Tools for Prayer: Protestant Prayer Beads (Part II)

Bead prayers have been so much a part of the history of Christian prayer that even the word “bead” derives from “bede,” an Anglo-Saxon word meaning “prayer.” The age of Calvinism led to an abandonment of bead praying for most Protestants, but the practice is regaining popularity.

The following bead prayer is taken from a set of prayers organized around the appointed Scripture readings for the church year as given in the Episcopal Book of Common Prayer. Anglican prayer beads like these consist of a cross and 33 beads—31 beads forming a circle and one large bead and a cross outside that circle.  The smaller beads are arranged in groups of 7, called weeks, and four larger beads, called cruciform beads because they form an invisible cross. The four cruciform beads separate these weeks. Directly above the cross is the invitatory bead, which serves as a call to worship as you enter the beads’ prayer circle.

To pray with beads, you start at the cross, holding it in your hand and acknowledging God’s presence. Then you move on the invitatory bead, followed by the first cruciform bead, and them the first set of weeks. On the weeks beads, you will pray the same verse repetitively. It is in the reciting of the weeks that many people grow uneasy, recalling Christ’s warning about prayers that contain vain repetitions. (Matt. 6:7.) For those who pray with beads, however, the problem is not in the repetition but in the vain, or useless, repetition. “The first thing to remember is that God is not impressed by marathon mumbling. But praying with beads in a deliberate and meditative way invites the kind of focused, intentional praying that God honors. The practice of using beads illuminates the fundamental truth that prayer cannot be rushed…Similarly, reading and truly absorbing Scripture takes time…Praying these verses from bead to bead can make us newly aware of their meaning.” (Praying with Beads, p.xii-xiii.)

After praying through the weeks, you leave the circle, praying the last cruciform bead, then reciting the Lord’s prayer as you leave the bead circle and the closing prayer as you hold the cross once more. Feel free to tailor the prayers to your own sense of divine leading. For instance, you may wish to pray for various people with each bead as you pray the weeks. Or you may focus on a different word or image in the verse through each week of the circle.

As we close a week of focusing on mindfulness, a look at bead-praying is appropriate, for in is in the mindfulness that a person is able to steep in the language of a repeated prayer or verse. But the benefits of the focus and the simplicity are great!