Eastern Catholics: how to get my first prayer rope?

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You can whisper it to yourself without syncing.

Many spiritual elders actually teach that it’s dangerous to practice the “breathing techniques” without the sound guidance of an experienced spiritual elder. Such techniques are certainly not essential to the practice of the Jesus Prayer.
 
Feel free to reach out if you have any questions! We’re all in this together. 😆
 
DrawNearToGod said:
Do you pray the Jesus Prayer in your head or out loud?
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Both, according to need… The prayer can take you over, where you find yourself always praying it, even when sleeping or working or lecturing… When monastics seek this Gift, they say it throughout the day just sub-lingually as they go about their obediences… For the rest of us ne’er-do-wells, like me, mostly silent, unless one is in the middle of a demonic attack… Then out loud is good… Saying it softly is good… Doing it with crossings is good… Doing it with prostrations is good… With both is good…

I have found that the point of the prayer can become an inner sense of stillness in an outer world of chaos… What combat veterans find in combat… Professional athletes find it in competition, normally imagination driven…

Finding my own monastic rope made a big difference - And handing it to someone so they can “pray a rope”, because of its “hand” - eg it is medium sized hard knots spaced a third of a knot apart - And because I pray it every day, normally am and pm, they can often “feel” the rope in a way they do not feel other ropes… I tend to pray it pretty fast with crossings… And as I am praying it that way, I begin to superimpose other prayers of intercession into the rule I follow, and it seems to work well enough…

geo
 
Thank you so much for your thoughtful words. I will consider my first prayer rope as sacred to share sacred space with. It’s true that old monks simply used stones, but I choose to live my spiritual life with beauty and respect to these highly individual pieces. Of course without worshiping it.
 
We all have particular reasons for the various things we decide on in our walk… I had read “The Way of the Pilgrim”, as my first Orthodox book, as a new Christian in my mid 50s, and said to myself: “I can do that!”, having no idea what I was walking into, but that was where God had sent me, so that was what I was there to do… And I did… But the secret reason I liked the Jesus Prayer, and its prayer rope, was that I could remember it even if I was blind, and I could be praying it as I was dying - It would always be there for me… No matter what…

And it turns out that this reason is not necessarily true, but even now it is true enough… I structured my whole life on the absence of spiritual props that were external to me… And having this tool embedded in my soul just seemed like a very good idea - And it is, even if what is really needed is the stillness of soul that is hidden within it, that is the real point of intersection with God in prayer… We are discipled, you see, but how that discipling works, and what it accomplishes, is often hidden from the one being discipled… I remember Paul describing those “Called to be Apostles”, describing them as “deceiving yet true…” Which is a clue, and a caution… This Faith is not given a roadmap of stages - Such a thing would kill it… It is a Mystery entered, the Mystery of Love and the Marriage of the Lamb… And we are not to be in charge of our progressing in it, which is why it is a Faith, and not a college course with an exam…

The Medicines of Immortality are deceptively simple…

May God guide your Way, Anna…

geo
 
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