(The 3-Minute
Weekly Insight from Spirituality U.)
Actually, they’re not fiddling, they’re praying.
In fact the word “bead” comes from the Old English word for prayer.
And it’s more than just some people who pray with beads. Religions comprising more than
half of the planet’s population encourage their members to use prayer beads.
These religions include Hinduism, Buddhism, Catholicism, the Christian Orthodox
Faith, Islam, Sikhism, and the Baha’i Faith.
Thu use of b
eads to count prayers dates back to at
least the eighth century BCE. Hindus were perhaps the first to use them.
Hindus and Buddhists use a rosary-like string
called a Mala that usually contains
108 beads. Those who use them in
spiritual practice pass the beads through their fingers as they repeat mantras
such as “Om Mani Padme Hum.” The 108 beads sometimes reflect a number of faults
that we may need to overcome.
It is believed that through caravan trade, the use
of prayer beads traveled to the Middle East in the second half of the first
millennium CE where the Sibha was adopted by
Muslims. In Islamic spiritual practice, Muslims
using beads usually recite the 99 names (or, more accurately, qualities) of Allah: The Merciful, the
Compassionate…
It is not clear whether there is a connection
between the use of prayer beads by Muslims and Christians, but Catholics in
Western Europe also began to pray with beads sometime in the late first
millennium CE.
Praying the Rosary involves Catholics in reciting
the Apostles Creed and a number of prayers including: the Lord’s Prayer, the
Hail Mary, and the Glory Be. The Rosary ritual also includes meditation on a
number of different stories from the life of Jesus. It should be noted that
while Catholics—and some Anglican—pray the Rosary, mainstream Protestants
generally see prayer beads and prayers to Mary as idolatrous or at the least,
spiritually un-useful.
Some Baha’is use strings that have either 95 or 19
beads (19 reflecting their unique calendar) in offering prayers of praise to
God five times a day.
Praying with beads can have a variety of benefits. Because we
count the beads with our fingers, prayer beads bring a tactile quality to the
prayer experience. Beads can help to get us “out of our heads” (out of the
thinking process) and into something more experiential. They can calm us down when
we are tense, anxious, or angry. Praying with beads can enable us to focus or
concentrate on the spiritual activity at hand (pun intended).
Since praying with beads is often done “out loud,” it can bring
verbal expression to prayers that are usually recited silently.
Praying with beads may remind us of the many beautiful qualities
of God (in the case of the Muslim Sibha).
It can enlist us in re-affirming our key beliefs (The Catholic Rosary)
It can remind us (gently) of the faults we must overcome in
order to be happy (Buddhist Mala)
Since advanced practitioners can finger their beads while also
doing other activities, the use of prayer beads can help us to pray without
ceasing (as St. Paul invites us to do).
For more information about prayer beads visit:
or
Or read the book Beads of Faith (published by
Louisville’s Fons Vitae Press
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