Featured Seeds for beads?

May depend on what other culture is mixed with your Catholicism. My very devout Catholic downstairs neighbor knows the Bible less well than her heathen upstairs neighbor because she is Haitian & was taught that so much as touching, much less reading, a Bible was a confessable sin. That your knowledge & understanding were all to come from the priest & little pamphlets summarizing & explaining texts.

The neighbor with the pretty necklace that turned out to be a rosary is Hispanic, Dominican or Cuban. Just remembered I have another acquaintance with whom I nearly had the same exchange about her necklace, then realized it was probably a rosary & she confirmed that it was. Guessing her heritage is Italian.

The great big ones that could almost be nunchucks, I see around the necks of young black men.

 

That's what they look like to me, too. Nice beads!

I've had both olive wood beads and ones made from nuts and seeds, all bought new in the 1970s, but haven't seen beads that look like these. I'm wondering if yours are older, though that's not based on anything other than a feeling.

The olive wood ones I've had were made in Israel, but I don't know if they've been made in other countries, too.

 

I wondered about these beads being strung together with metal findings... it makes sense if they were rosaries.

 

Olive wood rosaries are usually from Jerusalem, Pat. The whole conflation of olive trees and Gethsemane, and buying what might be seen as a more sacred object. I've seen olive wood beads in many Mediterranean countries, especially Spain and Greece.

 

Bear, thanks for the info. Ah, I wish I'd travelled when I was young...

 

palm seeds , can be found in Hawaii , all palms have different features

Man said his grandma used to make those.

 

No idea about the round beaded rosary though

 

Not necessarily because she's Haitian! I was taught the same -- Irish/German Catholic, Massachusetts, 1960s.

For the longest time, only Bible in our home was my mother's white wedding New Testament (that we were not allowed to read).

That was only allowed because my mother was a non-Catholic-pagan-heathen-Baptist and she insisted.

 

You're the first person I have encountered who grew up in a Catholic household and also has been subject to this proscription. Did this give it the allure of the forbidden? Or were you just as happy to leave it alone?

 

I was definitely not an "allure of the forbidden" kiddo -- I found the whole thing confusing. But not worth of a lot of effort to investigate.

 

Growing up, I thought Catholic kids had much neater stuff: crucifixes; rosaries & boxes to keep them in; scapulars. They complained about having to go to catechism but First Communion sounded so exotic.

 

Yes, but First Confession was terrifying.

My favorite part of First Communion was the veil.

 

Being now a woman of a certain age, I wish veils would make a comeback for daily wear.

Wonder what it's like to be a priest listening to a string of children making their first confession. Alternating stifling yawns & laughter, I should think.

 

I felt the same when Madonna wore a rosary in her first videos. I think that is when the fashion started.
I still feel a bit strange when people wear a rosary, but it is up to them. I would rather they wear new rosaries, not the ones that have passed through the hands of faithful during prayer, but I have no control over that. Nor would I want to have it.

Religious symbols from many spiritual traditions are used or displayed the 'wrong' way. To me the important thing is that it is not intended to be disrespectful.

 

That means she is a good Catholic.
Catholics are not 'Bible bashers' (excuse the term), they merely live in a Catholic tradition. Reading is not necessarily part of that, it could encourage people to think for themselves, and we can't have that, can we.
This is also the ongoing battle between Catholic theologians and the Vatican. We think when we shouldn't, and even publish.
Just an aside: I studied theology at a faculty which had close ties with the Belgian theologian Edward Schillebeeckx. The Vatican prosecuted him for twenty years, but his books were too difficult for them to understand, so it never actually came to a sentence.

There used to be an index of forbidden books, originally published by the Vatican as the 'Index Librorum Prohibitorum', but later some countries had their own lists as well.
I remember the Old Testament was on the list here in the Netherlands, probably elsewhere as well, because of all the promiscuity and violence. We had a book called 'Biblical History' instead. My father used to read the few remaining juicy bits to us before dinner.

 

@Any Jewelry With all the terrible news from Sulawesi, keep wondering whether you have any direct connections there to worry about. It's an image of hell even Dante didn't think of.

The Jesuits were always getting into trouble for this. Seems like too many Christians of all flavors think the sin was eating the fruit of the Tree of Knowledge & don't read on to 'of Good and Evil', holding ignorance in there with cleanliness as next to godliness. Sigh.

 

Thank you for asking, but no, no one that we know of.
It is horrifying, and so many people are still isolated and waiting for help. With the mudslides that came after the earthquake and the tsunami, reaching them will take even longer. Imagine the despair, heart-wrenching.
I do know some people from Sulawesi who live here, but they are from other parts. There is a forum member, Jonathan, with relatives on Sulawesi, but they are also from other regions, so I hope everyone is all right.
Dutch charity organisations have just started a combined national fundraising campaign, and we will be very generous, of course.

 

And I read that the volcano has now become even more active than it was already being. Wish world relief/charity organizations would guarantee restitution for shop owners and let government distribute food & other necessities rather than use resources to protect it from 'looters'. Word applies to anyone using the opportunity to grab a television, but not, to my mind, anyone just trying to survive, feed their children.

 

I agree.
Indonesia is having a terrible 'ring of fire' year.
The Madurese islands, where my ancestors are from, are not volcanic. But they are mostly only just above sea level, so a tsunami there would be devastating as well.

 

As will sea level rise.