Meditation and prayer wreath

This reflection and prayer rosary is intended as a tangible and concrete support for reflection, prayer and meditation, while focusing on the fundamentals of the Christian faith. When you hold the rosary in your hand and feel the shape of the cross or bead, it can help to maintain thoughts about prayer and reflection.

The blue pearl

God the Father – Creator of all things

«In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. Then everything was void and empty, and darkness was over the face of the deep . But God let his breath “And God said, Let there be light: and there was light. And God saw the light, and divided it from the darkness, and called the light day, and the darkness night.” Genesis 1:1-2

This is the beginning of the Bible story, which in a beautiful figurative language describes God as the one who sets the creation of the world in progress and the one who controls and develops creation of the entire universe and all living things on earth, plants, animals and humans. Throughout chapter 1 and the beginning of chapter 2 we follow the different stages of creation. The most central word is – God said and it was so. The word separated is also significant – light was separated from darkness, day from night with the sun as the light of the day and the moon and stars as the light of the night, heaven from earth, land from water, animals from plants, animals from man, who was created in the image of God as male and female by the spirit of God. The days were also separated into working days and rest days, so that the rhythm of life in activity and rest respectively emerged.

In chapter 2 verse 3 the second creation account begins, which is concentrated on Adam and Eve, the Garden of Eden, the Fall and expulsion from Paradise. The center is still God as creator, but here

the concepts of good and evil, conscience, sin and new living conditions are introduced, and the primordial story unfolds further. The imagery is captivating and calls forth the imagination, but not only that, there is also room for reflection. These are texts that one can keep coming back to, be amazed by and challenged by. There are some depths that are inalienable for our life with each other and for us as a community and society.

God as creator is also the center of our worship as Revelation 4:11 expresses it:

« You are worth, Lord and God,

to gain honor, glory, and power,

for you created everything,

and all things are and were created because you willed it.”

Worship and prayer to God as creator and father can also become more personal when we turn to God and pray that He will create new things in us, through His Spirit in our lives, in our heart and mind as David prayed here in Psalm 51:10-12.

” Create in me a clean heart, O God,

Breathe life into me again !

push me not away from your presence,

Don’t take your breath away from me!

Let me experience it once again the joy of your salvation

and grant me a willing spirit 

to sustain me »

The three meditation crosses

1. The power of God – Reflect on the text from Isaiah 40. 25 – 26: » To whom will you compare me? Who is like me?” says the holy God. ” Look up boldly to the heavens. Who created them? God has. He is the one who gathers the army of the stars; he knows all their names. Because of his great power they come out every night, not one of them missing. V.29 He gives strength to the weary, and to the weak he renews strength.”

 God, be our strength!

2. God’s Wisdom – Meditate on the words of Romans 11:33: ” God is full of wisdom, insight, and wealth. His decisions are mysterious, and his actions we humans cannot understand. Who knows the thoughts of God? Who can give him good advice? Who has given him anything, so that he must give something again? All things come from him, and through him, and to him. To him be glory forever. Amen.”

God, let your wisdom be reflected in us!

3. God’s Love – Reflect on the texts from 1 John 4:16: “We have come to know the love of God and have believed that he loved us. God is love, and whoever lives in love lives in God, and God lives in him.” John 3:16: “For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.”

God, let us live in the certainty with thanksgiving and joy about your love!  

The red pearl

Jesus Christ, the eternal Son of God, our Savior

Belief in Jesus Christ as the Son of God, as the resurrected Lord and Savior is central to the Christian faith.

The cross has the all-important significance as the symbol of Christianity, and has had it throughout its history. It is outside on church buildings, inside the churches as fantastic works of art both as paintings, wood carvings or figures in other materials, mostly as crucifixes. It can also be very simple symbols, just the cross in wood, ceramics or metal. In the Protestant churches you can find both the crucifix or the empty crosses, which emphasize the resurrection. It is also used as jewelry, both as a crucifix and an empty cross. What was an instrument of torture became a triumphant symbol and a symbol of victory, so that we almost forget how terrible an instrument it was.

