Relics and beads: praying as if matter mattered

If God, in Christ, becomes flesh, then matter matters. Yet prayer has, for many Christians become about words or thoughts. Images, relics, beads and candles became objects of suspicion at the Reformation, tribal markers which divided Catholic from Protestant . There were many reasons for this.These material forms of prayer could be used superstitiously, as if the images, beads or bones were magic charms. They were usually means of prayer which were used individually and privately, which Reformers worried about. People could be saying anything if they prayed alone; worship was more safely done communally. (This appears to be one reason why churches began to be locked outside the time of services.) Praying with beads and visits to shrines became associated with the practice of indulgences, which was the issue which had triggered Martin Luther's protest.  As a result, statues were defaced, shrines dismantled, and praying the rosary forbidden.

However, as I have argued, people need ways of praying that are not limited to words and thoughts, and material forms of prayer have surfaced in every denomination. Whether it is the prayer dice, the Promise Box, banners or creative prayer stations, we need to pray with our eyes and hands as well as our minds and hearts.

As part of my exploration of the sanctity of place, I have been re-imagining two ancient practices, the use of prayer beads, and the making of reliquaries, as an expression of my own faith.

RELIQUARIES

Reliquaries traditionally house pieces of the mortal remains of saints, or something they have touched or used. On our travels this year we encountered many.

The relics of St Philibert in Noirmoutier, France

The relics of St Mildred are housed in this reliquary in Minster in Thanet.

A handkerchief touched by St Edmund Arrowsmith, one of the Catholic Martyrs of the English Reformation,
in Holy Cross Priory, Leicester.

My own "take" on reliquaries did not, thankfully, require any bones. As I travelled, I gathered up small objects - stones, shells, sheep's wool, flowers and leaves - from the places I visited. I mounted these in box frames on top of photographs of the places I collected them, and decorated the outside of each frame with strips of maps of the relevant area. Why did it matter to have something physical from the places concerned? Couldn't I just have framed the photographs? Yes, I could, but I discovered that there was something powerful for me about having some actual material from that place. I realised that I had done this unconsiously all my life. It matters that I have some of the Japanese anemones which grew outside my parents' house - not the same variety, but some of the actual plants. It matters that I have the babygro in which I brought both my children home from hospital. Matter matters, whether we like it or not. This is not good news if one wants to declutter, and pondering this helped me to understand why the Reformers had issues with the magical thinking which can attach to objects. However, it seemed better intentionally to work with the "stuff" I had gathered, to give it some honour and respect, to allow it to speak to me of the God who is found in the "stuff" of life than to pretend it didn't matter. The photos of my "reliquaries"  aren't brilliant, but here are a few of them - there are more to do.

St Edith's well, Kemsing with dried flowers

A reliquary containing a picture of St Mildred's reliquary, and dried vegetaion from the fields around Minster.

Shells from the beach on the Sea of Galilee,  at the church of Peter's Primacy, the traditional site of the miraculous draught of fish, and Jesus' lakeside breakfast with his disciples. (John 21)

A selection of "reliquaries" - the one on the end contains stones from the beach at Nora, where St Efisio was martyred. 

PRAYER BEADS

The use of beads or knots to help count repeated prayers is very ancient, long pre-dating Christianity. It seems to have originated in Hinduism, but is used in various ways in many world religions. In Christianity, this way of praying has a long and varied history.

The Desert Fathers and Mothers, people who went out into the deserts of Egypt to pray, tied knots in cords to help them keep track of the repeated prayers they offered. It is said that they began by offering all 150 Psalms every day, but those monks who could not read or remember them adopted the practice of praying shorter simpler prayers, like the “Jesus Prayer” (Lord Jesus, Son of God, have mercy on me. Luke 18.13) 150 times instead.

These simple, knotted cords gradually developed in the Middle Ages into what is now called the Rosary, a devotion aimed at ordinary people, relying on simple, memorised prayers and prompts to meditate on Gospel stories.

The Protestant Reformation mostly swept away the tradition of praying with beads, regarding the repeated prayer of set words as a superstitious practice. They believed that people should not “heap up empty phrases as the Gentiles do; for they think that they will be heard because of their many words.” Matthew 6.7. Their emphasis was on praying from the heart and in the moment, in your own words.  Another problem was the association of the Rosary with prayer to or through Mary, and the fact that some of the stories on which the worshipper was supposed to meditate as they prayed it – the Assumption and the Coronation of Mary – were not in the Bible, so were no longer considered to be suitable for prayer.

In more recent times, however, there has been a widespread rediscovery by Protestants of the idea of praying with beads. Different Protestant traditions have created prayer bracelets and strings as a simple way of helping people to pray, by giving them a structure and pattern. Instead of using the traditional Catholic Rosary prayers, they might use the Lord’s Prayer, and short sentences of scripture to meditate on, or let each bead represent a different idea or image which they dwell on as they hold it.

