Rosary Beads

[JamesR]

I had a question. In Orthodoxy, we're supposed to keep our Prayer Ropes hidden and tucked on our left wrist to be humble, do Roman Catholics have a similar rule in regards to their Rosary Beads? Because, I always see Roman Catholics wearing them like necklaces, flashed them around, or (lol) wearing them over gang-related attire or attire depicting something sexual. It just seemed kind of weird and heretical to me. When did they become fashion accessories for you guys?

[Anastasia1]

I have at least one friend who says that they should not be worn as necklaces, and I get that impression from what the more religious on one forum and a thread on another. I read that it might be ok to wear them as a symbol of pride in it or something, but I'm not sure how that was phrased to not seem like a sin.  It is fine to wear a rosary bracelet as a reminder to pray.

[NicholasMyra]

I had a question. In Orthodoxy, we're supposed to keep our Prayer Ropes hidden and tucked on our left wrist to be humble

Or like, in a pocket since we have those now. :p

[JamesR]

I had a question. In Orthodoxy, we're supposed to keep our Prayer Ropes hidden and tucked on our left wrist to be humble

Or like, in a pocket since we have those now. :p

Pockets? Western outrage! Hyperdox Herman does not approve.

EDIT: It just seems like everywhere I go, there is ALWAYS that group of lapsed Roman Catholics dressed like "gangstas" wearing 4 or 5 Rosary bead necklaces around their necks while they drink beer or talk about pot. It just seems ironic.

[Anastasia1]

I had a question. In Orthodoxy, we're supposed to keep our Prayer Ropes hidden and tucked on our left wrist to be humble

Or like, in a pocket since we have those now. :p

Pockets? Western outrage! Hyperdox Herman does not approve.

EDIT: It just seems like everywhere I go, there is ALWAYS that group of lapsed Roman Catholics dressed like "gangstas" wearing 4 or 5 Rosary bead necklaces around their necks while they drink beer or talk about pot. It just seems ironic.

QFT on both points.

[WPM]

The legitimate use of the Rosary is to examine your life and practice prayer.

[Melodist]

I was flipping through the channels one day and found an EWTN news show covering a story of a kid who got into some trouble for wearing is rosary beads like a necklace. I remember one of the reporters (maybe the anchor) commenting that the rosary is for prayer, not jewelry and wondering why the kid had it around his neck to begin with.

[Ioannis Climacus]

I had a question. In Orthodoxy, we're supposed to keep our Prayer Ropes hidden and tucked on our left wrist to be humble

Or like, in a pocket since we have those now. :p

Pockets? Western outrage! Hyperdox Herman does not approve.

EDIT: It just seems like everywhere I go, there is ALWAYS that group of lapsed Roman Catholics dressed like "gangstas" wearing 4 or 5 Rosary bead necklaces around their necks while they drink beer or talk about pot. It just seems ironic.

Bear in mind that there are quite a number of people who wear rosaries with little to no knowledge of Roman Catholicism. The Catholic bookstore I used to work in had several "gangstas" visit looking for jewelry. I will never forget the one who asked about buying a "Jesus rosemary thing".

[Melodist]

In Orthodoxy, we're supposed to keep our Prayer Ropes hidden and tucked on our left wrist to be humble,

A prayer rope on the wrist doesn't look hidden, it just looks like a knitted hemp bracelet.

[WPM]

You can use the rosary to examine your prayer life.

[brastaseptim]

Being Byzantine Catholic, I don't use the Rosary that much- however, when I do, I usually keep it deep in the pocket of my trenchcoat until I take it out.

[Tikhon.of.Colorado]

It doesn't need to be so concealed.  The use of the rosary by Roman Catholic faithful is far more universal than the use of the prayer rope among Orthodox.  People used to take their rosaries to mass and pray this devotion before the mass started.

Wearing rosaries has become a gang sign, sadly.  It's common among Roman Catholics of a Latino background to wear them.  There is a RC saint, I can't remember who, who did say to wear them as a reminder of faith and such.  My European Catholic family wouldn't hear of it, and my grandmother absolutely hated it when people wore them.  It's become a cultural thing.

All the same, rosaries aren't concealed in the RCC as in Orthodoxy.

[theistgal]

I used to think it was offensive, but I actually asked a young person once who wore them around his neck why he did so. He said his grandma told him to wear it to help him remember that God and His Mother were always with him, even when he wasn't at church. I thought that was actually kind of nice. 

[KBN1]

James, please don't use the word "Always" so recklessly.

