The subject of rosaries usually can elicit lively discussion between Lutherans.  Most of us think first and foremost of standard Roman Catholic rosaries, with their decades of Hail Marys, the occasional Our Fathers, the meditation on the various “mysteries,” wrapped up with the Hail Holy Queen.  In other words, a Marian rosary with the purpose of invoking her, and certain promises of merit and blessing attached to its recitation.  Suffice it to say that Lutherans don’t go in for this invocation stuff, nor of the benefits of any man-made work, not to speak of the confusion of the nature of works in our salvation.  Our confessions condemn this sort of practice as a “childish and needless work,” which is not actually a true good work at all.

Lutherans who have therefore abandoned the ancient Christian practice of using some form of counters or beads in certain prayer settings, due to the Roman abuses of the same, tend to be rather off-put by that picture of Martin Chemnitz with his rosary beads, or puzzled by the notion of any Lutheran using them.  It’s hard to dislodge the usual rosary associations we have with Rome.  Of course, the fact is that the ancient church did not invoke the saints on their beads, stones, or knots, and so their practice did not greatly resemble the Dominican rosary we tend to think of nowadays.

So if Lutherans are indeed free to use prayer beads in our prayer lives, as we use bookmarks in our reading lives, what might an “acceptably Lutheran” set of prayer beads look like?

A search on words like “Lutheran rosary” yield some interesting results.  Very liberal church groups are not above using practices of the ancient church… usually with some bizarre twists.  I’ve seen “churches” use a feminist sort of rosary with a goddess figure where the cross should be.  This ELCA site starts out with what seems like an okay set of prayers for their rosary, but by the time you get down to “Good Friday” you’re feeling kind of iffy, and by the time you get to the E.E. Cummings poem, I’m inclined to say, ”No thanks.”  But they also include this downloadable booklet for praying through the Small Catechism, with looks much more promising.

This frequently-mentioned Lutheran Rosary includes, as a possibility, the “pre-Trent Hail Mary,” which excludes the second half of the prayer, requesting her intercession.  While I’m not at all against honoring Mary, having images of her, speaking in praise of her, etc, I’m not comfortable with using this as part of a rosary, which is commonly understood to be a set of prayers. Unless you’re going to use your beads entirely for the recitation of Scriptures which speak highly of the saints, it would seem that including such a “praise” in the form of a direct address, alongside other prayers, is a bit misleading.  This is my opinion; maybe some will come along to contest it!  All in all, this set of prayer beads is okay to me.  The Jesus Prayer, often used in the Orthodox church, is very good.  I’d use the Magnificat instead of the Hail Mary, though.

This ecumenical “Lutheran” rosary from Sweden is too on the touchy-feely, uber-”mystical” side for me.  If you look at the prayers suggested, a lot of them are of the “I breathe out my worry, I breathe in your peace” fluff variety.  Not a lot of Jesus in these prayers.

Personally, I like a lot of the prayers commonly associated with the Anglican rosary.  See the prayers suggested at the bottom of this page.

As I mentioned in an earlier post, I don’t post this to necessarily encourage or urge people to take up this particular devotion or any other.  Let the practice of these things be a personal matter, provided that it does not work against our faith.  The discussion can be useful for determining what really does or doesn’t work against our faith, or what may prove to be more or less beneficial.  But I’m not turning this topic into a matter of “we ought to.”

Okay, fire away discussion!

Well, being a self-described Lutheran blog here, we’ll pass over the items involving invoking Mary and the other saints, and sacramentals… but anyway, this article describing familial worship life in the home actually contains a lot of really good ideas and suggestions.  I quote a bit…

“Family altars, like the rest of the home, can be decorated according to the liturgical season, changing tablecloths, sacred images, and flowers according to that Season’s liturgical colors and themes. One tip I have is to buy one of those little tiny 6″ easels made to display small pictures, and then buy an assortment of Holy Cards to place on it according to liturgical season or Feast. For ex., on the Feast of St. Nicholas, a Holy Card bearing his likeness can be set out; on Good Friday, a card depicting the Crucifixion; on the family’s Name Days, depictions of their patrons can be placed on it, etc.”

“It is very important for parents to make the liturgical year come alive for their children, to make it a part of the rhythm of their children’s lives. This will help them pay more attention at Mass during the Gospel and sermons, and it has the psychological benefit of helping the children feel both ‘grounded’ in a stable, traditional family, and a part of something ‘bigger than they are’ in terms of the Church, the cycles of the liturgical year being something shared by [Christians] for millennia. These ‘little things’ connect you to your children, your children to each other, and your family to the Church.”

“On a different level, [Christian] homes should be filled with books, art, music, the necessary things to make crafts, etc. There should be plenty to feed the mind and heart, and to engage the body. A well-trained child should rarely speak of ‘boredom’ or offer it as an excuse for getting into trouble or whining; he should learn to entertain himself, to imagine new games and to marvel at and learn about the world about him. Young children never hate to read and to learn! That comes later, after bad teachers who ignore the importance of phonics and don’t know how to engage a child’s interest make them feel stupid, and when television has robbed them of imagination and taught them to think in sound-bytes and quick-moving images. It is too much television that trains them to feel restless unless pounding music and rapid-fire motion are assaulting their senses.”

“If you don’t: read, draw, paint, play a musical instrument, embroider, knit, purl, tat, whittle, carve wood, dance, make furniture, build model airplanes, birdwatch, brew beer, ferment wine, stargaze, or make mosaics or learn foreign languages or shoot guns or camp or do archery garden, bake, work on cars, write stories, model in clay, fly kites, develop screenplays, play sports, collect something, walk in the woods, write poetry, learn about astronomy, etc. — I think you get my point — then turn off the T.V., pick something, and begin now. If you’ve lost your child-like love of learning and sense of wonder, pray to regain it!

“And on a final note, keep your sense of humor! Life is serious — quite serious — but it is also wondrous and sometimes hysterically funny. If you are so stressed, so cynical, so rigorist or ‘educated’ that you can’t laugh, then something’s got to give. Deal with it before you pass that dour trait on to your children or let it infect your marriage. Pray about it and talk to a spiritual director or other wise person. You will be happier and healthier, and so will your family.”