Ichthys Pocket Prayer with Decade Rosary

Product Description

The Ichthys Pocket Prayer with Decade Rosary is a great devotional pocket prayer piece, ideal for aiding contemplation throughout the day. Handcrafted in Europe from solid bronze, the design features an ichthys (Greek for “fish”) on the front and a decade rosary on the rear–two symbols rich with history and life in the Christian faith. At about 1.5 inches in diameter, the Ichthys Pocket Prayer with Decade Rosary is a satisfying weight, roughly the weight of eight quarters. This pocket prayer piece helps cultivate mindfulness and awareness of God’s love and presence throughout the day–whether you’re sitting in traffic, in a meeting, or winding down at the end of your day, the Ichthys Pocket Prayer with Decade Rosary makes for a small but important addition to the spiritual life.

The Ichthys, a Powerful Symbol for Contemplative Prayer

The raised designs on each side of this Pocket Prayer piece are a reminder of the rich symbolic life of our faith when a finger is run over the surface. On the front is the ichthys, symbol of our faith from the earliest days of the Christian movement. Literally, it is the Greek word for fish (ІΧΘΥΣ). Of course, fish carry deep symbolic importance in the Gospels, so even linguistically, it is a logical representation of Christ. In another important layer, the Greek word is also an acronym – each letter in the Greek word stands in for a word in an early doxology:

І — Іησους  – Jesus
Χ — Χριστος – Christ
Θ — Θεου  – of God
Υ — Υιος  – Son
Σ — Σωτηρ  – Savior.

The Decade Rosary, or Chaplet, for Contemplative Prayer

On the rear of the piece is a decade rosary. Decade rosaries have a long and storied history in the Christian faith with the advantage of being small and portable. Decade rosaries were used by Irish Catholics in the 17th century when it was illegal to practice their faith because the rosaries could be concealed. Decade rosaries have enjoyed many other uses, but always the main idea is that they are portable and allow one to pray throughout the day. This Decade Rosary pocket prayer piece lives on in that tradition, allowing you to take a few moments in these hectic times to calm down and thank God for the unfathomable gift of being.

The Greek word for fish, ІΧΘΥΣ (ICHTHYS), is an acronym that was used by the early Christians as a shorthand symbol for their faith: “Jesus Christ, Son of God, Savior”
І — Іησους  – Jesus
Χ — Χριστος – Christ
Θ — Θεου  – of God
Υ — Υιος  – Son
Σ — Σωτηρ  – Savior

In his City of God (Book 18, Chapter 23), Saint Augustine of Hippo provides an interesting account, drawing from the pre-Christian Sibylline Oracles:

For Flaccianus, a very famous man, who was also a proconsul, a man of most ready eloquence and much learning, when we were speaking about Christ, produced a Greek manuscript, saying that it was the prophecies of the Erythræan sibyl, in which he pointed out a certain passage which had the initial letters of the lines so arranged that these words could be read in them: ᾿Ιησοῦς Χριστος Θεοῦ υιὸς σωτηρ, which means, Jesus Christ the Son of God, the Saviour. And these verses, of which the initial letters yield that meaning, contain what follows as translated by some one into Latin in good rhythm:

Ι      Judgment shall moisten the earth with the sweat of its standard,
Η     Ever enduring, behold the King shall come through the ages,
Σ     Sent to be here in the flesh, and Judge at the last of the world.
Ο     O God, the believing and faithless alike shall behold You
Υ     Uplifted with saints, when at last the ages are ended.
Σ     Seated before Him are souls in the flesh for His judgment.

Χ     Hid in thick vapors, the while desolate lies the earth.
Ρ     Rejected by men are the idols and long hidden treasures;
Ε     Earth is consumed by the fire, and it searches the ocean and heaven;
Ι      Issuing forth, it destroys the terrible portals of hell.
Σ     Saints in their body and soul freedom and light shall inherit;
Τ     Those who are guilty shall burn in fire and brimstone for ever.
Ο     Occult actions revealing, each one shall publish his secrets;
Σ     Secrets of every man’s heart God shall reveal in the light.

Θ     Then shall be weeping and wailing, yea, and gnashing of teeth;
Ε     Eclipsed is the sun, and silenced the stars in their chorus.
Ο     Over and gone is the splendor of moonlight, melted the heaven,
Υ     Uplifted by Him are the valleys, and cast down the mountains.

Υ     Utterly gone among men are distinctions of lofty and lowly.
Ι      Into the plains rush the hills, the skies and oceans are mingled.
Ο     Oh, what an end of all things! earth broken in pieces shall perish;
Σ     ….Swelling together at once shall the waters and flames flow in rivers.

Σ     Sounding the archangel’s trumpet shall peal down from heaven,
Ω     Over the wicked who groan in their guilt and their manifold sorrows.
Τ     Trembling, the earth shall be opened, revealing chaos and hell.
Η     Every king before God shall stand in that day to be judged.
Ρ     Rivers of fire and brimstone shall fall from the heavens.

….they express in five Greek words this meaning, Jesus Christ the Son of God, the Saviour.  And the verses are twenty-seven, which is the cube of three. For three times three are nine; and nine itself, if tripled, so as to rise from the superficial square to the cube, comes to twenty-seven. But if you join the initial letters of these five Greek words, ᾿Ιησοῦς Χριστος Θεοῦ υἰὸς σωτήρ, which mean, Jesus Christ the Son of God, the Saviour, they will make the word ἰχθὺς, that is, fish, in which word Christ is mystically understood, because He was able to live, that is, to exist, without sin in the abyss of this mortality as in the depth of waters.

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