FROM YOUR PASTOR

PRAYER BEADS

“Lutherans pray the rosary? I thought only Catholics did.” That was a comment made to me several years ago during a meeting. How we got on the subject I have no idea but it began a conversation and a promise to introduce prayer beads to St. Timothy.

The use of rocks, stones, and knotted ropes to aid in prayer predates Christ. Traditions like Judaism, Islam, Hinduism, Buddhism, and Sikhism were using aids in their prayers and chants long before Jesus. The earliest monastics who ventured out into the desert used rocks to guide their prayers. Later, monks used prayer beads to guide them as they daily prayed all 150 psalms as they sought to pray without ceasing. The rosary was then created for the mostly illiterate laity to guide them in their daily prayers.

During the Reformation, many traditions and spiritual practices were stripped away. Reformers believed that Jesus desired a personal relationship with us and anything that came between us and a direct relationship with Jesus (no matter how wonderful a practice) was removed. Many of the Reformers forbade followers to pray their rosary but Martin Luther did not. He removed supplications to Mary, mother of Jesus, but allowed people to use the ancient spiritual practice. Still, the use of prayer beads fell away for Lutherans.

In the 1980’s, an Episcopalian congregation was studying contemplative prayer. During the course of this study they grew intrigued with prayer beads and decided to create their own set of prayer beads with a different number and organization than the Catholic rosary. They also decided that there should not be one way to pray using prayer beads and that they could simply be a tool to aid one in praying.

We are encouraged to “Rejoice always, pray without ceasing, give thanks in all circumstances” (Thessalonians 5:16-18). Beads have served as an aid in expressing joy, praying, and giving thanks to God. Especially for those who find it difficult to sit still and focus, prayer beads offer a physical grounding to help them focus on their prayers. For others, feeling their prayer beads in their pockets have helped them to pray throughout the day. Also, the structure of the prayer beads can be helpful in guiding our prayers so that we give thanks and rejoice in the blessings of God instead of focusing all our attention on our concerns and wants.

This is just a quick history of the use of prayer beads and their potential benefit in one’s spiritual life. If you are curious to know more or would like to try praying with prayer beads, please come talk with me.

By Pastor Jennifer Biel

TRINITY SUNDAY — GOSPEL READING

     Now there was a man of the Pharisees named Nicodemus, a member of the Jewish ruling council. He came to Jesus at night and said, “Rabbi, we know you are a teacher who has come from God. For no one could perform the miraculous signs you are doing if God wer not with him.”

     In reply Jesus declared, “I tell you the truth, no one can see the kingdom of God unless he is born again.”

    “How can a man be born when he is old?” Nicodemus asked. “Surely he cannot enter a second time into his mother’s womb to be born!”

     Jesus answered, “I tell you the truth, no one can enter the kingdom of God unless he is born of water and the Spirit. Flesh gives birth to flesh, but the Spirit gives birth to spirit. You should not be surprised at my saying, ‘You must be born again.’ The wind blows wherever it pleases. You hear its sound, but you cannot tell where it comes from or where it is going. So it is with everyone born of the Spirit.”

   “How can this be?” Nicodemus asked.

    “You are Israel’s teacher,” said Jesus, “and do you not understand these things? I tell you the truth, we speak of what we know, and we testify to what we have seen, but still you people do not accept our testimony. I have spoken to you of earthly things and you do not believe; how then will you believe if I speak of heavenly things? No one has ever gone into heaven except the one who has came from heaven — the Son of Man. Just as Moses lifted up the snake in the desert, so the Son of Manmust be lifted up, that everyone who believes in him may have eternal life.

     “For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him.

John 3:1-17

TRINITY SUNDAY– SECOND READING

    Therefore, brothers, we have an obligation — but it is not to the sinful nature, to live according to it. For if you live according to the sinful nature you will die; but if by the Spirit you put to death the misdeeds of the body, you will live, because those who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God. For you did not receive a spirit that makes you a slave again to fear, but you received the Spirit of sonship. And by him we cry, “Abba, Father.” The Spirit himself testifies with our spirit that we are God’s children. Now if we are children, then we are heirs — heirs of God and co-heirs with Christ, if indeed we share in his sufferings in order that we may also share in his glory.

 

Romans 8:12-17

TRINITY SUNDAY — PSALM

    Ascribe to the Lord, O mighty ones, ascribe to the Lord glory and strength.

     Ascribe to the Lord the glory due his name; worship the Lord in the splendor of his holiness.

    The voice of the Lord is over the waters; the God of glory thunders, the Lord thunders over the mighty waters.

     The voice of the Lord is powerful; the voice of the Lord is majestic.

    The voice of the Lord breaks the cedars; the Lord breaks in pieces the cedars of Lebanon.

     He makes Lebanon skip like a calf, Sirion like a young wild ox. 

    The voice of the Lord strikes with flashes of lightning.

     The voice of the Lord shakes the desert; the Lord shakes the Desert of Kadesh.

     The voice of the Lord twists the oaks and strips the forests bare. And in his temple all cry, “Glory!”

     The Lord sits enthroned over the flood; the Lord is enthroned as King forever.

     The Lord gives strength th his people; the Lord blesses his people with peace.