[Kerdy]

I had a question. In Orthodoxy, we're supposed to keep our Prayer Ropes hidden and tucked on our left wrist to be humble

Or like, in a pocket since we have those now. :p

Pockets? Western outrage! Hyperdox Herman does not approve.

EDIT: It just seems like everywhere I go, there is ALWAYS that group of lapsed Roman Catholics dressed like "gangstas" wearing 4 or 5 Rosary bead necklaces around their necks while they drink beer or talk about pot. It just seems ironic.

Bear in mind that there are quite a number of people who wear rosaries with little to no knowledge of Roman Catholicism. The Catholic bookstore I used to work in had several "gangstas" visit looking for jewelry. I will never forget the one who asked about buying a "Jesus rosemary thing".

The cost of being "cool."

[Kerdy]

I have heard some Orthodox say they use a Rosary to pray.

[username!]

We are to take off the prayer rope before a service.  Prayer ropes are private prayer and services held at church are communal.  When a bishop is greeted at the entrance of the church before liturgy he in fact takes off his prayer rope for this specific reason. 

I don't know if the women are still with us but I know up until a few years ago I know a cathedral where a few ladies would say the rosary before liturgy.  To quote their late bishop, "leave the women who say the rosary alone, they're not hurting anyone, they learnt it in Catholic school 70 years ago".  In fact it was just a tiny few that I saw doing so.

Also I do have a humeral veil in my possession from an OCA parish (priest had vestments he wanted properly disposed of, I got the humeral veil and kept it as a historical piece).  At one time the parishes in the area and even Pittsburgh had a form of benediction of the blessed sacrament, Saturdays I believe in Lent.  Didn't matter if it was OCA, ACROD, UOC-USA and I don't know about ROCOR/MP. Even my parish still has a humeral veil in the vestment closet left their for posterity. 
Last time I saw benediction in an eastern setting was a number of years ago when we were Greek Catholic at the Uniontown Pilgrimage.  I hear they even stopped.

Issue is to discern what is part of the recension of a group of believers and what is a latinization.  Not everything is a latinization.  clearly rosary is.

And no you don't wear a rosary like jewelry.  Did not Christ say to keep your private prayer private?

[J Michael]

We are to take off the prayer rope before a service.  Prayer ropes are private prayer and services held at church are communal.  When a bishop is greeted at the entrance of the church before liturgy he in fact takes off his prayer rope for this specific reason. 

I don't know if the women are still with us but I know up until a few years ago I know a cathedral where a few ladies would say the rosary before liturgy.  To quote their late bishop, "leave the women who say the rosary alone, they're not hurting anyone, they learnt it in Catholic school 70 years ago".  In fact it was just a tiny few that I saw doing so.

Also I do have a humeral veil in my possession from an OCA parish (priest had vestments he wanted properly disposed of, I got the humeral veil and kept it as a historical piece).  At one time the parishes in the area and even Pittsburgh had a form of benediction of the blessed sacrament, Saturdays I believe in Lent.  Didn't matter if it was OCA, ACROD, UOC-USA and I don't know about ROCOR/MP. Even my parish still has a humeral veil in the vestment closet left their for posterity. 
Last time I saw benediction in an eastern setting was a number of years ago when we were Greek Catholic at the Uniontown Pilgrimage.  I hear they even stopped.

Issue is to discern what is part of the recension of a group of believers and what is a latinization.  Not everything is a latinization.  clearly rosary is.

And no you don't wear a rosary like jewelry.  Did not Christ say to keep your private prayer private?

A rosary is not necessarily a "latinization".  To wit: http://images.acswebnetworks.com/1/1335/Rule_of_the_Mother_of_God.pdf

It is, however, a private devotion.

Whether prayer rope and Jesus prayer, or rosary eastern or western, the point, I believe is basically the same thing: to pray, and hopefully to pray without ceasing.

I personally find that wearing a rosary as jewelry or as a "gangsta" statement is highly disrespectful.

Interestingly, I have a beautiful wooden rosary which I use to pray the Jesus prayer.     It is, after all, just beads and a cross.

[Santagranddad]

In my childhood - that was sometime between the invention of fire and the wheel, as I carefully explained whenever my children asked about 'the olden days - it was normal for the Rosary to be said together as a family. If it was being said when the postman called he would quietly say, "God bless all here", and kneel with everyone else.

Don't remember anyone wearing the beads as necklaces, but do have an old neighbour who wears his in such a fashion. Given he wears his trousers properly pulled up I don't think he's a wannabe gangsta.

