We began 2013 with a prayer bead devotion focused on Wesley’s Covenant Service. I thought that was appropriate given that we begin each new year with a clean slate, upon which we write our new goals and hopes for the upcoming year. Giving that a foundation in the Covenant Service just seemed right.
Now, three weeks later, it’s a good time to check in. It may be by now that the freshness of the new year is wearing off. We are seeing what parts of our new goals and hopes are sticking, and which of them may be starting to lag. And so I wanted to offer another way of using beads to help us live intentionally in 2013.
St. Catherine of Siena, a fourteenth century nun, is famous for saying, “Be who God meant you to be and you will set the world on fire.” I love that. It cuts right to the chase. Our ability to make a difference in the world will never be about the many hats we wear and our extensive to-do lists and our efforts to be all things to all people. It will be about how well we live as God intended.
So let us take time to remember who God meant us to be. We’ll use our beads to consider a) how we were created; b) what we were created to do; and c) and what our ultimate purpose is. If we can keep these three things in mind, we will surely set this world afire with the blazing glory of God’s love.
Cross: In the name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit, Amen.
Invitatory Bead: ”Be who God meant you to be and you will set the world on fire.” (St. Catherine of Siena)
Resurrection Bead: Christ has died. Christ is risen. Christ will come again.
1st Cruciform Bead: “God created humanity in God’s own image, in the divine image God created them, male and female God created them.” (Genesis 1:27, CEB)
1st set of Week Beads: use each bead to consider what it means that you were created in God’s image.
2nd Cruciform Bead: “Jesus replied, ‘The most important one is Israel, listen! Our God is the one Lord, and you must love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your being, with all your mind, and with all your strength. The second is this, You will love your neighbor as yourself. No other commandment is greater than these.'” (Mark 12:29 – 31, CEB)
2nd set of Week Beads: use each bead to consider what it means to love God with all your being, mind, and strength, and to love your neighbor as yourself.
3rd Cruciform Bead: “And I heard every creature in heaven and on earth and under the earth and in the sea – I heard everything everywhere say, ‘Blessing, honor, glory, and power belong to the one seated on the throne and to the Lamb forever and always.'” (Revelation 5:13, CEB)
3rd set of Week Beads: use each bead to consider what it means for you – and the whole of creation – to worship God and proclaim Christ as King.
4th Cruciform Bead: “Be who God meant you to be and you will set the world on fire.”
4th set of Week Beads: use each bead to consider how you will live as God meant you to be.
Resurrection Bead: The Risen Christ is alive! Alleluia!
Invitatory Bead: recite The Lord’s Prayer
Cross: In the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, Amen.
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I am a Methodist from Sri Lanka . I found the Bead Divotion is very practical
and it has kept me fully occupied in my prayer without diverting my thoughts in to various avenues..When I read your artical in the Upper Room it reminded me the Rosaries my Catholic friends use to carry in my chrild hood. The times are changed the young crowd is not using.
I made a sample using a cross and a knotted cord instead of beads and it has been a very useful assistant to me in my silent prayers.
I take this opportunity to thank you for the guidence given and also request you to pray for us in your prayer circles about our church we worship(KADALANA METHODIST CHURCH IN Moratuwa, Sri Lanka.,which is ninety two years old) and it’s members about 850 including children to prepare them spiritually to win more hearts to Jesus Christ when we celebrate our Centenary in eight years time.