150 Beads

In the twelfth century, religious orders recited together the 150 Psalms as a way to mark the hours of the day and the days of the week. Most of the laity were illiterate and wanted to share in this practice, so praying on a string of 150 beads or knots began as a parallel to praying the Psalms substituting instead 150 repititions of the Lord's prayer.  Eventually the Hail Mary was added to the recitations. 

Rosary use continues today as that once designed for the illiterate. Since the fifteenth century, the beads have been divided into 15 "decades, " with a mystery of an event in the life of Jesus assigned to each decade. This, too,  was to help the illiterate meditate on stories in the Bible.

Today, however, few people are illiterate.  We can read the Bible and we can read the Psalms.  I would love to see rosary praying be restored to the original format of the monks, as that of reciting the Psalms regularly.

TV~
Is any among you afflicted? let him pray. Is any merry? let him sing psalms.  [James 5:13]