Praying in Color

Mobile Nav Menu

Archives for April 2015

Praying the Scripture with Doodles/Drawings–Holy Week

by 1 Comment Leave a Comment

For Holy Week I created a circle-a-day template to house a-word-a day from the daily Gospel readings from Palm Sunday through Holy Saturday. I suggested writing a three-sentence story to summarize the gleanings from the words. This idea can be used for any daily readings from Scripture, not just for special liturgical events.

Here are two examples from Holy Week:

The first is from Debbie Detten Huff. She describes her intent: “As I committed to walking the Holy Week’s readings and praying with them, I found that the words that
were shimmering for me were the ones that pointed to first Jesus’ love and patience for those around him and then the love shown to him. About mid-week, the phrases “where is the love?” and Mister Rogers’ “Look for the helpers” (when there is so much tragedy around that it can be overwhelming) became welcomed companions as I read these difficult readings.
Holy Week Debbie Detten Huff Resized

At the end of the week Debbie wrote her story:
“When troubled and wondering “where is the love?,” remain near, tethered to the one who cares deeply for you. Like a shepherd who tends his beloved sheep, he will wash your weary body, and raise and soothe your tired spirit. Follow him. . . he can be trusted.” 
Thank you, Debbie.

For my template I chose a word each day and first brainstormed about the word. Then I doodled, listened, and wrote other words that came to me. My words were a combination of strong verbs and visual nouns.

Holy Week 2015 Lectio Divina Resized

 

“Untie your hair and anoint the feet of the Holy One with perfume. He in turn serves you as a slave, washing and drying your feet with a towel. For this surprising humility and seeming weakness, we betray, mock, and crucify Him, unaware that no stone can contain or repress the power of this radical, unexpected God.”

 

 

Lenten Calendars 3

by Leave a Comment

Two more Lenten Calendars:

Gwyn Varozza says, “I’ve struggled to believe that I’m included in what God says that we
are…so I decided to pray about what I thought God was telling me I
am…even if I don’t feel like I am.”

Gwyn Varozza Lent 2015

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Catherine Windsor:  “As a hospice chaplain, I find that doing this Lenten practice was a journey to quietness and stillness, creativity and language [I love words], prayer and contemplation.”

Catherine Windsor

 

Lenten Calendars 2

by Leave a Comment

Here are several Lenten calendars in the spiral format.

Lent Spiral Susanne Hukari 2015 resized

 

 

Susi Hukari created this calendar.
“To my Lenten reading, all I did was like you said- going here and there. Mainly I added to the calendar what was important to me for the day’s reading or what was happening.”

 

 

 

 

 

Martin Boardman15-04-04 lent Resized

 

 

Martin Boardman used the spiral as part of his Lenten blogging. “I was reading through the gospel of Luke. Each day from the reading I would choose a word from the text of the main theme of the text and would add it to the spiral. I added the Lords prayer around the outside because it just seemed to fit.”

 

 

 

Connie D's Spiral Calendar Lent 2015 resized.jpeg.crdownload

 

 

 

Connie Denninger prayed for people each day during Lent.

Lenten Calendars 1

by 1 Comment Leave a Comment

I have had the privilege of seeing some of the calendars people filled in for their Lenten discipline. For the next few weeks during Easter I will post some of the calendars with a sentence or two about the pray-er/doodler’s intent.

Thanks again to Hilary Ann Golden for sharing her blank spiral template for us to use. It was a wonderful way to take the journey through Lent.

The two calendars below were a daily response by Connie Denninger and Pat Maier to the Lenten devotional called 40 Things to Give Up for Lent and Beyond by Lutheran pastor Rev. Phil Ressler.

40 Things to Give Up for Lent Resized

Easter Calendar Template

by Leave a Comment

Happy Easter!  I plan to say that phrase until Pentecost on May 24.

Just in case you are still looking for a daily discipline of prayer and doodling after the forty days of Lent, here is a template for an Easter calendar. Starting with Easter there are 49 shapes. The 50th day is Pentecost which is indicated by the arrows. Add flame, fireworks, tongues,…whatever indicates to you the pouring out of the Holy Spirit. The spaces on the calendar are small but you can expand the calendar to an 11×17 sheet of paper for more room.

