Greetings one and all, please feel free to download this new Prayer Rope App free of charge, available on Android. This is a follow-up app to their original Pray Always app, which is another valuable resource from St Alexis Press.
Source: saintalexispress.com
Saint Alexis Press is pleased to announce their new mobile app, Prayer Rope for Android. Praying with prayer ropes is one of the oldest ways of saying prayers, and is used by both monks and laymen. This practice inspired the software developers at Saint Alexis Press to create Prayer Rope.
The app’s interface was designed to be as unobtrusive as possible while still being functional. To count the prayers are they are said, you simply swipe a finger across the screen. Both visual and tactile feedback are provided. The app will highlight the next “bead”, show the current prayer count, and, optionally, vibrate the device. Both phones and tablets are supported.
Prayer Rope is available in the Google Play Store today for free.
Oh, wow . . . thanks! Been looking for an app for the iPad. Hopefully Prayer Rope will become available for the iPhone as well.
Hmm,
I feel kind of nostalgic about my prayer ropes, especially the wrist ones. An abbot gave me one from Mount Athos that fits my wrist pretty well and most of the year you can wear long sleeves and no one knows you are wearing it but it reminds you by its very presence that you can fit in a few prayers. It is quiet and helps remind me of the beauty of quiet. As for the longer ones, they are for home and very private anyway. I think tapping plastics would not have quite the same uses and feeling. Besides, making prayer ropes is a good occupation of monks. Would we want to curtail or constrict that craft. Somehow, free ap does not seem quite right.
It’s hard to count the number of ways that this is just wrong.
There’s an app for that.
Samn!, I agree. My late wife made prayer ropes at the behest of our bishop. Here prayer ropes were a treasure, special because of the skill with which she made them and the prayers than went into their making. They both look and feel different that most other prayer ropes. Not bragging, just a fact.
The making of a prayer rope is craft combined with prayer and craft comes from the soul, it is an act of one’s whole being. When properly done, they are beautiful in and of themselves and give cause to praise God for that beauty. The tactile intereaction with the prayer rope is important as well since that connects you to the person who made them. In a sense you and the person who made the rope are then praying together (where two or more are gathered in my name).
To even attempt to reduce it to digital technology is an act that exhibits a very poor understanding of the Church: what she does, how she does it and why.
Technology is an act of the physical mind alone and I have yet to see any digital device that is beautiful except in the most mundane sense of proper functional design but most are lacking even there.
The only word that comes to mind about this is: ick! followed by a string of Lord, have mercies.
I can’t wait for the “theosisometer” upgrade which tracks your progress on the path of theosis as you swipe your finger accross the screen!
I also can’t wait to use the “support” feature to get advice from a real Athonite hesychast!
But seriously, I initially thought that this was the worst idea I have ever heard of, but then I changed my mind. Perhaps most people have a prayer rule where a 100 knot prayer rope is sufficient. Some people, however, have a rule of saying several hundred or several thousand prayers in the morning, evening, and during the day. St. Paisius Monastery sells a beaded rope used to keep track of the number of prayer ropes you say, but some use a little tally gizmo to keep track of the number of ropes completed. This can be challenging, so this app really may come in handy for those who have a rule to say the prayer 100s or 1000s of times but who may not want to walk around town with a 300 knot prayer rope in their hands and dragging along the sidewalk.
I think it is a nice feature that it clearly indicates how many times to say the prayer in place of various services, in case something comes up and one is not able to attend a service. The number for each service can be hard to remember.