Angelic Warfare Confraternity

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normbetland

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So maybe this is a dumb question, but for anyone who is in the Angelic Warfare Confraternity, how is the cord supposed to be worn? How high or low? How should it be worn?

I was enrolled today but I have this cord that is like 5 feet long and have no idea exactly what to do with it.
 
Looking at their website, I think it says to wear it around your waist, under your clothing.

I’ve never heard of the AWC. It sounds very good, maybe I will enroll. Thank you!🙂
 
I know where to wear it but I’m not sure how to tie it. Its about five feet long with knots in the middle, and since it is composed of two strands, each end has two dangling strands about a foot and a half long. I don’t know how to tie and if I’m supposed to tie it like a cincture that a priest would wear and have it dangling which would make it impossible to wear shorts in the summer.

If there is anyone enrolled in it, please let me know how you wear it.
 
normbetland said:
I know where to wear it but I’m not sure how to tie it. Its about five feet long with knots in the middle, and since it is composed of two strands, each end has two dangling strands about a foot and a half long. I don’t know how to tie and if I’m supposed to tie it like a cincture that a priest would wear and have it dangling which would make it impossible to wear shorts in the summer.

If there is anyone enrolled in it, please let me know how you wear it.
Click to expand...
Oh I see :o Sorry I couldn’t help!
 
normbetland said:
I know where to wear it but I’m not sure how to tie it. Its about five feet long with knots in the middle, and since it is composed of two strands, each end has two dangling strands about a foot and a half long. I don’t know how to tie and if I’m supposed to tie it like a cincture that a priest would wear and have it dangling which would make it impossible to wear shorts in the summer.

If there is anyone enrolled in it, please let me know how you wear it.
Click to expand...
Just tie it in a knot and cut the ends off. They do need to be burned or buried because they are blessed. If you anticipate getting fat or pregnant sometime in your life, it’s probably wise to wrap it around twice before tying so that you can expand without having to buy a new cord.
 
So, coming late to this thread you’ve probably worked all this out by now, but in case not:

The knots should go at the back of your body, where your loins are, since that was clasically believed to be the seat of sexual desire. Apart from that you can wear it how you like.

I wear mine in two different ways:
either I fold it in half so that the knots are doubled up and then I tie the ends in the same way I would tie a cincture if I were serving Mass with an extra knot to secure, the ends meet slightly to my side.

or I keep it flat against my back and then wrap both ends once more around my body so that the ends meet in the middle of my back, then double knot.

Both ways the loose ends below the knot wrap themselves around the main cord after you’ve had it on a few hours so there are no bits hanging down, this happens naturally and there’s nothing you need to do about it.

Three tips:
  1. It helps to tie a knot in each end before you do anything else, just to keep the ends from fraying.
  2. You have to tie it tight enough that it won’t come off, double knotting helps (I have lost one which wasn’t tied tightly enough, it just came off while I was trying on clothes in a shop and I didn’t realise until later) but not so tight that it cuts in to you - my Spiritual Director told me that some of the older friars remember people whose cord was cut into their flesh, that is NOT the way to wear it. Bear in mind that it gradually tightens for a little while after you have tied it and then stays about the same for the rest of the time. As a woman, I tie mine relatively tight across the lower part of my stomach, knowing that it will then sit quite loosly but securely higher up on my waist.
  3. Remember that you must wear it continuously. I tend to wear both the cord and the medal in the daytime, but take the medal off on occasion e.g. for swimming, and always take it off at night. If you’re not wearing both continuously, then remember to put the medal on when you have to take the cord off to wash it. You can get away with washing it infrequently since it gets washed with you in the shower etc., but there does come a time when it has to be taken off and boil washed.
Hope this helps. And welcome to the Confraternity, it is a fantastic blessing in my life and I hope it will be in yours too!
 
Just fold it in half and use the loop at the knotted end to tie a bow (if you knot the thing it will take ages to get off again!).

It’s meant to hang down somewhat. If the hanging end is too long, just loop it round and tie another bow!

You can wear the medal OR the cord, or both - if the cord is impractical just wear the medal.
 
I have been interested in joining this confraternity and ordered their booklet. However, I am curious about the medal. I really do not like the idea of wearing a cord around my body like that and would prefer to simply wear the medal. But I also would prefer to wear a silver medal because other base medals don’t seem to last long with me. I think my body is acidic or something. I always tend to get silver sacramentals and I do not want to change doing that. However there does not seem to exist silver medals of St. Thomas with the angels at each side.

Can you fulfill the requirement of this confraternity by wearing any St. Thomas Aquinas medal at all?

I have wanted to get a St. Thomas medal for a while anyway, and it would be really nice for that medal to fulfill the requirements of this confraternity.

For instance, would this one be okay?
 
Wow, how timely this post was for me – I received my packet in the mail yesterday and after seeing the cord had exactly the same question.

Do you take the cord off for swimming? I swim at the gym…

Now I need to find a Dominican priest…I asked my priest tonight if he knew any Dominican priests, and he said he didn’t know of any in the area (live in a city of 1/2 million people so surely we have to have a Dominican priest around here SOMEwhere!..

I have already started saying the prayers…
 
hi Elizabeth,

The idea is to wear the cord or medal continually but like with any Catholic devotion, you are expected to use prudent judgement - so if you are likely to lose the medal while swimming obviously you might take it off for a short time.

Check the official teaching of the AWC for this point: angelicwarfareconfraternity.org/about/

Thanks for praying! You will soon find a Dominican if you live in a big city - why not simply email the Dominicans to find out your local chapter? If they are too far away, your local parish priest can write them to obtain permission to give the blessing and enrollment himself.

hi Rete,

My understanding is that the medal should specifically show the event of St. Thomas’ being girt by the two angels, and Our Lady of the Rosary, as this is the heart of the AWC charism; devotion to St. Thomas as model of chaste teaching and living, and devotion to Christ through Mary.

However, why not just add the medal to a wrist chain or some other item you can wear constantly?

It would be great to find a more durable AWC medal, no doubt. Maybe there’s a company that can make silver medals to design that you could track down?

Cheers,

Michael
 
So I guess I did mine improperly. I just tied a double knot and cut the ends. It seems like they should include some instructions 🙂

In either case I wanted to have a spare should anything happen to the one I am wearing now. I ordered this as part of a packet, but does anyone know how to get just the knotted cincture itself?
 
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