The Return of My Prayer Beads

During a Pastors' Continuing Education Retreat in 2006, I took the opportunity to make a set of Anglican Prayer Beads.  (For more information on Anglican Prayer Beads, their design and how to use them, click here.)  -  I was introduced to these beads through my (then) sisters and brothers in the Order of St. Luke.  (I was a member of the OSL for several years.)  -  You can read that story in my 2007 article, “Wesleyan-Holiness Prayers with Beads," published in OSL's Sacramental Life (19.3).

During the creation of my prayer beads, I also created a set of prayers that fit nicely with my Wesleyan-Holiness theological tradition.  Thus, the title of the article!  (I've printed those prayers, below.)

The truth is, though I do still occasionally pray those prayers with my beads, more often than not, I have reverted to more traditional prayers.  So, I pray the Jesus Prayer with the weeks (the little round beads): "Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me (a sinner)."  And, for the cruciform beads (the four larger beads), I pray the Trisagion, "Holy God,  Holy and Mighty,  Holy and Immortal One, Have mercy upon us."

The prayers have been very helpful.  I would often pray while driving from place to place.  They help to bring focus upon the Lord and His grace.  They also bring a sense of calm and peace in God's presence.  -  Like Morning and Evening Prayer, they have been a means of grace for me.

However, sometime back, the strand broke!  I think it became brittle, since I usually keep the beads in the car where they will get considerably hot and considerably cold, depending on the weather.  -  I've gone quite a while without them, and I have missed them!

So, today (Thanksgiving Day), I finally took time to re-string and repair my beads.  -  I am so glad to have them back!  Just having them in my hand becomes a prayer, and, of course, I'm looking forward to actually praying with them!

For those who would like to pray using the "Wesleyan-Holiness prayers," I have printed them, below.  For those who would like to use the more traditional prayers, I have included them, above.  (The prayers other than the weeks & cruciform prayers remain the same.)  -  May God's blessings be upon all who decide to take up the discipline of praying with Anglican Prayer Beads!

The Cross

In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.  Amen.

The Invitatory Bead

O God make speed to save us,
O Lord make haste to help us,
Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit: As it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be, world without end.  Amen.

The Cruciform Beads

“The Collect of Purity”
Almighty God, to whom all hearts are open, all desires known, and from whom no secrets are hid: Cleanse the thoughts of our hearts by the inspiration of your Holy Spirit, that we may perfectly love You, and worthily magnify your holy Name; through Jesus Christ our Lord.  Amen.
 
The Weeks
May the God of peace Himself sanctify you entirely; (and may your whole spirit, and soul, and body be kept sound and blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.)*
He who calls you is faithful, and He will do this.
(1 Thessalonians 5:23-24; my version)

The Last time through:

The Invitatory Bead
The Lord’s Prayer

The Cross

In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.  Amen.

___________________________________________________________________________________
*Some may wish to leave off the parenthetical part for the sake of brevity.  (I usually do.) 

How to Treat the Failings of Others

One of the great things about Ken Bible's Wesley Hymns (Lillenas Publishing Co., Kansas City, MO. 1982) is that he includes various prayers and quotes from Wesley, throughout. 

As I have mentioned, before, I often sing (usually) three hymns while praying Morning or Evening Prayer.  I have used various sources, most notably the Nazarene hymnal (viz., Sing to the Lord), and Ken Bible's Wesley Hymns.  (I've also sung through the volume of hymns in Wesley's Works.  For those familiar, you can imagine I was in that volume for a long time!)  -  Right now, I'm in Wesley Hymns.

In my singing, today, below #103 "Blest Be the Dear Uniting Love," Ken included the following passage from John Wesley's A Collection of Forms of Prayer for Every Day in the Week.  May this be so for me, for all Wesleyans/Methodists and Anglicans, and, indeed, for all who follow Christ.

     Let me look upon the failings of my neighbor as if they were my own; that I may be grieved
     for them, that I may never reveal them but when charity requires, and then with tenderness
     and compassion.  Let your love to me, O blessed Savior, be the pattern of my love to him.
     You thought nothing too dear to part with, to rescue me from eternal misery; oh, let me
     think nothing too dear to part with to set forward the everlasting good of my fellow
     Christians.  They are members of your body; therefore I will cherish them.  You have
     redeemed them with an inestimable price; assisted by Your Holy Spirit, therefore, I will
     endeavor to recover them from a state of destruction.

Written Prayers and Growing in the Faith

Recently, a pastoral colleague of mine asked me to help him complete an assignment for a "Spiritual Formations" class.  His assignment was to interview someone who regularly uses written prayers as a part of their devotional disciplines.  The question that he asked me was:

"How does your use of written or rote prayers help you to know God and to grow in your faith?"

My response was as follows:

I have, for the past 12 years, or so, prayed the Daily Office as a part of my spiritual disciplines.  At times, it has just been Morning Prayer.  At other times, I have prayed Morning and Evening Prayer.  I also pray the Litany on Wednesdays and Fridays.

In praying the Daily Office, I have most often used John Wesley’s The Sunday Service of the Methodists in North America, which was his (slight) revision of the 1662 Book of Common Prayer from the Church of England.  -  John Wesley faithfully prayed the Daily Office each day, and he passed on to the Methodists in North America a Prayer Book for their use each Lord’s Day.

In addition, I use other written prayers from the BCP and other sources in both corporate worship and personal devotions.

These prayers do not replace, but supplement my other prayers.

I find that God uses these prayers to help to shape me as a faithful disciple of Jesus Christ.  The prayers have been prayed by Christians back to the early Church all the way up to today from around the world.  In this regard, God reminds me that, while my relationship with the Lord is deeply personal, it is not at all isolated.  God has made us to be a people, not just individualistic, “Lone Ranger” Christians.  -  The prayers serve as a sort of catechism in molding me in the Christian faith and life.

God uses these prayers to help me to pray beyond myself, as well.  By that I mean that they keep me from focusing just on my own concerns and move me to pray for those things that God would have me be concerned about.  Thus, God shapes my outlook and shapes me in Christlikeness. 

The prayers give me words that better articulate my own prayers.  They help me say what needs to be said.

Through these prayers God teaches me about my relationship to God, in that they set my priorities in prayer.  They call me to confession, but also remind me of God’s mercy, grace and forgiveness.  They remind me that thanksgiving is more than with “our lips,” but “with our lives.”

One of the most important prayers, for me, is the Collect of Purity.  While it is not a part of the Daily Office, it is a part of the regular Sunday service of worship, and I have incorporated it as part of my personal disciplines.  It is prayed by Anglicans and others every Sunday.  It has been said that it summarizes well what Wesley was talking about when he spoke of Christian Perfection (or Entire Sanctification).  It is a part of the context in which Wesley developed and articulated this biblical doctrine.  -  As I recall, P.F. Bresee once responded to some Episcopalians by saying something like, Why do you consider it strange that Nazarenes claim that God answers the prayer that you pray every Sunday? 

Since we are called to live under God’s sanctifying grace each day, the Collect of Purity is a prayer that helps me to seek God’s face, each day to the end that God might “cleanse the thoughts of our hearts by the inspiration of [God’s] Holy Spirit that [I] might perfectly love [God] and worthily magnify [God’s] holy name through Christ our Lord.”

Through these prayers, God focuses my day.  God draws me to Himself.  And then, in Evening Prayer, God puts my day in perspective and review.  -  At this point, I simply could not conceive of not including written prayers as a part of my spiritual discipline.