In an email the author spoke about how he and his wife had been visiting a service at a Catholic Church and saw a person praying the Rosary. Like many, he recognised the value of this kind of prayer and wondered why it was not practiced in the Anglican Church. He of course soon learnt that there is an growing increase in the use of prayer beads or Rosaries in the Anglican Church. He is keen to introduce this form of prayer to his local parish and wanted support to do this.

Of course, it is always helpful to have someone come and do this who has experience. However, sometimes distance and cost are not conducive to such a desire. In which case I feel I can atleast offer support by providing some resources and email support to people like this fellow. It is good to see how our global villiage can be just that little bit smaller in collaberating on projects like this.

I’d just like to take a moment and thank you for the work you do on behalf of the Anglican rosary on the Society of St. Francis’ website. My wife and I got interested in the Anglican rosary last year and in scouring the internet for prayers I came across the SSF website. I occasionally pray the Angelus among other prayers. I’ve been inspired enough to start a rosary prayer group at our parish.

The writer continued by asking if there was any ‘wisdom’ or ‘tips’ that I might be able to provide to help with this. I’m always happy to provide people with the support they need to introduce this form of prayer to their communities. I was able to send onto him a copy of some of the resources we use in our worshops. I pray that his enthusiasm is picked up by the folks in his area.

It was a joy to spend time with the folks at St Alban’s and in particular a great joy to have experienced the hospitality of Anne and John, my hosts for the time their. A huge thanks to Anne, John and all the folks there at St Alban’s.

I have always struggled with prayer and how to pray and although I accept there are different ways of approaching it I have wanted to experience pray in a deeper way and I have found the rosary a very useful way for me to do this. I have used the catholic rosary beads and prayer structure, but I am not comfortable praying to the mother Mary. I have found the Anglican rosary a useful set of beads and the guidance to construct your own prayer structure useful.

The rosary I now use is constructed from a Catholic rosary. I did not do it, because I did not like it, in fact they were very meaningful, but because they had fallen apart a number of times and I had lost a number of beads. I did have enough to make an Anglican rosary and felt it was a good way of continuing my use of the beads I loved.

With regards to the prayers I have found Brother Nathan’s site helpful in letting go of the Catholic rosary and being able to structure my own prayer cycle. I have used the Franciscan prayer cycle to start with, although when I get to the last invitational bead I only read from “…May all the Saints….” As I do not feel comfortable praying to the Lady. I also prefer to say Father, Son and Holy Spirit.

Other variations I do is that I treat each set of week beads as part of the “ACTS” prayer, that is Adoration, Confession, Thanksgiving and Supplication. I will give a one point private prayer, such as “God you are the creator of all things”, and then say “My God my all.” For each beads I give a different point and then in the confession set of week beads each point will be a confession, such as a thing I may said wrong or the different people I may have sinned against or the things I may not have done for God etc.

I use the rosary for a number of different reasons. Some days I will only do the rosary in the morning, but on most days I use the rosary to prepare my time into the daily office and to help with the prayers in the daily office. I also use them to enter into a time of silent meditation and to settle myself during the day or times of stress.

There is a lot more I want to do with the rosary and that is to construct different prayers for different purposes such as a set of prayers, just for confession or thanksgiving. I would like to make a shorter one that covers all the parts, outlined by Brother Nathan, but can be said quickly as I find that it is hard in times of need to get through the whole rosary.

I hope this is useful to others considering using the rosary. God Bless and God’s peace.

Iain

Honouring they ways in which lives have been touched through experiences of making and praying with Anglican Rosaries

Welcome. If you have a story about how your life, or the life of someone you know, has been enriched by your experience of making and using prayer beads; or you have composed a set of prayers for use with the Anglican Rosary that you would like to share with others, then may I invite you to either email me your story or prayers to include here, or consider registering to contribute to this site.

If you are seeking to purchase an Anglican Rosary, Key Chain Chaplet, or Original Holding Cross, all hand made by brothers of the Society of St Francis, please visit our online shop. Purchases can be made via cheque, postal order, international money transfer via Western Union, or PayPal.

Email Br Nathan-James or Register here.

Br Nathan-James will be facilitating an Anglican Rosary workshop hosted by the parish of St Alban’s Anglican Church, Epping, on Saturday the 8th November 2008 from 9 am - 1 pm. The workshop will cover a brief overview of the history of prayer beads, making a set of prayer beads, symbolism of the Anglican Rosary and composing prayers for use with the Anglican Rosary. The workshop will be followed from 2 pm - 5 pm with a workshop on the Jesus Prayer with opportunity to make a simple prayer rope. Please contact the Parish of St Alban’s for further details and bookings.

Tiger Eye Key Ring Chaplet

Now you will never be without your prayer beads

I’ve been making several Rosaries today. Some for folks who have purchased them and others because I wanted to share the gift of prayer with someone.

Whilst I was making the last of the sets I had to do for today I was looking for my key ring, only to find part of the key ring had broken off.

I looked around for the broken part, amidst a bed full of beads and other bits n bobs and I thought - why not. So I got out some left over tiger tail, a split ring and a lobster clamp and got a little creative; it happens now and then.

After a few attempts to get it they way it seemed to look in my head I finally finished up with this key ring featuring 1 Septet of the Anglican Rosary. I usally have a set of prayer beads handy as a rule. However, now with this little even more portable version attached to me keys I will always have my prayer beads on hand. Well unless I loose my keys.

The prayer chain is made of 8 mm tigers eye for the week beads and for the invitatory and cruciform bead I’ve used two 8 mm fancy jasper beads. The cross is the Tau Cross, a traditional symbol associated with St Francis and Franciscans.