Psalm 29

TRINITY SUNDAY– FIRST READING

     In the year that King Uzziah died, I saw the Lord seated on a throne, high and exalted, and the train of his robe filled the temple. Above him were seraphs, each with six wings: With two wings they covered their faces, with two they covered their feet, and with two they were flying. And they were calling to one another:

     “Holy, holy, holy is the Lord Almighty; the whole earth is full of his glory.”

    At the sound of their voices the doorposts and thresholds shook and the temple was filled with smoke. 

     “Woe to me!” I cried. “I am ruined! For I am a man of unclean lips, and I live among a people of unclean lips, and my eyes have seen the King, the Lord Almighty.”

     Then one of the seraphs flew to me with a live coal in his hand, which he had taken with tongs from the altar. With it he touchd my mouth and said, “See this has touched your lips; your guilt is taken away and your sin atoned for.”

     Then I heard the voice of the Lord saying, “Whom shall I send? And who will go for us? And I said, “Here am I. Send me!”

 Isaiah 6:1-8

DAY OF PENTECOST — GOSPEL

    “When the Counselor comes, whom I will send to you from the Father, the Spirit of truth who goes out from the Father, he will testify about me. And you also must testify, for you have been with me from the beginning.

    “I have told you this, so that when the time comes you will remember that I warned you. I did not tell you this at first because I was with you.

    “Now I am going to him who sent me, yet none of you asks me, ‘Where are you going?’ Because I have said these things, you are filled with grief. But I tell you the truth: It is for your good that I am going away. Unless I go away, the Counselor will not come to you; but if I go, I will send him to you. When he comes, he will convict the world of guilt in regard to sin and righteousness and judgment: in regard to sin because men do not believe in me; in regards to righteousness, because I am going to the Father, where you can see me no longer; and in regard to judgment, because the prince of this world now stands condemned.

    “I have much more to say to you, more than you can now bear. But when he, the Spirit of truth, comes he will guide you into all truth. He will not speak on his own;  he will speak only what he hears, and he will tell you what is yet to come. He will bring glory to me by taking from what is mine and making it known to you. All that belongs to the Father is mine. That is why I said the Spirit will take from what is mine and make it known to you.

John 15:26-27; 16:4-15

DAY OF PENTECOST –SECOND READING

    We know that the whole creation has been groaning as in the pains of childbirth right up to the present time. Not  only so, but we ourselves, who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for our adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies. For in this hope we were saved. But hope that is seen is no hope at all. Who hopes for what he already has? But if we hope for what we do not yet have, we wait for it patiently.

     In the same way, the Spirit helps us in our weakness. We do not know what we ought to pray for, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groans what words cannot express. And he who searches our hearts knows the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for the saints in accordance with God’s will.

Romans 8:22-27

DAY OF PENTECOST– PSALM

    How many are your wors, O Lord! In wisdom you made them all; the earth is full of your creatures.

    There is the sea, cast and spacious, teeming with creatures beyond number — living things both large and small.

    There the ships go to and fro, and the leviathan, which you formed to frolic there.

     These all look to you to give them their food at the proper time. 

     When you give it to them, they gather it up; when you open your hand they are satisfied with good things.

    When you hide your face, they are terrified; when you take away their breath they die and return to the dust.

     When you send your Spirit, they are created, and you renew the face of the earth.

    May the glory of the Lord endure forever; may the Lord rejoice in his works–

     he who looks at the earth, and it trembles, who touches the mountains, and they smoke.

    I will sing to the Lord all my life; I will sing praise to my God as long as I live.

    May my meditation be pleasing to him, as I rejoice in the Lord.

    But may sinners vanish from the earth and the wicked be no more. Praise the Lord, O my soul. Praise the Lord.

Psalm 104:24-35

DAY OF PENTECOST- FIRST READING

    When the day of Pentecost came, they were all together in one place. Suddenly a sound like the blowing of a violent wind came from heaven and filled the whole house where they were sitting. They saw what seeemed to be tongues of fire that separated and came to rest on each of them. All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues as the Spirit enabled them.

     Now there were staying in Jerusalem God-fearing Jews from every nation under heaven. When they heard this sound,  a crowd came together in bewilderment, because each one heard them speaking in his own language. Utterly amazed, they asked: “Are not all these men who are speaking Galileans? Then how is it that each of us hears them in his own native language? Parthians, Medes and Elamites: residents of Mesopotamia, Judea and Cappadocia, Pontus and Asia, Phrygiaand Pamphylia, Egypt and the parts of Libya near Cyrene; visitors from Rome (both Jews and converts to Judaism); Cretans and Arabs — we hear them declaring the wonders of God in our own tongues! Amazed and perplexed, they asked one another, “What does this mean?”

    Some, however, made fun of them and said, “They have had too much wine.”

    Then Peter stood up with the Eleven, raised his voice and addressed the crowd: “Fellow Jews and all of you who live in Jerusalem, let me explain this to you; listen carefully to what I say. These men are not drunk, as you suppose. It’s only nine in the morning! No, this is what wass spoken by the prophet Joel:

     “In the last days, God says, I will pour out my Spirit on all people. Your sons and daughters will prophesy, your young men will see visions, your old men will dream dreams. Even on my servants, both men and women, I will pour out my Spirit in those days and they will prophesy. I will show wonders in the heaven above and signs on the earth below, blood fire and billows of smoke. The sun will be turned to darkness and the moon to blood the coming of the great glorious day of the Lord. And everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.

Acts 2:1-21