The sight of people carrying tasselled prayer ropes may be common in Eastern monasteries, but it is decidedly less so in the southern Appalachian mountains. So when my pastor and I were comparing our chotkis after Mass one recent Sunday, it's no surprise that we garnered a lot of questions from curious parishioners.
A chotki (also sometimes called a komboskini) is a traditional Eastern Christian prayer rope, generally made from wool and tied with a special knot. Unlike the rosary, with its set structure of five decades, chotkis can be found in various shapes and sizes. Common lengths are 33 knots (one for every year of Jesus' life), 50 knots, 100, 150, or even 300 knots. On each knot is said the Jesus Prayer. Various forms of this prayer exist, but the most common is, "Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me, a sinner." This prayer is taken from the publican's prayer in Luke 18:13, though its devotional use is attributed to St. Simeon the New Theologian.
I first learned of this devotion from a professor at the university where I serve as campus minister. He is a Catholic of the Ruthenian rite and can often be seen walking around campus with his prayer rope in hand. In giving a talk to our campus ministry group one evening, he explained that the chotki is an aid in following St. Paul's command to pray without ceasing (1 Thes 5:17). As he went about his day, he would continuously pray the Jesus prayer, pausing at each spacer bead placed every 25 knots to pray the Trisagion or "Thrice Holy" prayer: "Holy God, Holy Mighty, Holy Immortal, have mercy on us."
Although chotkis can be made in different colors and materials, the most common are of black wool. Black is the color of mourning and reminds us of our mortality. Wool reminds us that we are the rational sheep of Jesus' flock, and also that Jesus is the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world. Each knot is composed of seven crosses, to remind us of our Lord's sacrifice on Calvary.
There is an interesting legend about this knot. A monk (sometimes said to be St. Anthony) is tying knots in his prayer rope. As he ties each knot, the devil comes behind him and unties it, despising the prayerful purpose the knot would have. An angel (sometimes Our Lady) appears to the monk and shows him how to make a knot from seven crosses, which the devil cannot not untie. For this reason, the knot is called the "Angelic knot."
Most prayer ropes are made by nuns in Orthodox or Eastern Catholic monasteries, although you can find Youtube videos showing how to tie the Angelic knot yourself. My wife and I keep a small flock of sheep and she spins beautiful yarn from their fleece. I thought I'd learn to make my own chotki using our homespun wool, but after a few weeks of getting my fingers tied and tangled, I decided that it would be unjust to deprive a good sister of her livelihood. I sent the yarn instead to Mother Anna of the Holy Myrrhbearers Monastery in New York for her skilled hands to accomplish what mine could not.
The chotki is sometimes erroneously called the "eastern rosary," and I have even heard it suggested that western Christians should leave it alone and foster devotion to the rosary instead. This thinking is in error. The chotki and the rosary bear a physical resemblance, but their use is quite different.
The rosary is primarily a prayer rather than an object. As a prayer, the rosary has a definite structure with a beginning and an end. While other prayers can be said on the rosary beads, such as the Divine Mercy chaplet, these also have certain defined structures. When one prays the rosary, the expectation is that one starts at the beginning and prays through until the end. Although one may sometimes speak of praying "one decade of the rosary," technically one has prayed 10 Hail Marys, not the rosary.
The chotki, by contrast, is not a prayer but an object meant to aid in prayer. The Jesus Prayer is the most commonly used, but there is no reason why a chotki cannot be used to pray other prayers. I once had a beautiful prayer experience repeating Job 1:21 on my chotki. The idea is to pray without ceasing, and the prayer rope helps us maintain focus during prayer. One can pray with a chotki for five minutes, an hour, or throughout the day, pausing as needed.
I often use my prayer rope to remain focused during Mass. I joke with my pastor that I use it to stay awake during his homilies, but the truth is that it helps me to remain in a state of prayer which is the "active participation" in the liturgy called for by the Second Vatican Council ("Sacrosanctum Concilium," 14). The Jesus Prayer is simple enough that I can pray it silently while my attention remains on the liturgy. Its repetition fades gently into the background of my mind, replacing the "to do" list and scattered thoughts that otherwise dwell there and serve as distractions from prayer.
The chotki and the rosary are complementary, not competitive. In fact, as I have begun to regularly make use of the chotki and the Jesus Prayer, my devotion to the rosary has increased. I can only offer the suggestion that to increase in one form of prayer is to increase in prayer generally. The more one grows in prayer, the more one is filled with the desire to pray.