My Rosary beads, in the little case I made for them

A set of Anglican prayer beads, with four sets of seven beads (called "weeks") has been developed, but I decided to use the traditional Catholic Rosary beads, simply because they were so much easier to come by. I bought a set at the church of St Efisio in Cagliari, Sardinia, which, though simple wooden beads, have become special to me, not only a way to pray, but a reminder of the experience of being at his festival .

While I have no theological issues with using the "traditional" Catholic rosary prayers (although there are, actually many variations on them), repeated Hail Mary's and Our Fathers somehow didn't seem to work for me, and, though I was using a Catholic rosary, with five sets of ten beads (decades), I decided to use my beads as an aid to Lectio Divina.
This technique of Biblical meditation is very ancient, and invites the pray-er to repeat a word or phrase from the Bible, over and over, as if chewing the cud, or sucking on a boiled sweet. It seemed to me to be something which beads could be a real help with. So I devised a pattern which slotted into my existing practice of praying with the daily lectionary readings,

My pattern is below though any prayers could be used, so long as they can be memorised - this is not something you want to do with a book in hand!

LECTIO WITH BEADS

First read the set readings and be aware of which word, phrase or verse is calling to you to ponder.

Then hold the cross and say:
"The Word became flesh and dwelt among us...full of grace and truth". (John 1.14)

Hold the first bead and say:
I wait for you, Lord; my soul waits for you and in your word I hope. (Ps130.5)

Hold each of the three beads and say:
Father
Son
and Holy Spirit

Hold the fifth bead and say: 
I wait for you, Lord; my soul waits for you and in your word I hope.

Hold the "saint" bead (not all rosary have one, so if not, use the fifth bead for this):
Remind yourself that you are praying in the company of the saints, past and present. It is rather like showing up at a party where you thought you would be alone, and finding that there are all sorts of friends there - for me, Efisio, Mildred, Edith and many others who I have got to know are there now...!

Now hold each of the beads in the groups of ten, one at a time, and slowly repeat the phrase or word you have chosen to pray with. 

When you get to the bead separating the groups, stop for a while and ponder what is rising up in your mind and heart. 

Continue around the circle.

When you reach the "saint" bead again, think about what you will take away from this prayer time. 

Then hold the fifth bead again and say: 
"You have the words of eternal life"

Then the group of three, saying:
Father
Son
Holy Spirit

Then the first bead:
"You have the words of eternal life" (John 6.68)

Finally hold the cross and say again: 
"The Word became flesh and dwelt among us...full of grace and truth".

I find that by the time I have reached the end, the word (or words) I have been pondering really have become flesh, taken on a life of their own in me. They are "dwelling in me richly." (Colossians 3.16)

There is nothing magic about this technique, but it works for me...

PRAYING WITH BEADS IN DIFFERENT TRADITIONS

Paternosters

The original Catholic prayer beads were called “Paternosters”, Latin for Our Father. There were usually 50 on a string. The worshipper would say the Lord’s Prayer on each of them, and pray through the string three times - just like the 150 Jesus Prayers of the Orthodox prayer beads this was a substitute for saying the Psalms.

The Rosary

As devotion to the Virgin Mary developed through the Middle Ages, Catholic Prayer Beads became known as Rosaries, (Mary is sometimes known as the Mystic Rose, from the reference to the Rose of Sharon in the Song of Solomon 2.1). Prayers traditionally addressed to or through Mary were offered, in addition to the Lord’s Prayer. The practice of praying the Rosary was popularised by the Dominican Order of Preachers in the 13th Century, and developed it into more or less its modern form, with five sets of 10 “decades”, during each of which the worshipper was meant to meditate on a specific “mystery”, an episode in the life of Mary or Jesus – the word “mystery” means something beyond our understanding, which causes us to wonder and be drawn towards God, not something unknown to be puzzled out.
There were three sets of these five stories – the joyful, sorrowful and glorious mysteries. A fourth set, the luminous mysteries, was added by Pope John Paul II in 2002. Each mystery has a “fruit” associated with it, something which people hope will grow and develop in them as a result of pondering that story. The Rosary is a devotion which has changed over the centuries, and which continues to change!
 
Orthodox Prayer Ropes

Orthodox believers still use knotted ropes to pray with, usually having 100, 50 or 33 knots (33 for the years of Jesus’ life on earth). These can be worn on the wrist or carried, bu t are supposed to be unostentatious, so that they can be used whenever one has time without drawing attention to yourself.

Anglican Prayer Beads

Anglicans have developed their own Rosary tradition consisting of four groups of seven beads called “weeks”. There is a total of 33 beads, like the Orthodox prayer rope.

Each worshipper chooses the prayers they want to say while holding each bead. It’s a flexible approach to prayer, and the prayers can vary according to the season. What matters is that the prayers are learned by heart so that, in the end the prayer “prays” you, rather than you praying it!