Prayer practice:
Venerable beads

Many Christians use rosaries or prayer beads to help their personal devotions. Each bead represents a particular prayer, often with a larger bead or a cross as the starting point representing the 'Jesus Prayer', "Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me, a sinner." This is an example of a 'breath prayer' a prayer that can be said on one breath, so that prayer is seen to be as essential to life as breathing.

Why not make your own prayer bracelet using elastic and some different coloured beads? You can find some beautiful beads in craft and hobby shops. Get a big bag of beads to use with your Junior Church or young people's group.

Here are suggestions of prayers that you might say with each bead. The following colours are based on the 'Pony Bead' range from The Beadery, available at Hobbycraft Stores. Use a different kind of bead (e.g. wooden) as a spacer between each section, a large bead for the Lord's Prayer and a round bead to represent yourself.

Find out more here.
 

*Used with permission from The Methodist Church UK