The first Christians used the fish as a symbol of their faith, for example in the Catacombs of Rome, where they gathered. This was because the word in Greek contained the initials of a concentrate of their faith – Jesus Christ, the Son of God, savior. The fish is still used today as a sign, for example as jewelry or in other ways.

«Let us praise God, the Father of Jesus Christ. His love for us was so great that he allowed us to be born again as Christians and gave us a fundamental hope of eternal life through the resurrection of Christ from the dead, a salvation that never fades away, waiting for you in heaven.” 1 Peter 1:3-4

May your grace transform us day by day, and your salvation remain a reality that never fades.  May our lives reflect your presence and your resurrection power.

The three meditation crosses

1. Repentance – Meditate with this prayer that can be repeated over and over again together with the breathing, which can support the prayer: Our Lord, Jesus Christ, have mercy on me! One takes a deep breath inhale with the words Our Lord, Jesus Christ and exhale with the words Have mercy on me

2. Faith – We can in faith place our entire life and being in the hands of God – He who was, who is and who will come – and in silence let faith in Him grow in our hearts and mind.

Christ, come be with us and walk with us on our life’s journey, in front, beside, behind, so that we may live in faith in your grace and peace!

3. Grace – Reflect on the words from 2 Corinthians 12.9 : ” My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.”Those words came to Paul at a certain stage in his life and concerning something he wanted God to deliver him from. They are words we can count on too.

Johannes Møllehave’s hymn gives a very beautiful and lifelike interpretation of grace in Danish. The English translation just gives a clue of the content:

The yellow pearl

The Holy Spirit, Lord and Giver of Life

“For the Christian, the Holy Spirit is both a gentle, intimate presence and a mystery that surpasses our understanding. The Holy Spirit brings God close to us and directs our attention to Jesus.” Salvation Story p. 50

“The Holy Spirit is always present. He is God who acts on our behalf today, who gives us confidence in the Christian mission and who enables us to look forward with hope to the final fulfillment of God’s promises ……. The Holy Spirit, the giver of life, guides and enlivens our task of living the message, telling the message and helping others to make it their own.” Salvation Story p. 55

Send your Holy Spirit upon us and fill us with its fire and power. Make our life into a living and credible testimony about you. 

The three meditation crosses

1. God’s caring equipment . Read John 20:21-22 and meditate on what this means in our own lives. Jesus said: “As the Father has sent me, even so I send you away with my blessing. Then he breathed on them and said : “Receive the Holy Spirit!”

Thank you for the presence and equipping of the Holy Spirit !

Holy Spirit, let us trust in your help!!

3. The Fruit of the Spirit – The words from Galatians 5:22-23 are important as a focus for reflection:   “The results of letting the Holy Spirit decide is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control.”

Holy Spirit, may you decide and let your results be seen in our lives!

This prayer and meditation time can be concluded by holding the entire wreath in your hand as a sign of rest in and faith in Him who is, who knows and who has all power!

At the same time, we can bring the world around us to God in prayer. It is filled with beauty and joy, but also with problems and challenges in wars, conflicts, climate problems, human suffering.

We are surrounded by people: those who are close to us, those who are part of our everyday lives as neighbors and workmates, others we hardly know, but meet in our daily lives. We can have them in our thoughts and bring them before God in prayer. Sometimes it seems that individual people come to our thoughts and are especially put on our hearts to pray for. We can hold on to the certainty that God’s love encompasses everyone.

Gudrun Maria Lydholm 2025

Johannes Møllehave’s hymn is from 1985 and was published in the anthology Glædens Gud. It is now number 522 in the Danish Hymnal.

The photo is of the ‘prayer rug’ that is on the floor at our home. The pattern is a prayer rug, but that is not just the name of the pattern. When I knitted the rug in 1980/81, we lived in London. It mostly happened early in the morning, when Lars, our son, was out on his newspaper route. The rest of the family was asleep, and I had plenty of time to sit and reflect on life, and many of the thoughts turned into prayers. Prayer for Lars on his bike out in the early morning, the girls and Carl, my husband, who were sleeping, the people in the corps, the future, various things that came to mind, etc. It truly became a prayer rug. Every time I look at it, many memories from the time of its creation come to mind.