Telling the Beads :: Rosary & Chutke (Chotki)

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Rosary- The Chain that will Bind Satan

The Rosary is a huge topic, mainly because there  are so many  Catholics in the world.

In the non-Catholic world, there are many objections to praying the rosary. These are good questions, valid objections to consider.  This lense hopes to address these concerns, encourage  deeper prayer by all  Christians, and perhaps increase understanding among religions.   

The Holy Rosary of the  Blessed Virgin Mary is a profound and beautiful method  of  prayer, used for centuries.  There probably isn't another thing which so prominently identifies a person as a Catholic.  

Please  share your prayer list, or your  rosary stories, or anything else you wish at the bottom of the page.  We would love to hear from you! 

Rosary in the News 

As the world worsens and our need for God grows, so too does devotion to Him with the Holy Rosary. No surprise that it ends up in the news so often!

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Objection: Repetitive Prayer 

The primary response given by Protestants.

"Do not allow satan to deceive you into thinking you can repeat prayer. Prayer cannot be repeated. A mother cannot repeat her child. A spring cannot repeat its water. The sun cannot repeat its rays, and the human heart cannot repeat prayer. It is the Holy Spirit who prays within us, and each Hail Mary is always a new grace, a new gift and a new strength."
Fr Jozo Zovko ofm

Prayer Beads, A Brief History of an Ancient Christian Practice Pt. 1 

To Bead or Knot to Bead: Historical Considerations

Dr. Alexander Roman

The practice of using counters of various kinds for the purpose of reciting prayers is one that embraces the broad spectrum of historical religions in every age.

The repetitive Asian mantra was always dominant among Buddhist and Hindu monastics that developed circular beads on strings to chant continuously, night and day.

Their beads reflected various colours and substances that had rich, symbolic meaning related to their religious beliefs, including the numbers of beads on any given circlet.

Representations of western pagan religions likewise show worshippers holding what appear to be prayer-beads used for repetitive invocations.

In the beginnings of Christianity, the repetition of a short verse from the Psalms or of the Our Father prayer came into vogue, especially among the monastics of the Thebaid in Egypt.

The Gospel ban against "vain repetitions" did not extend to liturgical prayer and repeated personal prayers that were said slowly and meaningfully within a meditative devotional context. Christ Himself, especially during His Agony in the Garden prior to His Passion, prayed for long hours repeating a short phrase.

Here is an example: "Abba, Father, for you all things are possible; remove this cup from me, yet, not what I want, but what You want . . . And again He went away and prayed, saying the same words." (Mark 14: 36-39).

In the time of St Basil the Great in the fourth century AD, the practice of reciting the Jesus Prayer was predominant among Eastern monastics.

The Jesus Prayer had a number of forms including:

Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me a sinner

Lord Jesus Christ, have mercy on me.

Lord Jesus Christ, by the Mother of God, have mercy on me a sinner.

Lord have mercy.

But the first form was the most approved by the Church and is today as well.

The Holy Rosary 

Telling the Beads: St. Basil (pt. 2) 

The Rosary in the History of Christianity

St Basil prescribed the saying of the Jesus Prayer in place of reading the Psalms and the Divine Office for those who could not read and also for those who were travelling and who were otherwise impeded from using the liturgical books in their prayer.

He prescribed the saying of the Jesus Prayer 300 times for each of the 20 sections of the Psalms into which the Byzantine Church had divided it.

Basil then ordered the use of a counting device of a woollen, knotted cord of 100 knots, divided every 25 knots with a larger or other knot or bead. In Slavonic, this knotted cord is called "Chotki."

Before his time, Christian monastics used loose beads in bags to count their repeated prayers. St Paul of Thebes had a bag of 300 beads and placed them, one by one, into another bag as he prayed. Interestingly, this is exactly how St Clare of Assisi prayed, centuries later.

Another method involved the use of the monastic staff itself. The top of the staff was carved with notches that one could use to count prayers as one walked or stood in prayer with the staff.

