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Although Gabriele Whittier had never made jewelry before, she has experimented to find the best way to assemble stones, seeds and glass onto cords to form strings of prayer beads.
Count a
bead, say
a prayer
By JOHN A. ZUKOWSKI
The Express-Times
©The Express-Times, May 10, 2002
Gabriele Whittier, a member of Trinity Episcopal Church in Bethlehem, says using prayer beads helps her focus on her prayers, and that brings her closer to God.
Whittier makes her own beads - cutting and then heating glass in a small kiln. The process is a spiritual one, she says.
Once prayer beads were thought of as something just Catholics and Buddhist monks used. Now the practice is embraced by a growing number of faiths, including some members of the Episcopal Church.
When Gabriele Whittier - a member of the Trinity Episcopal Church in Bethlehem - received a book about prayer beads, she wasn't interested at first. "I didn't think it was part of my church's tradition," she says.
But she discovered it was. In the 1980s, a group of Episcopalian contemplatives started using Anglican beads, a newly designed style of prayer beads which was a variation on the Catholic rosary and Eastern Orthodox prayer ropes.
So Whittier started using the prayer beads. It helped her focus on her prayers. That made her feel closer to God, she says. Very few people made Anglican beads, so as a way to get more people to use them, she started making them in the basement of her Bethlehem home.
She never made jewelry before. She had to experiment to find the best way to assemble stones, seeds, and glass onto cords. She learned how to crimp on crosses at the end. Then she uncovered bargain sites for beads on the Internet. Finally, she solved the expense of purchasing beads by making her own - cutting and then heating glass in a small kiln.
Whittier says even the process of making the beads has become a spiritual practice for her. She sometimes prays as she crafts them.
She enjoys making prayer beads so much she refuses to turn her bead-making into a business.
"It's really a ministry," she explains.
Sometimes she takes donations for them and turns the proceeds over to charity. But most often, the prayer beads end up at the Center for Spiritual Growth in Bethlehem where they are often given away.
She has her own routine praying with them, but says it's up to each person how they want to use them.
"I had a friend who said she wanted them to take to the dentist," she says with a laugh. "However people want to use them is fine."
During the two years she's made the prayer beads, she's even experimented with different themes. She's designed some prayer beads for children. She's made one to illustrate the 23rd Psalm. Another has beads with fish etched on them to illustrate Jesus' statement "follow me, and I will make you fishers of men."
Two years ago, it took some explaining to let people know what prayer beads are. That's changed. "Now, I think many people know what they are," she says.
However, for followers of some other religions, prayer beads are part of a long tradition. (See related story on how different religions use prayer beads.)
Hindus in India were probably the first people to use prayer beads. They are usually made out of wood considered sacred, such as sandalwood. Hindus often count the beads while reciting the names of deities.
Buddhists also use beads to keep track of reciting prayers or mantras. Some Buddhist prayer beads are made of wood from a bodhi tree, which is said to be the type of tree under which Buddha became enlightened. The most valued mala beads are made from the bones of holy men or monks.
The Catholic Church started using prayer beads as far back as the third century when monks dropped pebbles into sacks as they recited their daily devotional prayers. After that, monks threaded pebbles, berries, or parts of bones onto a string to keep track of their prayers. One tradition says the Catholic rosary was introduced by St. Dominic, who saw the Virgin Mary in a vision where she instructed him to use the rosary.
The Catholic rosary has 59 beads with sections of 10 beads called decades. One explanation why there are 50 main beads in each rosary may come from a practice monks had of memorizing the 150 psalms in the Bible. The monks would recite them 50 psalms at a time until they knew them by heart.
Over the years, the rosary became an important ritual in the Catholic Church, with vocal prayer and silent prayer. The silent prayer consists of time for meditations called rosary mysteries, which alternate on different days of the week.
"The rosary is the most popular Catholic devotion," says Teresa Rodgers, director of Adult Formation at St. Jane Frances de Chantal Catholic Church in Palmer Township. "It allows you to reflect on the life of Christ and his mother Mary."