Here are some things to do as you doodle on your Easter Calendar.

  • Pray for people.
  • Write Easter words of celebration and rejoicing.
  • Choose a single Easter word and ponder it each day.
  • Write something for which you are grateful.
  • Write words that describe your ideal Christian community or the Body of Christ.
  • Draw Spring/resurrection things.
     50 Days of Easter Spiral Resized

Easter Spiral jpg            Easter Spiral pdf

Finished Lenten Calendars 2015

by Leave a Comment

Snapping “awesome” pictures everyday was a discipline of looking and seeing for my Lenten “Awe of the Day” Calendar. I took at least one picture per day but did not always post it to the calendar template each day. I plan to add the remaining photos and fill up the empty rectangles this week–even though Lent is over.

My real discipline turned out to be spending forty-six days with the word “Surrender.” I liked the narrow scope of thinking about a single word and getting to know it better. My mind often flits to a dozen rooms in my head at the same time, wondering what to do next. Marinating in just one word kept me more grounded than usual. (This may be the start of a-word-a-week or a-word-of-the-month club.) The two “Surrender” calendars together catered to several different learnings styles: My mind thought about the word; my hands and eyes doodled the word, and my body experienced the postures. “Surrender,” I suspect, will continue to speak to me because it seems to have a lot to say.

P.S. I’d love to see other Lenten calendars if you want to send them to me. Send me a sentence about how you used the calendar and permission to post it on the blog if you want to.

Lent 2015 Resized

 

Lent 2015 B&W Resized

 

 

Good Friday Prayers

by Leave a Comment

My Good Friday prayers were for friends and the people who love them and stand with them as they struggle. As I was doodling/praying, I remembered one of the first Christian pop songs I ever heard back in the 1970’s called “Lay Your Burden Down” by Chuck Girard. The first verse was:
“Lay your burden down, lay your burden down
Take your troubled soul, your tired mind
And lay your burden down
Lay your burden down, get your feet on solid ground
Take your worries to the foot of the cross, and lay your burden down.”

Good Friday Prayers Resized 2015

 

Footwashing

by Leave a Comment

The Maundy Thursday service with communion and footwashing is one of my favorite worship experiences of the liturgical year. As parishioners walk down the aisle to the front of the church with all sorts and conditions of bare feet, it feels like a time of shared vulnerability and humility. We often sing one of my favorite hymns “Jesu, Jesu Fill Us with Your Love.”  Baby-soft young feet, well-pedicured polished feet, and gnarled, old, lived-in toes plunge into the same basin. Adults and children take turns at being washers and being the washed. Since this is not a weekly occurrence at church, parishioners have been prepared with articles in the newsletter and explanations about the procedure at the beginning of the service. It is a well-choreographed evening with advance preparation by clergy and lay leaders and a Mr. Rogers kind of reassurance for our comfort.

A few years ago I went to a spirituality and dance conference where most of the people did not know each other. At the opening session, the leaders announced that we were going to have a footwashing. I was horrified and thought: “This is not the way to start a conference. People do not understand what this is all about. A footwashing is too personal, too intimate an activity for an opening event. Don’t these leaders know anything about protocol and about not scaring off the introverts?”

We broke into groups of three. One person had her feet in the water, one person washed and the other person dried. I went into this activity with arrogance and resistance. “I don’t even know these people,” I thought. When it came time to have my feet washed, I complied. When the washer finished scooping handfuls of warm water on my feet, a woman on her knees wrapped my feet in a big towel. She held both feet on her lap and proceeded to dry them. With almost sacramental attention she moved the towel between each toe making sure there was no remaining moisture. With her careful and unhurried tenderness my resistance caved and I started to cry. Who but a loving parent would take the time to dry the toes of a child like this? Who but a loving, father-mother God would show up unbidden to shatter my narrow-minded assumptions and to give me needed care and attention in the form of a person with a towel.

Footwashing 2015 resized