For Sleepy, Wandering Minds
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Yes, I know God is gracious and merciful and knows my heart, but it is exasperating how difficult it can be to be fully present to hear what almighty God wants to say. When I first heard about the Anglican/Protestant rosaries, I wondered if this could be helpful, but never followed through. Last weekend at the retreat, I found out one of my friends now makes them. Once again I toyed with the idea and decided to take the plunge.
Concerning the beads, Kimberly Winston wrote, "The physical act of grasping a bead, of rotating gently between the fingers, of feeling it, will anchor you to the words of the prayer attached to the beads...If you feel your mind wanderting, squeeze or hold the bead tighter. Your attention will come back to the presence of God" ("The Anglican Rosary," adapted from Bead One, Pray Too: A Guide to Making and Using Prayer Beads).
Now I have not given much time to this practice yet. Today is really the first time that I consciously made use of them with morning prayer and scripture reading. Seeing that it's still pretty early and I haven't finished my first cup of coffee, I have to say they have helped to bring my attention back to the Lord. So we will see how this goes. By the way, the picture is of my beads that I bought last weekend. May God guide each of us as we seek to love the Lord with all our heart, soul, mind, and strength.
Comments
I also have found the power of using beads for meditation. I tend to make bracelets where the beads represent lyrics to hymns, though. I've never used a rosary before.
Peace.
(For me, Praying in Color has been a thoughtful, settling, centering practice.)
I hope the semester ended well for you. I got the rosary through a friend in NH, Sarah Dorsch. Her email is sfhdorsch0205@comcast.net. You can contact her and she'll be glad to help you out.
Blessings and trust you will have a fabulous summer and internship at the pulpit in the sky with diamonds. Peace.