V
Vico
Guest
Many people have a difficult time understanding this because they confuse the salvation of intercession with the salvation of Jesus Christ by his death and resurrection: “Christ has risen from the dead, and by death he conquered death, and to those in the tomb he granted life.” We need to live a holy life to remain free of sin, and we receive help in that through the mysteries (sacraments) and through the intercessory prayers of the Angels and Saints and others, for us.
Let me quote from the Paraclisis, Sixth Chant, which explains much:
…
V: O Virgin, beseech you Lord and your Son who delivered himself to death and saved my nature from death and corruption to which it had been bound, that He may deliver me from the hands of the enemy.
R: O most holy Mother of God, save us!
V: I believe, O Virgin, that through your intercession you save and protect my life, dispelling many temptations and casting out the cunning snares of the devil. Now I impore you without ceasing: Deliver me from my corrupting passions.
R: O most holy Mother of God, save us!
V: O Maiden, you have been given to us as a wall behind which we may seek refuge, as a perfect means of salvation for our souls, as a joy in our tribulations, for we always find delight in your light, O Lady, save us always from every danger and evil desire.
Glory be to the Father +, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit, now and ever, and forever, Amen.
Behold how sick I am: I lie upon my bed, and there is no healing for me. I come to you in your goodness, for you have given birth to the Saviour of the World, Deliver me from my disease and raise me from the pain of my affliction.
Also an older form of Marian prayer:
15 decades:
Rejoice, O Virgin Theotokos, Mary full of grace, the Lord is with thee. Blessed art thou among women, and blessed is the fruit of thy womb, for thou hast borne Christ the Savior, the Deliverer of our souls.
After each decade say the Our Father, and:
Open unto us the door of thy loving-kindness, O blessed Theotokos, in that we set our hope on thee, may we not go astray; but through thee may we be delivered from all adversities, for thou art the salvation of all Christian people.
I personally don’t know for sure. My understanding is that a knotted cord used for counting one’s prayers gradually developed among monastics, with the laity later catching on (probably under the influence of their monastic spiritual fathers). Originally, as has been noted above, the monks would use a stick with notches carved into it, or they would have two bowls, on empty the other containing pebbles; the pebbles would be moved from one bowl to the other so as to count one’s prayers. 150 repetitions of whatever prayer one’s spiritual father had assigned (Our Father, Hail Mary, Jesus Prayer, etc.) was the norm, as it was meant to stand in the place of the Psalms for those monks (or lay people) who were illiterate and thus incapable of memorizing the Psalms (originally a requirement for entrance into the monastic life). Gradually this took the form of the prayer rope/chotki/komboskini and lestovka in the East, and the rosary in the West. I have heard it contended that the rosary was/is traditionally a Byzantine/Orthodox devotion (now known as the Prayer Rule of the Theotokos, and supposedly recited by the monks on Mt. Athos) that later influenced St. Dominic’s adaptation of it into that Latin Rosary. I don’t know how true that is because I don’t consider my source the most trustworthy and unbiased. 
The ends have a bit more of an Afro look to them now but otherwise none the worse. Apparently it made its way into my pile of clothes headed to the washer.