On what to do with my flawed, blessed rosary

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HeavenlyBlue

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I have an old rosary that I was very fond of for several years, and I had it blessed. Imagine how startled I was when I realized that one of its decades is a bead short! A few times I’d had the feeling that something was ‘off’ about it, but I always just shrugged it away as being my imagination, never thinking to double check the number of beads. (Did I feel a bit stupid when I finally figured it out? You better believe I did. Always count your beads before purchasing a rosary, folks.)

I’ve been trying to decide what to do with it for a long time now. I added a link and a bead to fill out the decade, but the new bead doesn’t match the rest and that annoys me.

I’ve found that I also like the Anglican rosary very much, that the ‘free form’ of it is useful to me when I’m trying to memorize scripture verses. (For those unfamiliar with the Anglican prayer beads, it is a 33 bead circle divided into four sections, and the person using it assigns any prayers and verses they choose to the pattern.)

It wouldn’t be wrong or disrespectful of me to reassemble the beads of my old, one-short rosary into an Anglican bead set, would it? I just want it to be useful to me again without the nagging feeling that something is wrong with it. (I struggle against distractions in prayer enough as it is without one more thing to bother me.)

Also, does anyone know if my doing this would affect the blessing on my rosary? I don’t want it to need to be blessed again because the priest who blessed it for me before has since moved away, and I feel like his prayer over this rosary is sort of a keepsake for me to remember him by.

My thanks to anyone who takes the time to read and answer my question!
 
from what i understand you would just need to get the new bead blessed an put it on. Even if you take apart the rosary to put the new bead on the rosary will still keep the blessing from the original priest. Hope that helps!
 
If I understand it correctly, the idea of blessing is that the item is to be used for sacred use only. So I don’t think re-making it into the shorter form would be an issue; you’d still be using it for prayer.
 
Thank you for your answers!

I hope you are right that it’s fine since my intentions are still to use them as prayer beads. That’s pretty much what I had guessed, but I’ve been hesitating to go through with it because I would hate to ruin something that is not only deserving of respect, but something that I also can’t replace.
 
Sory to be a spoil sport, but I don’t think our Blessed Mother ever asked us to pray the Anglican Rosary. Just saying!
 
friarpark said:
Sory to be a spoil sport, but I don’t think our Blessed Mother ever asked us to pray the Anglican Rosary. Just saying!
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A private devotion is a private devotion. If the Anglican rosary is a good devotion, why not do it? There are dozens of devotions that are still quite good for the spiritual life that Our Blessed Mother didn’t ask us to pray, and even if she had, that would only be binding on the person who received the private revelation.

-ACEGC
 
I’m not so sure everyone.

If a sacramental breaks and therefore ceases to be a sacramental (for instance …a rosary being a chain with 50 some beads on it …and one or two beads are missing and therefore is no longer a rosary at the present)…it looses it’s sacramental quality because the physical matter has changed (sacramental principal: matter and a blessing/prayer is attached to it).

Therefore, I think you have to have the object blessed again once it is a whole rosary.

This is why after communion we put water in the chalice to break apart the consecrated wine…because after we add water to the wine…the wine will at some point cease to be wine and therefore the presence of Christ that the wine was transformed into is no longer there.

God bless
 
MichaelHowling said:
I’m not so sure everyone.

If a sacramental breaks and therefore ceases to be a sacramental (for instance …a rosary being a chain with 50 some beads on it …and one or two beads are missing and therefore is no longer a rosary at the present)…it looses it’s sacramental quality because the physical matter has changed (sacramental principal: matter and a blessing/prayer is attached to it).

Therefore, I think you have to have the object blessed again once it is a whole rosary.

This is why after communion we put water in the chalice to break apart the consecrated wine…because after we add water to the wine…the wine will at some point cease to be wine and therefore the presence of Christ that the wine was transformed into is no longer there.

God bless
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I think you’re conflating “sacramental” and “sacrament.” With sacramentals, since they are simply objects that dispose us to receiving divine grace, the insistence on validity of matter and form become markedly less important than with the actual Sacraments. If we have a rosary, and it’s been blessed, and a bead breaks, guess what–it’s still a rosary, and using the rosary still disposes you to divine grace. This is different from the Sacraments, which require matter, form, and intent to “work.”

-ACEGC
 
My question is more complicated than I’d realized!

I’m really grateful for all of your thoughts on this. Even though I’m not sure yet what I should do (though I’m starting to lean towards going through with it), you’re helping me make an informed decision instead of just guessing in the dark, and I really appreciate that!
 
i had a broken one, and took it apart…made ‘chaplets’ …a crucifix, medal and ten beads.
 
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