Prayers you can touch

Every month on the third Sunday, the youth of St James’ gather online for a virtual afternoon of fellowship and service to others. We call our time together Community Service Sunday.

This month, we enjoyed an inspired afternoon learning about prayer beads with Deacon Kyra!

It was fun to take a collection of colorful beads, wire, and either a cross pendant or scallop shell pendant (a symbol of St James) and transform them into things of beauty and tools to deepen our prayer life–Anglican rosaries. We made some for ourselves and some to give away.

Prayer beads are an invitation to prayer, and an invitation to talk and spend time with God. They are helpful tools, especially when we’re feeling fidgety and restless. They are helpful tools to deepen our Christian formation, and to ponder symbolism in our faith. (For example what significance do the numbers 4, 7, or 33 have in our faith tradition?)

This Lenten season, our youth ministry has been discovering and rediscovering praying The Lord’s Prayer in various languages, styles, translations, and formats. Praying with our hands is another way to pray.

Prayer beads give us something tangible to hold on to during this pandemic.

Prayer beads offer us ways to pray for ourselves and to pray for others.

Prayer beads offer us a means of remembering our prayers and counting our blessings.

There is no wrong way to create or pray with prayer beads. They contain, as the invitatory bead reminds us, an invitation to be in conversation with God through prayer.

And each set of beads transformed into a handmade rosary is like us, uniquely and wonderfully made.