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Celebrating Advent at Home

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I love Advent for many reasons:

  • Advent is the start of a new Church/liturgical year. I think of the liturgical year as the annual pilgrimage we make as the Church and as individuals through the stories of our spiritual ancestors. Every year we read through a cycle of biblical stories in the Old and New Testaments to get the big picture of salvation history. Every year I have a family reunion with Abraham, Sarah, David, Mary, Jesus, Paul, Peter….But since I am  a slightly different person than I was the year before, I see these spiritual relatives with a different set of eyes. They teach me new things about God and God’s work in my life and in the world.
  • Cooler weather and darker days in November and December invite me to hunker down and go inward. These are the perfect physical conditions for a time of reflection and preparation for Christmas, for a new birth of Jesus in my heart and in my life.
  • Advent engages all of the senses. It emphasizes the humanity of Jesus. In Advent we wait and prepare and hope for a flesh and blood savior. Jesus will come into our down-and-dirty world and meet us as we are. So we wait and prepare not just with our heads and our hearts but with our bodies–our eyes, ears, noses, fingers, arms, legs….
  • Advent is not just a preparation for Christmas. It is preparation for the whole year. Advent teaches us how to be attentive, hopeful, and patient people for the long haul. The practices we begin in Advent fill our spiritual backpacks. They equip and energize us for our annual spiritual pilgrimage and kingdom-building partnership with God.

For years during Advent I read a daily meditation book and the Scriptures associated with Advent and Christmas. I still do this.  But when I wrote The Season of the Nativity: Confessions and Practices of an Advent, Christmas, and Epiphany Extremist two years ago, I wanted to celebrate Advent not just in my head, but with all of my senses. This book invites the whole body into the preparation for Christmas. Although many of the activities could be used with a church group, they are designed for celebrating Advent at home.

Most of the activities in the book can be adapted for individuals, adults, children, and families—purple or blue lights, activities with Advent vocabulary, Praying in Color ideas, various Advent calendars including a “live” Advent calendar in a narcissus or amaryllis bulb, simple Advent wreaths, an echo pantomime of Advent characters…. Here is a collage of some of the ideas in the book.

advent-collage-november-2016b-resized

If you would like to order the book, click on the picture below.

season-of-the-nativity-cover

 

Gratitude Gobbler for Thanksgiving 2016

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“Let us come before God with thanksgiving and extol him with music and song.” (Psalm 95:2 NIV)

For a Thanksgiving Day activity with family and friends, pass out the Gratitude Gobbler prayer page with some colored markers, pencils, or crayons. Invite people to list their thanksgivings in or around the turkey. I often start with a name for God in the middle, so it feels like a prayer rather than just a list. Using the coloring page can also create a solitary prayer time in the midst of a hectic day.

I was tired of the “hand” turkeys I had drawn for the past couple of years, so this year’s template is a little wilder and more abstract. If this gratitude gobbler is a little too goofy for you, trace around your hand to make your own template. Or check out last year’s gobbler coloring page: 2015  My finished prayer using this year’s template is below.

There are both .pdf and .jpg versions of the template available. Click on the version you want below. Download the page first, then print it. Feel free to make copies to share.

.PDF       or      .JPG

turkey-2016-collage-resized

CountUP-to-Christmas Advent Calendar Templates

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Advent calendars are for children and adults! Instead of opening daily doors with pictures or retrieving small gifts or candies from pockets, mark the day-by-day journey to Christmas by daily praying/drawing with a calendar template. When I draw, color, and doodle my own Advent calendar, I feel like I’m building something rather than tearing it apart. It is a countUP to Christmas, not a countDOWN. The finished Advent calendar is a colorful reminder of what was in my head and on my heart each day. It is a record of my spiritual journey through Advent. Note: I like to enlarge the 8.5″x11″ format to 11″x17″ card stock. It gives me more room to doodle and color and consequently more time and space with the person or word.

Here are four Advent calendar templates in both .pdf and .jpg form. One of the calendars has already been “doodled”, so you can just color and pray. Click on the words .pdf or .jpg below the version/s you want. Download first; then print. Feel free to share these with others, for individually or groups.

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.pdf        OR     .jpg                                               .pdf      OR     .jpg

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.pdf        OR     .jpg                                               .pdf      OR     .jpg

Ways to Use the Calendar Template

1) In a space or shape on the calendar, write the name of someone for whom you are praying. Doodle around the name, add color. Think of each stroke of color or each doodled mark (line, dot, arc, spiral…) as a wordless prayer. If words come to you as you draw and color, pray them. Squeeze them onto the calendar in the shape or along the margins if they feel important. When you have finished with your daily entry, say “Amen” or recite a short passage of Scripture appropriate to Advent like “The Lord is my light and my salvation.” (Psalm 27:1)

2) Read a daily Advent reflection or meditation. Choose a word from the reading that jumps out at you. Write it in the shape and start to doodle and color. Marinate in the word. What is the word saying to you? What does God have to say to you about the word? Listening + doodling+ coloring = praying.  Keep a computer or notebook next to your calendar so you can write any insights or “ahas.”