St. John Paul II exhorted the Church to "breathe with her two lungs" ("Ut Unum Sint," 54), by which he meant the Western and Eastern halves of the Church. Breathing with both lungs – and praying with both lungs – means being open to learning from the prayer traditions of our brothers and sisters in faith, and adopting them for our spiritual good.
Matthew Newsome serves as the campus minister for Western Carolina University. Learn more about the Campus Ministry program at more than 20 colleges and universities across the Diocese of Charlotte at www.catholiconcampus.com.
What we think is the right road
A good leader knows what he or she is about; a good leader organizes, trains, motivates, supervises and ensures success. A good leader does all these things – while pointing to the latest management guidebook – effectively. A good leader writes vision statements, talks the newest "quality management" lingo, always conforms to "best practices," and gets results.
But it's the wrong road
Many hundreds of books purport to explain how to lead and manage. There are great leadership lessons to be learned, we hear, from the world of business, the military, even sports. These lessons normally consist of listings of "principles" and "traits" or the recitation of stories. There are certain adages or apothegms we are supposed to learn and there are personal characteristics that we should try to master. Although there is mild merit in these things, the fact is that much of what passes for instruction in leadership is little more than a parade of clichés, which, under scrutiny, may prove to be more deranged than directive. That is because proper leadership is not about good results; it is about results for good.
"Do anything it takes to win!" "No pain, no gain!" "Better sweat now than blood later!" Here is the problem with leadership by slogan: When we try to reduce the chemistry of leadership to a single element, we misrepresent the moral, political and human complexity of what it means "to show the way to others." These six words are the essence of what leadership means, minus one critically important adjective.
For example: Catholics must never do anything it takes to win, on a baseball diamond, on a battlefield, in a courtroom, or on the campaign trail. If, at any time in their education, Catholic students are told that winning is all that matters, their moral vision is jeopardized and may become warped. The missing adjective is right. Our task is to show the right way to others. That is what good leadership means.
It was Warren Bennis, the organizational consultant, who said, "Managers are people who do things right and leaders are people who do the right thing." But how do leaders discover the "right thing"?
To know and to do what is right requires an education in what is good and in what virtue means. If we are "technically and tactically proficient," but use our talents in the service of what is wrong, then we betray our common humanity. An "education" not grounded in the loam of commitment to moral worthiness is counterfeit. Among the great teachings of the history of salvation is the repeated lesson that faithfulness to God brings success, while disobedience brings personal, even national, disaster.
The "good counselor" Professor Germain Grisez talks about enduring "Modes of Responsibility" which can serve as preliminary guidance. I take great liberty here in dramatically condensing them, but here are some of the key elements of Christian leadership:
1. Develop our talents and employ them with gratitude, devotion and unswerving loyalty to the One who bestowed our talents originally (see Luke 12:48).
2. Build community (see Catechism of the Catholic Church 2045).
3. Act reasonably, never merely to satisfy appetites and urges.
4. Do what we ought to do, even when the task is disagreeable.
5. Never discriminate unreasonably. Also: Be justly merciful and mercifully just.
6. Act in the light of moral truth, not just to keep up appearances. Prefer the light, even the glare, of what is true to the emotional shade of what is comfortable.
7. Be patient and long-suffering whenever possible.
8. Do what is fruitful, but do not try to get the best results at any price. Also: Know the value of things, not only their cost.
So that's it: leadership in eight "easy" maxims!
But it ain't so. Those maxims are useful, and so is the key ingredient of the natural law: Do good and avoid evil (1 Thes 5:21-22). Similarly, St. Paul's declaration that "I can do all things in Him who strengthens me" is also important and comforting. But these are not self-explanatory adages. They require interpretation; they require grace.
We must always pray for the grace to know what is the right and good and true course to pursue; to realize that having the strength to do all things comes from Him, for Him; and that "the Law of God entrusted to the Church is taught to the faithful as the way of truth and life" (CCC 2037).
The essence of good leadership, then, lies always in our being faithful followers. The first, best and inviolable "maxim of leadership" is Our Lord's command: "Follow me" (Mt 16:24).
Deacon James H. Toner serves at Our Lady of Grace Church in Greensboro.