The next three days...

...are the last days for the pre-Lent special for Lutheran prayer beads in my Etsy shop. The offer of 20% off any set of Lutheran prayer beads ends at midnight on Wednesday, March 2. I'll be going by U.S. Central Time, but if you're a little late because of a time difference, I'll still give you the 20% off. (In fact, don't tell anyone, but I probably won't change the prices back until I get up Thursday morning.) I chose March 2 as the end of the special because it still gives a week before Ash Wednesday for shipping.

To show how the prayer beads work as a Lenten practice, here's a picture of a set that's spread out. (The blogging program, of course, picked this time to insert a picture sideways. The stem should be hanging down.) In order to see a "zoomable" version of the photo, click on this one:

The stem is used for the first partial week of Lent. The four small beads represent Ash Wednesday and the following Thursday through Saturday. The larger green bead is for the first Sunday of Lent.

After that, you continue down from the juncture (center) with six sets of six beads each, for the six full weeks of Lent. The larger green bead that follows each set is for the Sunday at the end of that week.

Between the four small beads on the stem and the six sets of six small beads on the body, there's a total of 40 small beads (traditionally, the Sundays aren't counted as part of the 40 days of Lent).

At the very end, just before you get back to the juncture, is the Easter bead. It's larger and/or lighter in color than the other beads used. In this case, it's larger; it's also transparent while the other beads are opaque. One of the things I enjoy about making sets of Lutheran prayer beads is choosing the Easter bead - it's one more way to be creative. Incidentally, the presence of the Easter bead makes the set asymmetrical; you can't hold a set of Lutheran prayer beads by the middle and have it hang down evenly on both sides as you can with a Catholic or Anglican rosary.

The meditations in the brochure that comes with the prayer beads are taken from Luther's Small Catechism.

In order to see a full description of the set of prayer beads shown here, click on the picture. To see all of the Lutheran prayer beads that I have listed in my Etsy shop, go to the Ecumenical Rosaries section of the shop. If you don't see the color or style you want there, let me know using the "Contact" link. I won't have time to make any new sets before the special's over, but I do have some in stock that aren't listed in my Etsy shop.
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Tomorrow's "Team Tuesday" entry is a three-for-one special: a member of the Etsy Blog Team who has three Etsy shops (as well as a great blog, for which I'll also give the link). Hope to see you then.