But the knotted cord became, by far, the most popular prayer counter. The East used nine turns of the threading needle to create one knot, a tradition that went back to Pachomius of Egypt.

When St Pachomius prayed on a knotted cord where the knots were made of three turns or wraps, the devil was able to undo them. Pachomius increased the size of his knots until he made them with nine turns of the threading needle - and the devil, much to his dismay, could not undo them!

Beads and other materials were later used for prayer cords and prayer chains that the West has come to know as the "Rosary" or a garden of roses ("rosarium").

In the West, the prayer cord was also popular. When St Dominic received the rosary from the Mother of God, what he received was a knotted cord and Dominicans and other Western monastics wrapped these large circled cords around their wrists as part of their monastic uniform - very much like Orthodox clergy and monastics do today.

Miracles of the Rosary 

The Rosary of the Blessed Virgin Mary
Mother Theresa

The Holy Mother 

Rosaries, Devotionals

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Pitter Patter :: The Beadsmen (pt 3) 

Tenners & Tied Cords

The Western use of the prayer cord initially involved the praying of Our Father's in place of the Psalter for those who could not read - one Our Father for each psalm.

This was called the "Pater Noster Psalter" and Christians initially used decorated strands of knots or beads that were not attached at the ends.

So popular this devotion became that the term "pitter patter" came into being, referring to the sound made by those praying the beads as they recited their "Paters" or Our Father's!

Guilds of "Pater Nosterers" came into being that made knotted cords and strands of prayer beads for the faithful. One of the more famous series of guilds was located on the street "Pater Noster Row" near St Paul's Cathedral in London, England.

The Hail Mary was also used and soon the "Rosary" or "Psalter of the Virgin Mary" came into being that consisted in the recitation of 50 or 150 Hail Mary's. Meditation on the mysteries of the lives of Jesus and Mary were added as well.

The Golden Rosary that is still used today in Schrocken in the Vorarlberg Alps is a rosary made up of 63 beads for 63 Hail Mary's in honour of the years the Virgin Mary lived on earth (a tradition of the Brigettine Monks and those who share their rosary). No Our Father beads are included on this rosary, however.

Other bead numberings included 72 beads for the Franciscan Crown Rosary, three decades and even one decade or "Tenners" that were especially popular with me and pilgrims.

Rosary rings and tenners were also popular and resumed their popularity during the Irish Penal times when Catholicism was banned in Ireland.

So important the rosary or the "telling of the beads" became that wealthy nobles often paid to have an individual follow them around while saying the rosary for them at all times.

Such were called "beadsmen" and it became popular as an expression of courtesy to sign one's name in a letter to another "Your beadsman" to indicate that one was willing to undertake the continuous prayer of the rosary beads on the other's behalf voluntarily!

Thus did St Thomas More sign his letters to his family and friends.

Our Lady & The Rosary 

Ever Ancient, Ever New, For Every Christian

Praying hands
Praying hands

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WTC
WTC

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Knots
Knots

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rack of rosaries
rack of rosaries

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Rosary...
Rosary...

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rosary in morning light
rosary in morning light

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Lenten still-life
Lenten still-life

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Rosary bead

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to keep our journey safe
to keep our journey safe

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Devotion
Devotion

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Prayer
Prayer

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Our Lady of Peace
Our Lady of Peace

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Christian Martyrs display
Christian Martyrs display

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quiet contemplation
quiet contemplation

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Virgin Mary touched by God's fingers
Virgin Mary touched by God's fingers

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Blessed Virgin Mary
Blessed Virgin Mary

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Blessed Mother
Blessed Mother

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Street altar
Street altar

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Our Lady of La Salette
Our Lady of La Salette

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Mother of Divine Providence
Mother of Divine Providence

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The Nativity
The Nativity

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woods 020
woods 020

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Holy Apostles, Shoreline - Theotokos
Holy Apostles, Shoreline - Theotokos

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Virgin Mary
Virgin Mary

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hagia sophia
hagia sophia

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Assumption of the Virgin Mary
Assumption of the Virgin Mary

