Now, I’m not a Catholic. I don’t intend to ever be a Catholic. But I was thinking that a rosary might be a good thing to have. I’ve been reading Paternosters for a while now and I’ve seen that rosaries had different numbers of beads on them. So I was thinking, if I were making a rosary, how many sets of beads in a section would I want. And how many sections would I want.

I read a book a long time ago that had an essay about “How to Pray the Rosary for Protestants.” And I think the germ of this idea came from there. But I wasn’t thinking about doing it years ago.

So… five.

I think five. The Bs, the Gs, the Ms, the Brs, and the Cs. Those are my closest friend’s families.

Then my three siblings, my parents, and my family. Five.

The services. Air Force, Army, Navy, Marine, Coast Guard. Five.

And, I think, an extra five to remind me to pray for things of the day. Maybe H on the kidney transplant wait list or G’s adoption… Whatever is happening with the people around me at the time. So I’m thinking twenty beads.

Reading back through the early posts from PN, I think that normally rosaries have 50 beads, with decade markers and a cross.

The Catholic Encyclopedia seems to indicate in general much larger numbers of beads. But there is a mention of twenty, for penance.

This site has an article on Anglican prayer beads. These number 33, for the years Jesus lived on earth, and are supposed to have prayers said with them. But this site Peek through the Window of the Episcopal Church has a picture and a more easily followed explanation. Not that I know what the prayers are, but…

And this site Rosary, Rosary Beads has the clearest description, including what the prayer I didn’t know above is. But it’s 5o and that’s more beads than I really wanted to carry in my purse or pocket. Hmm.

Just a thought.