Prayers, Patterns, and Paper

 One of the great things about going to the Create in Me retreat is that I come home with all sorts of ideas. Let me record one of them here. This prayer practice would work well on one's own or in a group; we did it in a group.

 

We sat in groups of three or four around tables, and each table had a plastic bag with supplies: glue sticks, all sorts of papers (plain colors, pages from old hymn books, papers with patterns), and scissors. We also had larger squares of black paper on the table.

 

We were told to think about people, places, and situations in our lives in need of prayer. We were instructed to choose the three or four that most meeting and to pick a paper to represent that prayer. So, for example, If I choose my spouse, I might select a page from a paisley pattern, while the situation in Ukraine might call for a yellow piece of paper.

 



We were to choose a shape, and each prayer had the same shape. So my prayer for my spouse might be triangles, while my prayer for Ukraine might be squares. And then we set to work cutting the paper.

 

With my broken wrist, I could not cut, but I adapted. I tore some shapes, and then I realized they weren't all going to look the same, so I just didn't worry about trying to make them the same.

 

Once we had our shapes cut, we arranged them on the square of black paper and glued them; we were told to keep the center of the page uncovered. While we did the cutting and gluing process, we had music in the background; I believe I recognized George Winston. For me it helped me attain a meditative state, but I could see that working in silence might be good too.

 

When we were done, we put our prayers on the walls. We did this the first night, and it was good to move through the creativity retreat surrounded by prayers.

 

I like this activity because anyone can do it. I like thinking about prayers in a more tactile way. It's adaptable to those who can't cut or those who feel like they don't have an artistic bone in their body. It could lead to group discussion, but it doesn't have to. For those of us you need something to do as we settle into a meditative state, this practice could be a good one.