3) Write and ponder an Advent word—–prepare, await, hope, pregnant, watch, darkness, longing,…—as you doodle and color.

4) Since Advent is a season of hope, write something you hope for each day. Offer that idea to God as you color and draw.

5) For smaller children, print the calendar on 11″x17″ paper and just let them color. Light a battery-powered votive candle and give them a quiet, secret place to work.

Here are examples of 2015 finished Advent Calendars:

advent-collage-2015-resized

Thanks to Cindy O. of Mostly Markers for creating the 2016 Box Calendar–with the oval in the center for Christmas Day. Notice her finished Box Calendar from 2015–the first one on the left.

 

 

Count Your Blessings in Color–a Thanksgiving (and every day) Gratitude Coloring Book

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If you are looking for a Thanksgiving gift for friends, family members, or Thanksgiving Day hosts, consider Paraclete Press’s new coloring book called Count Your Blessings in Color. The book is designed specifically for praying your gratitudes and thanksgivings. I wrote the introduction to the book with suggestions for how to use the coloring pages, but the designs were created and drawn by a group of artists from Paraclete. The book includes 28 designs on the right-hand pages and 28 quotations about gratitude on the left-hand pages. The quotations’ sources range from ancient to contemporary–Cicero, the Bible, Teresa of Avila, Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Albert Einstein, Maya Angelou, Brian McLaren, Shauna Niequist….

The coloring pages are visually inviting and interesting without being too complicated or intimidating. There is space for words in and around the designs and room to add additional marks or doodles if desired.

As an after dinner activity on Thanksgiving Day, hand out colored markers or pencils, pass around Count Your Blessings in Color, and invite each person to choose a coloring page. Together you can pray and play your gratitudes.

Below is the cover and three examples of the coloring pages. You can order the book from Paraclete, amazon, Barnes and Noble, and the other usual suspects.

 

count-your-blessings-cover

count-your-blessings-collage-1

 

 

Two-Stroke Doodled Prayers

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I love drawing my prayers. In a pinch, coloring pages work as a place to record my intercessions, gratitudes, and confessions, but there is something so satisfying about growing my own prayer. For the drawing-phobic like myself, directions and boundaries are sometimes helpful. For example, the Zentangle Method of doodling provides clear instructions, frameworks, and specific supplies; the results are beautiful even for the “non-artist.” I am not a Zentangler, but I like the clarity of the process. Many books and workshops are available to learn zentangling.

My favorite “boundaried” way of creating a prayer is by limiting my stroke choices. My friend Cindy O of Mostly Markers and Mostly Markers–Cards suggested this to me several years ago. She calls the results a rosette. My versions often end up so angular they look more like the pattern in an old rug. See the examples below.

Limiting the number of strokes or shapes frees me up to actually focus on the prayer and to quell the mutterings of the art critic in my head. Here’s how it works:
1) Start with a word for God: God, Jesus, Holy Spirit, Beloved One, Creator, Awesome God, Holy One…. Write the word in the middle of your paper.
2) Draw lines, petals, or zigzags emanating from the word to the edges of the page. The lines form the framework or lattice to hang the rest of the prayer on.
3) Choose two shapes or strokes that you will use to draw your prayer. Here are some of my favorite pairs of shapes: U’s (arcs) and V’s, lines and circles, waves and triangles, rectangles and lines, hearts and arcs.… You can experiment with any two shapes or strokes.  Some work better than others.
4) Start to create your prayer rosette. Draw your two shapes/strokes on the lattice or connect two pieces of the lattice . As the prayer drawing grows you can color in spaces and add names of people you are praying for. Feel free to add words of prayer as well.

This format can be used for all kinds of prayer forms: intercession, adorations, confessions, thanksgivings…. I use this style of prayer drawing when I want to spend time with God and have no specific agenda. The repetitive drawing of my two strokes helps me to stay focused and in my chair without worrying about the beauty or ugliness of the drawing. As I draw I get to be still and to listen.

In the first example below, I drew almost straight lines from the word God. Then I chose U’s and V’s. Some of the U’s and V’s are sharply curved; some are flat. Some are singles, some doubles or triples. In the second example, I drew petals out from the name of Jesus. Lines and circles formed the rest of the drawing. The end product is always a surprise. Along the way, there are lots of spaces for adding color or words. The last example uses lines, arcs, and color.

god-collage-resized

jesus-collage-resized

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New Praying in Color Website

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My new Praying in Color website has launched. The first site was launched in 2007; this is the third. I’m very pleased with the work of the designers and tech staff at Paraclete Press. Please take a few minutes to check out the new site here. If you know people who do not know about praying in color, please Share this post. If you receive this post as an email please go to the Blog page and Share this post or email the address to others. I would be grateful. Thank you.