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Mary, Queen of Ireland
Mary, Queen of Ireland

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Our Mother of Africa
Our Mother of Africa

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The Ark of the Covenant 

The story of the rosary begins here

In the Hebrew Scriptures, God ordered an Ark built. This Ark would have:

1. A mercy seat, comprised of winged angels, which provided a seat for the Shekinah, the Golden Cloud of the Glorious Presence of God to preside.
2. Would be gilded in gold, signifying the Glory and sanctity of God
3. Contained the manna (holy bread) that had miraculously fed the Israelites in the desert
4. Contained the budded rod of Aaron, signifying the priesthood.
5. Contained the original tablets of Moses, Torah or law, which Christians refer to as the Ten Commandments.

Learn more about the Ark of the Covenant.

Really Special Things 

Where the Rosary turns up unexpectedly!

miracleoftherosary
Elvis Presley sings the rosary! Beautiful, beautiful, beautiful!
Beautiful Rosaries & Artwork
Special rosaries, art, sculptures and so much more.
The Rosary and the Republic | Spero News
The Holy Rosary a weapon? Yes, a weapon! We are fighting a battle against the world, the flesh, and the devil. -- International news and analysis, includes message board, blogs, and wiki.

Did the Ark exist or is it a myth? 

some proof of the existence of these things

Arks as sacred object were certainly known and in use in ancient Egypt. When King Tutankhamen's Tomb was found, within it was an ark very much like the one described in the Hebrew Scriptures. The Exodus of the Israelites was one of the many stories of the superiority of God over the idols of other nations. Moses, having been raised Egyptian, in line with the throne, would have understood the importance of God requiring an Ark, as a portable Temple. Experiments in re-creating an ark as described (and found in King Tut's tomb) revealed it as a truly powerful piece by itself, some sort of an electrical generator, that was very dangerous. Ark of the Covenant

Rosary on Video 

Scriptural Rosary - Joyful Mysteries - EWTN -Part: 1 of 3

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Scriptural Rosary - Sorrowful Mysteries - EWTN -Part: 2 of 3

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Scriptural Rosary - Glorious Mysteries - EWTN - Part: 2 of 3

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15 promises of Mary on the Rosary

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MIRACLE OF THE ROSARY

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Rosary of the Unborn

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Rosary beads

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The Rosary Luminous Mysteries part 2

The Rosary Luminous... 0 points

Mary, the Ark of the New Covenant 

The Old and New Testaments Correspond

Every Christian faith agrees there is correspondence between both 'sets' of scripture: the Old Testament or Hebrew Scriptures and the New Testament, or Greek Scriptures. Virtually every verse in the Old has been combed for correspondence, application or prophecy in the New.

The correspondence of Mary with the Ark of the Covenant is virtually unexplored excepting for the ancient Christian faiths of Catholicism and Orthodox, including the Maronites, Coptics and other ancient Christian groups.

Peace 

Growing Prayer Rings

Prayer groups online
Worldwide Rosary Crusade
a unified effort in building a global rosary chain on the 13th of each month in honor of our Blessed Mother's requests to pray the rosary for peace.
Fatima Rosary Organization
This group focuses on the Fatima apparitions.

Learn It in Latin:: The Our Father:: Pater Noster 

Pater Nostra with English Translation

The Lord's Prayer in latin

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Learn It In Latin! Ave Maria :: Hail Mary 

Hail Mary - Latin - Rosary

Better Transalation. Also the pronounciations

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The Presence of God with the People 

The Oneness of God

Jesus, in several places, identifies himself as God. When the High Priest challenges Jesus, asking him "Are you the Son of God?" Jesus answers "Yhwh" (Yahweh- I AM). This answer lead the Jews of the time to want to stone him. Jesus also said "I and the Father are ONE." The Apostle John describes Jesus as being Divine (God), through whom all things came into being.

Just as God came to, and presided with the Israelites through the Ark of Covenant, Mary was the new Ark through which the Divine God made his actual presence into humanity.

Pictured: The Church of Our Lady Mary of Zion in Ethiopia, reportedly the home of the original Ark of the Covenant.

