

Bob