Praying in Color

Add Creativity to Your Prayer Life

Praying in color is an active, meditative, playful prayer practice.

By Sybil MacBeth

It occurred to me one day that I could “pray in color” on the computer. I went to my word-processing program and pulled up the drawing tool. Fifteen minutes of typing, clicking, copying, pasting, coloring, filling...and the result was a prayer drawing, or as I have come to call it, an icon. Having the icon on the computer is also a natural way to start a visual prayer chain. Send the prayers to other people via e-mail and ask them to pray also. Send icons back and forth across the ether, filling it with prayers for healing and blessing.

How to Get Started

To get started, explore the various ways to draw on your computer. It might be that your word processor has a drawing utility within it, or you might have a separate application. Becoming familiar with the possibilities before you draw and pray can make the process seem more like prayer....Experiment with the ready-made shapes; you can stretch, shrink, rotate, or distort them. Fill in shapes with color or background patterns. Change the way a line looks by making it dashed or thicker. Try the function that allows you to draw freehand or scribble. It takes some practice, but it feels more like drawing than clicking the mouse does.

The next few slides will walk you through a Praying in Color session on the computer. I have chosen the names, shapes, and colors for instructional simplicity. Feel free to make other selections.

[Editor's Note: Rely on the tool bar that's a part of the paint/draw program on your computer. The following steps may be the same or different on your computer. Almost all computers will have similar basic functions.]

Begin with a Rectangle

Find the rectangle icon. Click on it. Move it to the location on the page where you want it to be. Make it the size you want it to be.

Add a Text Box

Click on the rectangle. Select the textbox icon. The textbox will be inside of the rectangle. If not, move it inside of the rectangle. Change it to the desired size.

Write a Name

Click inside the textbox. Write the name of the person for whom you want to pray. Change the font, color, size, and position of the name. Choose a color or style of font that reminds you of the person. Or choose a color and font that will bring you joy or will keep your attention. Readjust the size of the textbox.

Play with Outlines

Click on the textbox and change the intensity and style of the outline. You can also change the color.

Fill in Color

Click inside of the textbox and change the background or fill color.

Choose Borders and Backgrounds

Click on the rectangle and change the border style and intensity. Change the background or fill color.

Experiment with Other Shapes

Add other shapes to enhance the drawing and to spend more time in prayer for the person. For example, choose a circle. Copy the circle. Hit the paste button as many times as the number of circles you want.

Piece Everything Together

Move the circles to different places on or near the drawing. Think of each click of the mouse as a prayer moment--kind of a divine ditto to say that the person is in God’s hands.

Play with Patterns

Resize the circles and add fill color and patterns. When you are satisfied with this step, group all of the pieces together.

The Final Product

Add another round of circles of varying sizes. Group all of the pieces of the drawing together.

This may sound corny, but to me Jane seems less alone, surrounded by color and shape. The time we spend with her matters. It changes how we see her and how we see God. And our faith tells us that it changes Jane and us, as well.

Create More Prayer Icons

Create new shapes and designs with other names. When you have finished your prayer drawing, you can rearrange the individual shapes on the page to create your final icon.

If you are a visual or kinesthetic learner, a distractible or impatient soul, a word-weary pray-er or just a person looking for a new way to pray, I hope you will find this practice helpful. If not, I hope it will simply jump start some new prayer ideas that work for you. Now you are ready to re-visit the people on your prayer icon with visual or verbal prayers. Print out your drawing, save it, or send it to others. The more you become familiar with the drawing program that you use, the more prayerful the experience will be.

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