The rosary became even more important after three children said the Virgin Mary appeared to them in Fatima, Portugal, in 1917. "Every time that Our Lady appeared, she asked them to pray the rosary every day, particularly to bring about world peace," says Michael Six, National Coordinator for the Blue Army U.S.A. in Washington, N.J. "We still do pray the rosary for peace, and we did in great part see a large part of Catholics turn more to the rosary after Setp. 11."
The Catholic church isn't the only religion to use prayer beads. The Eastern Orthodox Church has its own variation on counting prayers. As far back as the seventh century, monks tied knots of ropes. That developed into prayer ropes which are often constructed of cloth with a tassel at the end. Muslims also use prayer beads to recite the 99 names Allah is called in the Quran.
Then there are secular variations on prayer beads.
A practice that became popular in Greece then spread to other parts of the world was touching "worry beads" when under stress. Sometimes they are recommended for people who want to break a habit or to channel nervous energy.
The New Age movement also has adopted prayer beads into what are sometimes called "power beads" or "power bracelets." Some people believe the power comes not just from prayers or chants said while touching the stones, but from the stones themselves.
"You get different types of energy from different stones," says Diana Southard, an employee at the New Age Shop in Hanover Township, Lehigh County.
Generally, people choose a stone to help bring about a result they want. Some stones are for healing, others for sobriety, others for attracting a partner. To find out what stone may work, the first step is often to look in a reference book about gems, such as the popular "Love Is In The Earth: A Kaleidoscope Of Crystals." But it doesn't even take praying or meditating with them. Just wearig them as a necklace of bracelet can produce change, some people believe.
For other people who use prayer beads, it doesn't much matter how they're made. Ann Foose, owner of Gianna's Prayer in Phillipsburg, says rosaries there cost as little as 50 cents and escalate into much more money for specially designed rosaries for First Communions, weddings or anniversaries. Sometimes cheaper rosaries can be more practical or more spiritually rewarding, she says.
"I recently had a young girl come in and she said she prayed on plastic beads because it's a humbling thing," Foose says.
Foose says she uses the rosary every day. She has several of them. One dangles from the rear-view mirror in her car which she occasionally pulls down to use when stuck in a traffic jam or at a red light. She even brings along a rosary when she travels.
"I take it with me on vacations," she says. "I don't take a vacation from God."
- Gabriele Whittier's prayer beads are available at The Center for Spiritual Growth at the Trinity Episcopal Church in Bethlehem or at gigibeads.net.
- Reporter John A. Zukowski can be reached at 610-258-7171 or by email at jaz@express-times.com.
By JOHN A. ZUKOWSKI
The Express-Times
©The Express-Times, May 10, 2002
The most popular types of prayer beads are:
Some members of the Anglican/Episcopal Church use prayer which contain 33 beads - the number of years Jesus lived - which are separated into main groups of seven rather than groups of 10 like a catholic rosary.
The beads can be used while reciting prayers, hymns or sections of the Bible, but followers are often urged to experiment to create a personal prayer style.
Catholics use a string of 59 beads while reciting a series of short prayers, including the Apostles Creed, the Fatima prayer and Hail Mary recitations. A rosary is separated into main groups of 10 beads called decades.
While using the rosary, Catholics also spend time in silent prayer to reflect on mysteries - joyful, sorrowful and glorious - which alternate on different days of the week.
Hindus and Buddhists use these prayer beads, which usually consist of 108 beads.
Hindus often use them while reciting a mantra given by a guru or to recite names of gods. The beads are often made of wood that is considered sacred such as sandalwood, rosewood, or tulsi.
Buddhists monks use prayer beads with 108 beads while lay people sometimes start with prayer beads which have 30 or 40 beads. The usual prayer while using them is "om mani padme hum," translated as "jewel in the heart of the lotus."
In recent years, New Age designers have assembled gem-stones into necklaces or bracelets which they also sometimes call mala beads. Some people wear them even when not meditating or praying because they believe the stones have power.
(Chotki in Russian, Komboskini in Greek. A tradition started among Orthodox Christian monks in the 7th century to keep track of prayers by counting knots on a cord. Some followers now use prayer ropes which contain 33, 50, 100, or 300 knots. The rope is used to help focus on the Prayer of the Heart also known as the Jesus Prayer.
A practice among Muslims is to use prayer beads which contain 33 or 99 beads to recite the 99 names of Allah in the Quran.
- Compiled from various sources.