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Pray and Color Coloring Page Examples and A Giveaway

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For those new to my website, my original book Praying in Coloring: Drawing a New Path to God teaches readers to draw, doodle, and color their prayers. It IS NOT a coloring book. Praying in Color invites people to create their own coloring/prayer pages.

Pray and Color: A Coloring Book and Guide to Prayer is due at the warehouse in about three weeks. It IS a coloring book with instructions about how to use the the coloring pages and templates as a way to pray.

Here are some of the coloring pages in the new Pray and Color. They are a mixture of designs with large open spaces and others with small intricate spaces. All of the pages below could be used for intercessory or gratitude prayers.

Pray and Color Collage Resized

Paraclete Press, the publisher, is offering a drawing for a free copy of the book for the next few days. Here is the giveaway page. If you receive this blog post via email or RSS feed you can go to my blog site to Share this with your friends on Facebook or via other social media. Thanks.

 

 

Pray and Color: A Coloring Book and Guide to Prayer

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“I am not an artist.” This has been my mantra for decades. But I do love to doodle and to add color to my doodles. A dozen years ago I combined my doodling with a desperate need to pray for my friends and started to “pray in color” by accident. My accidental way to pray became my regular, intentional way to pray and I wrote the book Praying in Color: Drawing a New Path to God (2007).

I figured if even I could doodle, anyone could. After leading more than 150 workshops and retreats, I have met people who are uncomfortable even doodling. But many of them like to color. So I drew some coloring pages with ideas about how to pray using the pages and posted them on this blog. They are in the Handouts section. In the past six months I drew 32 coloring pages/templates with about 30 pages of prayer instructions and the result is a “praying in color” coloring book called Pray and Color: A Coloring Book and Guide to Prayer. It will be available mid-May for purchase but can be pre-ordered on the amazon or Paraclete Press websites.

Here is the cover. I’ll post some examples of the templates in the next few weeks. Please Share this post with others. Thanks.

Note: I noticed there is another coloring book also called Pray and Color, so check the author before ordering. :)

Pray and Color Front Cover

 

Heart and Stripes Coloring Page

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Below is a blank coloring page to use as a template for prayer and an example of a colored, finished version. I used the page for a birthday prayer for a friend. I wrote the words of a prayer from the Compline Service in the Book of Common Prayer on page 134.  Although intended as a nighttime prayer, it is one I say off and on all day long. I thought it was a good blessing for a birthday. “Guide us waking, O Lord, and guard us sleeping; that awake we may watch with Christ, and asleep we may rest in peace.”

To use this page as a template for prayer you can choose to pray for other people, pray your gratitude list, list your character defects, write words of adoration for God, make a forgiveness list, pray your own set of petitions…. Fill the spaces with color or write words or names in them. Let every stroke of color be an intentional stroke of nonverbal prayer. As a chronic doodler, I couldn’t resist the opportunity to add more lines, dots, and marks.

Click on the .jpg or .pdf version of the prayer to download the page. Make sure to download it first with the downward facing arrow and then print it. Feel free to make copies and share it.

.jpg    or    .pdf

Hearts and Stripes Collage (1)

 

Lenten Calendars 2016

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Several people sent me their finished calendars for this past Lent. Pat Maier designed a template by drawing a cross, chopping it up, and using the pieces to create a pathway to Easter and resurrection. Here is Pat’s finished calendar; Connie Denninger (Vintage Grace) used the same template. Both chose a word each day to pray and mediate on.

Lent Calendars Connie and Pat 2016--1000

LInda S. and her adult daughter J each used a separate stained glass template and then also shared one alternating who drew each day. They used sharpie pens and colored pencils.

Here are their three calendars: Linda’s, J’s., and their cooperative effort. I love the idea that they sometimes started with words but the calendars are mostly wordless.
1) Linda choose five designs and repeated them. “Three of them represent the refreshing “water” of the spirit, the “cross” roads of decisions we encounter daily, and opportunities for growth. (Though I have no idea exactly what the other two represented).”
2) In J’s template she ” focused on the quotation from Michael K. Marsh’s Lenten 01/28/16 blog I Don’t Want To Do Lent This Year https://interruptingthesilence.com/2016/01/28/i-dont-want-to-do-lent-this-year/.
3) In the shared template they alternated days and drew what “spoke” to them that day color and design-wise.

Linda S and J Collage

Bev W also used the stained glass template.She read several devotions each day and then came up with a word for daily mediation.

Bev Wicher Calendar (1)

This is another pair of calendars from Linda S and J using the spiral template. Inside each circle J wrote a short prayer–the words spilling on top of each other–from many sources including prayer books, songs, and websites. The margins in between also have prayers written. See if you can figure out what’s on the second calendar.

Piral Lent 2016 Linda and J

Thanks to Pat, Connie, Linda, J, and Bev for letting me share these wonderful calendars and the Lenten discipline they represent.