My Personal Chaplet

I always tell people that I am “little-c Catholic.” Of course, we all are, in the sense of belonging to the body of Christ. But I also mean that while I don’t think I could ever convert to Catholicism, I have a deep respect for the history, tradition, magisterium and practices of the Catholic and Orthodox churches. One practice I picked up on as I began my path into Christian mysticism over 20 years ago is the practice of praying on prayer beads. I had been introduced to contemplative prayer and found it life changing. Then while I was volunteering at our middle-school youth group, a friend and youth pastor at our church had us create small prayer bead chains and that made me curious about the long tradition of using prayer beads in Christianity.

I started by making an Anglican Rosary and I’ve prayed over that same set of beads hundreds if not thousands of times. Then my wife bought me this lovely decade of prayer beads for an anniversary gift, and it’s become my go to. I keep it on my desk and pray over it several times a week. I even travel with it and keep it in my backpack with my laptop when I’m out of the office. I try to pray with it at least once a day, sometimes twice, but life is busy, and I don’t always do it daily. I developed my own personal chaplet with it and thought I’d share that with you here.

A chaplet is a personal structured prayer usually prayed with beads. There are a lot of different Catholic chaplets similar in some ways to the Rosary but not focused on Mary. I came up with my own pattern. I find the repetition for me is healing in several ways. It keeps me focused on areas of my relationship with God, life, mercy, grace and gratitude by being systematic. The repetition of prayers takes me out of my restless brain and into a more meditative state. I like that the words I say have been prayed by so many other Christians over 2,000 years so I feel a deep connection to my tradition. I also find that it keeps my guitar string in tune. I imagine that people who repeat affirmations daily experience something similar, but I prefer my affirmations to be deeply Christian so this works for me.

My Personal Chaplet

So here is my personal chaplet, or what I pray over my decade of beads. The anatomy of the decade is simple: a cross, an invitatory bead (that’s a fancy word that means the first bigger bead) and ten smaller prayer beads. If you look closely there is a brass loop on the end for attaching the decade to a keychain or backpack or belt, but I just use it to keep ahold of the chain while I’m praying. A friend of mine told me he uses the ACTS model to pray – Adoration, Confession, Thanksgiving and Supplication – and I’ve found that to be an almost liturgical method of organizing consistent prayer.

Cross

The cross on my decade is an Orthodox cross which has a lot of symbols and Jesus’ body. I’m used to protestant crosses which are empty to symbolize victory and resurrection. This cross really tells a story through image and symbol. Holding the cross, I make the sign of the cross to begin saying the words, “In the name of the Father, and the Son and the Holy Spirit, amen.” Then I move into the Lord’s Prayer.

First decade: Adoration

Here I’m just trying to align my focus with the creator of the universe. Growing up in a very conservative tradition, I used to see adoration as something we had to do out of shame or guilt or sin. We are lowly and God is almighty. You’d better fall on your knees and repent. Today I see adoration as a more genuine expression of my wonder of God the source and ground of all life.

Invitatory bead: I say the Apostle’s Creed. This reroots me into the amazing story of Christianity and creation I’m a part of. My church recites the creed each week, but I memorized the “from thence He will come to judge the quick and the dead,” version and I sometimes forget and say those words instead of the more modern version while I’m organizing my music behind the drum set after the message song on Sunday mornings.

Prayer beads: I like to say the common Protestant doxology (updated with more inclusive language by the Congregational UCC church I used to attend) ten times, once on each bead.

Praise God from whom all blessings flow

Praise God all creatures here below

Praise God above ye heavenly host

Creator, Christ and Holy Ghost

Second decade: Confession

Invitatory bead: I’ve taken to a traditional Lutheran prayer of confession. I don’t have room here to go into the many reasons why I’m moved by this prayer – where I’ve shifted in atonement theory, why self-reflection is healing, why your practices of forgiveness should start with becoming aware of God’s grace and forgiving yourself – but in general I think confession is central to living a life of prayer.

Most merciful God, we confess that we are held captive to sin and cannot free ourselves. We have sinned against you in thought, word, and deed, by what we have done and by what we have left undone. We have not loved you with our whole heart; we have not loved our neighbors as ourselves. For the sake of your Son, Jesus Christ, have mercy on us. Forgive us, renew us, and lead us, so that we may delight in your will and walk in your ways, to the glory of your holy name. Amen

If there are some things that are heavy on my heart, I’ll include them specifically here. I want to move past them, but often God will send me some ideas on how to deal with my own peccadillos and judgement lapses.

