Q. What is a chaplet? Are there different types? Are some better to say than others? — Name withheld by request, via email A. A chaplet is a personal devotional prayer that can be prayed privately or in a group, out loud or silently, in a church or in an ordinary setting. It could even be sung with or without musical accompaniment, in Latin, Greek or in the vernacular. There are different types of chaplets, and the two most common are the Rosary and the Divine Mercy chaplet. Typically, prayer beads (rosaries, chaplet bracelets) of different forms (wood, glass, metal, cloth, rope, nylon, even sea shells) are used by the faithful to keep track of where they are in the prayer. Often these sacramental items are blessed and people carry them in their pocket or hang them off the rearview mirror over the dashboard in their car. Rosaries and chaplet bracelets — if they are blessed —should be treated with care, even if they are not technically considered sacred. Sometimes people kiss their beads when they pull them out or put them back in their pocket, purse or pouch. Some rosaries even become galleries of saints over time as their owners attach medals of their favorite saints between each decade. A chaplet is a vocal prayer and can be prayed as a petition, or in adoration, or for motives of thanksgiving, or in reparation for personal sins or the sins of the nation. Typically, a chaplet follows a set sequence of prayers and then repeats those sequences, commonly known as “decades” of ten or seven repetitions. Typically, there are three, five, seven or nine “decades,” and again the most common is the rosary, which consists of five decades of one Our Father, 10 Hail Marys, and the Glory Be. By nature a chaplet is based on repetition, but if the person prays it with attention and devotion it does not have to be repetitious. Sometimes you hear people criticize devotions such as the Rosary or the Divine Mercy chaplet for being simplistic and boring because the prayers are very common and repeated frequently. But there is nothing boring about a rose in full bloom, even though every petal in the blossom is just like the next. Down through the ages popes have recommended that the faithful pray the rosary — every day if possible. That’s what St. John Paul II did, as well as Mother Teresa and Padre Pio. Since a rosary or the Divine Mercy chaplet is a personal devotional, it can always be accommodated to fit the need and the circumstances of the situation. Many have discovered that, while the rosary is made up of simple prayers — the Our Father, the Hail Mary and the Glory Be — these prayers are very powerful. After all, the Our Father (the Lord’s Prayer) was given to us by Jesus Christ himself; the Hail Mary by an archangel, St. Elizabeth and the church; and the Glory Be is rooted in the Old Testament angelic praises from the Book of Daniel. It would be difficult to improve on those prayers! Q. If a Roman (or Latin) Catholic wants to become a member of one of the Eastern Catholic Churches, what do you have to do? It is OK to attend Mass, etc., without being an official member, right? Can you go to confession, for example? — Name withheld by request, via email A. A Roman Catholic of the Latin rite (99 percent of Catholics worldwide) may attend services and receive sacraments (Mass, Communion, confession) in any of the 20 or more Eastern Catholic (Ritual) Churches without being an official member (see Canon 112.2). However, if a Latin-rite Catholic wanted to switch rites, he or she may only do that once in his or her lifetime. Such a decision should be taken very seriously and pondered in prayer and requires the permission of the Apostolic See (see Canon 112.1.1). Additionally, a Latin-rite spouse may join his or her spouses’ East-ern-rite church upon marriage or during marriage. If the marriage ends, the Latin-rite spouse may return to the Latin rite. Also, any person over age 14 who seeks baptism may be baptized in the church of his or her choice (Latin rite or Eastern rite). Finally, infants who are baptized will belong — by default — to the ritual church of the father, unless both parents agree to have the child enrolled in the Latin rite.