What do Orthodox Christians pray on the beads that divide the knots on a prayer rope?
I'm speaking of the red beads in this photo, for example."Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me, a sinner."
I pray the Lord's Prayer, Glory Be, or Trisagion. I've always wondered if there was a standard, but had never seen anything on it.There is nothing set. It's not like the prayers on a Catholic rosary. Sometimes I pray the Our Father, or "By the prayers of our holy fathers, Lord Jesus Christ our God, have mercy on us and save us."
A prayer rope I recently received has the beads at intervals of 10 instead of 25, so I stay with the Jesus Prayer on the beads too, so that I'm not interrupted so often and the beads just count off 11, 22, 33, 44, 55, 66, 77 (etc.) prayers.
I have both Chotki [ in wood ] and what I term a mini Lestovka [http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/like/2819...ICEP3.0.0-L&ff14=122&viphx=1&ops=true&ff13=80 ] as well as a larger Lestovka.
I have damaged sensation in both hands and have discovered that if I'm using a woollen prayer rope I can't feel the knots - but I can feel the wooden beads on my Chotki.
My 'mini' lestovka is wonderful to use - it's soft and I can feel each rung without a problem and being so small it's very inconspicuous in use [ think when our priest is preaching in Ukrainian ]
I just use " Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me, a sinner " on each bead/rung.