Prayer beads: Around the age of 13 I memorized Psalms 51:10-12 in the King James Version (since I grew up theologically conservative). I say this on each bead. It can seem gloomy when looked at through a fundamentalist upbringing, but today, I see it as asking God to shape my life into God’s own free, joyful even playful spirit.

Psalm 51:10-12

Create in me a clean heart, O God; and renew a right spirit within me. Cast me not away from thy presence; and take not thy holy spirit from me. Restore unto me the joy of thy salvation; and uphold me with thy free spirit.

Third decade: Thanksgiving

This is my version of a gratitude journal. I think it’s important to be grateful to God and it’s healing amid the chaos of our lives and world to remember things that are still going right.

Invitatory bead: I run through a list of things I’m grateful for and really try to feel that gratitude deep in my heart.

Prayer beads: Typically, on each prayer bead I will repeat my own paraphrase of Psalm 136:1: “Give thanks to God, for God is good, God’s love endures forever.”

Fourth decade: Supplication

Isn’t it a little corny and antiquated to think that you can ask God for things? Nope. I’ve elaborated more on why I think these prayers ane important in a post, “Does Prayer Work?”

Invitatory bead: My church publishes prayer requests from our community in our newsletter and in a private prayer group email chain. I start with these prayers. Then I move into a very personal list, often a lot of the same things which is OK. We’re all works in progress. I’ll end by saying Psalm 23 which I memorized as a child, again in the King James Version where the archaic language is at once familiar, comforting, ornate and lyrical. The psalm reminds me that God is in control.

Prayer beads: I usually say a version of Reinhold Niebuhr’s Serenity Prayer.

God, grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, the courage to change the things I can, and the wisdom to know the difference.

Sometimes instead of Niebuhr’s prayer I’ll choose a bible verse to read to myself ten times, once per bead.

The Jesus Prayer

At this point I often pray the Jesus prayer 100 times, going through the decade of beads ten times. Sometimes this is all I will do instead of praying my chaplet above, or maybe I’ll do it in the evening instead. Sometimes I do all the above and then move into 100 Jesus prayers. I often say the Jesus prayer to myself during the day when I need to remind myself of God’s mercy and ask for a little courage. I’ll even say it with each gasping breath if I’m climbing a steep hill on a bicycle or skiing down a tough mogul run. It’s nice to bathe in God’s mercy and it forces me to breathe. And when I think of the word “mercy,” I’m not thinking about prostrating myself in front of a hanging judge, I’m thinking of God’s unquenchable desire for our thriving and union. God’s mercy is the love of a parent for a child whom they miss and wish upon the greatest of life’s joys.

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

Ending

Whether I pray the Jesus prayer, I then end with another sign of the cross and say, “In the name of the father, and the son and the holy spirit, amen.”

Whoa, That’s a Lot

It sounds like a lot when you’re reading a blog post for the first time. Maybe if you’re just starting and haven’t memorized the verses and prayers it will be a lot. I think you should have some traditional Christian prayers, creeds and Bible verses memorized anyway, so why not use them in your prayer life? The ACTS model makes it easy to remember the outline.

• Cross: Lord’s Prayer
• Adoration: Apostle’s Creed followed by the doxology
• Confession: Prayer of confession followed by “Create in me…”
• Thanksgiving: Your personal gratitude list followed by “Give thanks to God…”
• Supplication: Your concerns brought to God and Psalm 23 followed by Niebuhr’s Serenity Prayer
• Optional: Reciting The Jesus Prayer

The usual caveats apply. I’m only sharing this to share this. I don’t have the one right way to pray that you must copy. If you’re curious about ways to drive your prayer practice more consistently, maybe something like this will help. I tend to only succeed in things that I do consistently, so structure and ritual are good for me. They may not work for you. This doesn’t replace my contemplative prayer practices and sometimes I’ll slip into a quick 10 minutes of contemplative prayer immediately afterward. I’m conscious of my own busy life and ask – without guilt – can I dedicate 10, 20 or 30 minutes this morning? Showing up is more important than what you do and for how long.