[Papist]

St. Louis DeMonfort recommends wearing the Rosary as a sign of devotion. If some one wears it for that reason, I think it's wonderful.

If someone wears it as a gang sign, or as a fashion symbol (very popular in gay culture) then I think that that is great offense against Our Lady.

[Santagranddad]

St. Louis DeMonfort recommends wearing the Rosary as a sign of devotion. If some one wears it for that reason, I think it's wonderful.

If someone wears it as a gang sign, or as a fashion symbol (very popular in gay culture) then I think that that is great offense against Our Lady.

One of my less happy experiences was in a jewellers in Birmingham's Jewellery Quarter when one young woman was buying a necklace and asked, "Have got one with the little man on". I managed to swallow my tongue, just!

[Shanghaiski]

St. Louis DeMonfort recommends wearing the Rosary as a sign of devotion. If some one wears it for that reason, I think it's wonderful.

If someone wears it as a gang sign, or as a fashion symbol (very popular in gay culture) then I think that that is great offense against Our Lady.

She may put them on her list of special attention to convert and save.

[Shanghaiski]

If wearing a rosary was good enough for the Boondock Saints...

[podkarpatska]

We are to take off the prayer rope before a service.  Prayer ropes are private prayer and services held at church are communal.  When a bishop is greeted at the entrance of the church before liturgy he in fact takes off his prayer rope for this specific reason. 

I don't know if the women are still with us but I know up until a few years ago I know a cathedral where a few ladies would say the rosary before liturgy.  To quote their late bishop, "leave the women who say the rosary alone, they're not hurting anyone, they learnt it in Catholic school 70 years ago".  In fact it was just a tiny few that I saw doing so.

Also I do have a humeral veil in my possession from an OCA parish (priest had vestments he wanted properly disposed of, I got the humeral veil and kept it as a historical piece).  At one time the parishes in the area and even Pittsburgh had a form of benediction of the blessed sacrament, Saturdays I believe in Lent.  Didn't matter if it was OCA, ACROD, UOC-USA and I don't know about ROCOR/MP. Even my parish still has a humeral veil in the vestment closet left their for posterity. 
Last time I saw benediction in an eastern setting was a number of years ago when we were Greek Catholic at the Uniontown Pilgrimage.  I hear they even stopped.

Issue is to discern what is part of the recension of a group of believers and what is a latinization.  Not everything is a latinization.  clearly rosary is.

And no you don't wear a rosary like jewelry.  Did not Christ say to keep your private prayer private?

Well said.

[Monk Vasyl]

In Orthodoxy, we're supposed to keep our Prayer Ropes hidden and tucked on our left wrist to be humble,

A prayer rope on the wrist doesn't look hidden, it just looks like a knitted hemp bracelet.

Technically the only people who should wear their prayer rope on their wrist are monastics.  I wear mine on my belt so as not to interfer with my activities, especially when serving at the altar as a deacon.  When not serving at the altar, its covered by my monastic vest.

[Papist]

St. Louis DeMonfort recommends wearing the Rosary as a sign of devotion. If some one wears it for that reason, I think it's wonderful.

If someone wears it as a gang sign, or as a fashion symbol (very popular in gay culture) then I think that that is great offense against Our Lady.

She may put them on her list of special attention to convert and save.

I hope so. Would be a wonderful sign of grace.

[username!]

In Orthodoxy, we're supposed to keep our Prayer Ropes hidden and tucked on our left wrist to be humble,

A prayer rope on the wrist doesn't look hidden, it just looks like a knitted hemp bracelet.

Technically the only people who should wear their prayer rope on their wrist are monastics.  I wear mine on my belt so as not to interfer with my activities, especially when serving at the altar as a deacon.  When not serving at the altar, its covered by my monastic vest.

Thank you Father Deacon! I did not know this.  I don't use a prayer rope it distracts me. I am a drummer I can keep "the beat" without a rope personally.

[Deacon Lance]

In Orthodoxy, we're supposed to keep our Prayer Ropes hidden and tucked on our left wrist to be humble,

A prayer rope on the wrist doesn't look hidden, it just looks like a knitted hemp bracelet.

Technically the only people who should wear their prayer rope on their wrist are monastics.  I wear mine on my belt so as not to interfer with my activities, especially when serving at the altar as a deacon.  When not serving at the altar, its covered by my monastic vest.

Father,

I would certainly agree for the larger 100 knot ropes,  but even the monks of Athos make the 33 knot ropes, presumably to wear on the wrist.

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