Rosary References & Prayer Aids 

Rosary: Mysteries, Meditations, and the Telling of the Beads

Amazon Price: $29.00 (as of 07/09/2008)

The Rosary: Chain of Hope

Amazon Price: $11.86 (as of 07/09/2008)

The Secret of the Rosary

Amazon Price: (as of 07/09/2008)

20 Mysteries of the Rosary: A Scriptural Journey

Amazon Price: $11.86 (as of 07/09/2008)

Bread from Heaven 

Manna

John 6. Jesus identified himself as the 'Bread of Life'. He said his body was true bread and his blood true wine. He said :unless you eat my flesh and drink my blood, you have no life in you." This was so literal that many of his followers abandoned him, and Jesus didn't call them back saying, "I meant it symbolically." No, HE LET THEM LEAVE HIM INSTEAD.

His flesh being the 'bread that came down from heaven' literally, corresponds to the fact that it was through the maternity of Mary, him being within her womb for nine months, the same as the manna, the bread from heaven, was within the Ark of the Covenant.

Rosaries 

Antiques, Collectibles, Special

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Special Rosaries and Projects 

Ranger Rosary
For our Military Troops who want them, specially made
Spirit Daily
Return of Jesus Decade
Enormous Rosary Planned at the Rose Bowl
The largest outdoor celebration of the Rosary in Southern California in nearly 50 years will take place at the Rose Bowl, Pasadena, on May 19, 2007, Holy Cross Family Ministries announced this week.
Florida Catholic - Couple rescues broken rosaries
Rescue Rosaries
Handicapped ‘master’ missionary rosary maker gives back to God - Catholic Online
CaringBridge.org - jennifer

Historical Catholic Collectibles and Treasures 

For Prayer, for Church, for a Home Church

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Rosary Information 

Historic and Practical Information about the Rosary

How did it start? What exactly is it? How do you pray it? These are very helpful links.
CATHOLIC ENCYCLOPEDIA: The Rosary
History of this devotion. Also considers the Orthodox and Eastern-Rite Catholic practice
Virtual Rosary
the original free multimedia rosary and prayer network
Ecumenical Miracle Rosary
This web page will introduce you to a group of prayers called the Ecumenical Miracle Rosary. Since its prayers and mysteries are derived solely from the Bible, any Christian denomination will feel comfortable reciting this rosary. I hope that this devotion will allow Catholics and Protestants to pra
Apostolic Letter Rosarium Virginis Mariae
APOSTOLIC LETTERROSARIUM VIRGINIS MARIAEOF THE SUPREME PONTIFFJOHN PAUL IITO THE BISHOPS, CLERGYAND FAITHFULON THE MOST HOLY ROSARY

INTRODUCTION
1. The Rosary of the Virgin Mary, which gradually took form in the second
millennium under the guidance of the Spirit of G
Worldwide Rosary Crusade
Click for live image
Join the WorldWide Rosary Crusade!
The goals of this crusade are as follows: To mount a unified effort in building a global rosary
chain on the 13th of each month in honor of our Blessed
Mother's requests to pray the rosary for peace.
To build
Holy Rosary devotion - Our Lady - Mysteries, secrets, promises
The Holy Rosary, Catholic devotion to Our Lady - Mysteries, secrets, promises
~ The Most Holy Rosary ~
The Most Holy Rosary of the Blessed Virgin Mary in Latin and English. View splendid Holy Catholic images while praying and meditating on the mysteries of the Rosary. Also includes the unaltered/original version of the Fatima Prayer which is to be said while reciting the Rosary.
Rosary Army: Free Rosary & How To Make A Rosary
Rosary Army promotes the making, praying, and giving away of knotted twine/cord/rope Rosaries. Would you like a free Rosary? Just ask! It will be our pleasure to send you one.
The Citizen, Auburn NY
Living Rosary
-- Beliefnet.com
Rosary-A Life Saver to the Drowning
Rosary House, Inc.
Handmade in America
Rosaries: A spiritual symbol or trendy accessory? Houston Chronicle

Archbishop Fulton Sheen on the Rosary 

The Power of the Rosary

Archbishop Fulton Sheen said, "The rosary is the book of the blind, where souls see and there enact the greatest drama of love the world has ever known; it is the book of the simple, which initiates them into mysteries and knowledge more satisfying than the education of other men; it is the book of the aged, whose eyes close upon the shadow of this world, and open on the substance of the next. The power of the rosary is beyond description."

