Tradictional Rosary Making Question: Crucifix or Cross?

[Tis_Bearself]

My personal feeling as a Catholic is that if a cross doesn’t have a corpus (Jesus) on it, then to me it looks Protestant. There are some exceptions in my mind, notably the Tau cross associated with St. Francis that is sometimes smooth wood - kind of a “worry stone” for a Cathoilc - and some rosaries I’ve seen with a Knights Templar cross or something similar that clearly denotes a Catholic meaning. But in general, I expect to see a crucifix on my rosary, not a plain cross. I may wear a plain cross for jewelry - but not on a rosary.

 

[Tis_Bearself]

But if anyone asks me for PLASTIC again! Cheap nasty

I understand people have preferences for rosaries, but plastic and twine rosaries are very good for situations where a cheap, durable, light, easily cleanable rosary is needed, such as for hospital patients, for children, for travel, and for people just curious about the rosary who want to give it a try and need a free one.

My mother had many plastic rosaries from her hospital stays; she was a heart patient so could not have a metal one, and she didn’t want to take any nice wood rosary or other treasured rosary into the hospital because things are frequently lost, stolen, accidentally thrown away, etc in there.

As a child, my mother gave me a pink and blue plastic and twine rosary of the type made for the missions, for my every day use. I had a fancier crystal rosary that i got for First Communion, but it was too nice/ not durable enough for a young child to be saying regularly, taking to school, etc. I thought the rosary with big pink plastic beads for Hail Mary and big blue plastic for Our Father and a white plastic cross was just lovely when I was 7 and I did pray on it.

My current everyday rosary is paracord with resin beads - they look and feel like hard black plastic but are very durable. This is an extremely durable rosary and I can take it traveling or hiking or anywhere else and not worry about breakage or falling apart. It does have the metal Pardon Crucifix with a corpus.

 

[pianistclare]

I like what my pastor says about the cross vs. the crucifix:

When you look at a cross, you see an instrument of torture, death penalty, and loss.
When you look at a crucifix, you see love, forgiveness, the suffering servant, and the source of our redemption.

Crucifix. Hands down.

 

[Bartholo]

All the rosaries I made have crucifixes on them. I guess I never thought of putting a cross on them. Has a protestant connotation to me.