Saturday, August 30, 2008

Jesus Prayer Part 5: The Chotki



Most of us are familiar with the Roman Catholic Rosary, but not the Eastern Christian Chotki.

The Orthodox and Eastern Catholics use the Chotki or Komboskini as it's known in the Greek for focusing ones heart during the Jesus prayer. The chotki can be wooden or woven and can concist of 25, 35, 50, 100 or 103 beads or knots.

The posture of the Eastern Christian during prayer is standing. In the Orthodox tradition bows, prostrations or making the sign of the cross may accompany blocks of repetition.

The Jesus Prayer is said on each bead. You can add the our father at intervals.
For praying for the sick or others needs , place the name of the person you intend to pray for. eg. "Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on ......." using the person or situation in place of "me".

The tassel at the end is to to dry one's tears.

The tradition of the prayer ropes dates back to the 7th century.

My chotki came from Macideonian , given to me as a gift from a friend.

To order a hand crafted wood bead Chotki, go to chotki@iarelative.com

1 comment:

ctb18 said...

I had never heard of a chotki or the Jesus prayer until I read your posts yesterday. I must say that praying this prayer the past few days has really been a blessing to me. In Sunday school last week we learned that to say "Lord Jesus Christ" brings in the roles of King, Savior, and Priest. Also within the last few days I read a quote by Ed Welch that said for every one look at yourself, take 10 looks at Jesus. This prayer certainly helps. Thank you for taking time to write these posts. God Bless!