Special Rosaries & A Surprise 

14-kt Tri-color Gold Rosary

14-kt Tri-color Gold Rosary

Price: $390.00

This traditional rosary, beautifully detailed in 14-karat gold, makes a wonderful gift for a loved one. Specifications: 14-karat gold rosary Yell... more »

Silvertone Beaded Rosary Necklace

Silvertone Beaded Rosary Necklace

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Silvertone rosary features pretty faceted blue beads linked to a Virgin Mary medal. Medal is liked to a silvertone crucifix. Rosary is 30" length to m... more »

Our Lady Of Lourdes Musical Rosary Box

Our Lady Of Lourdes Musical Rosary Box

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Limited-edition Unique Religious Musical Holy Rosary Box with Glass and Pewter Collectible Rosary Tucked Inside - The miraculous appearances of the Ho... more »

Waterford Crystal Celtic Rosary Bead Necklace With Crystal Cross Pendant

Waterford Crystal Celtic Rosary Bead Necklace With Crystal Cross Pendant

Price: $79.00

Waterford(R) Crystal Celtic Rosary Bead Necklace with Lead Crystal Cross Pendant, a Treasured Celtic Symbol of Faith! - The lasting sparkle inherent i... more »

14-kt. Gold 34  Rosary Beads

14-kt. Gold 34 Rosary Beads

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Made of 14-karat yellow-gold with finely etched detail in the crucifix and Madonna medal, this magnificent rosary is an exquisite symbol of the myster... more »

Lenox China Treasures Jewelry Box w/Rosary Beads

Lenox China Treasures Jewelry Box w/Rosary Beads

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BEAUTIFUL AND INSPIRATIONAL. THIS FINE CHINA BOX HOLDS A ROSARY WITH A PLATINUM CROSS, PERFECT FOR A QUIET MOMENT OF PRAYER AND MEDITATION. WITH PLATI... more »

Silvertone Rosary Initial Bracelet

Silvertone Rosary Initial Bracelet

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Carry the comfort of your devotion with you at all times. The delicate Rosary Bracelet is crafted with ten rainbow-hued Hail Mary beads, and one Our... more »

14-kt. Yellow Gold Rosary Bracelet with Cross

14-kt. Yellow Gold Rosary Bracelet with Cross

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Keep an inspirational symbol with you at all times with this Gold Rosary bracelet.This bracelet is made of 14-karat yellow gold and features a chain o... more »

His Holiness Pope John Paul II Music Box

His Holiness Pope John Paul II Music Box

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Religious Music Box a Divine Keepsake Memorial Box Holds a Glass-beaded Pope John Paul II Rosary, Exclusive Limited Edition! - A lifelong crusader for... more »

Bracelet, 'Hail Mary'

Bracelet, 'Hail Mary'

Price: $47.95

Vivian transforms spirituality into a bracelet of solemn grace that features a small cross and a Virgin Mary medallion. Inspired by traditional rosary... more »

Rosary References 

Secular

Rosary information from secular sources
Rosary - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Your continued donations keep Wikipedia running!
Rosary From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Jump to: navigation, search
Our Lady of Lourdes - Mary appearing at Lourdes with Rosary Beads. The words on her halo are: 'Je suis l'Immaculée conception' (I am the Immaculate
A Catholic Life: The Power of One Hail Mary
This is an individual post. Click to go to the main page of my blog
Thursday, April 26, 2007 The Power of One Hail Mary
I received this message in an email yesterday. I did not write this. I am just passing it on to my readers. Catholic information on Mary can be found at my website L

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