Praying in Color: Drawing a New Path to God

Praying in Color: Drawing a New Path to GodPraying in Color: Drawing a New Path to God
Praying in Color: Drawing a New Path to GodPraying in Color: Drawing a New Path to God
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Binding:Paperback
Page Count:110 pages
ISBN 13:9781557255129
Publication Date:April 2007
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Need help communicating with God?
Maybe you hunger to know God better. Maybe you love color. Maybe you are a visual or kinesthetic learner, a distractable or impatient soul, or a word-weary pray-er. Perhaps you struggle with a short attention span, a restless body, or a tendency to live in your head.
This new prayer form can take as little or as much time as you have or want to commit, from 15 minutes to a weekend retreat."A new prayer form gives God an invitation and a new door to penetrate the locked cells of our hearts and minds," explains Sybil MacBeth. "For many of us, using only words to pray reduces God by the limits of our finite words."

For more information, including author events, examples and contact information to request Sybil MacBeth to do a workshop, visit www.prayingincolor.com.

Use Praying in Color to help with:
•lectio divina -- reading the bible for spiritual growth
•memorizing Scripture
•prayers for discernment
•creating a personal Advent or Lenten calendar
•praying for enemies



Praying in Color is ideal for:
•Intergenerational Education Classes
•Women's Meetings
•Praying Workshops
•Vacation Bible School and Summer Camp
•Staff Retreats on Prayer
•Summer Sunday School Classes
•Wednesday Night Church-wide Programs
•Senior Citizens Activity
•Youth Confirmation Retreats
•Men's Prayer Groups
•Prayer Therapy During Convalescence
•Kindergarten and Children's Prayer Training
•Homeschooling, grades K-12
•Prison Ministry
•Ministry to the hearing impaired
•Ministry to the disabled

"This is the most invigorating and enabling book about prayer that I have seen in years! Wry, funny, accessible, wise beyond all appearances, and deeply spiritual, MacBeth warms the soul as well as the heart. So will praying in color." - Phyllis Tickle, compiler, The Divine Hours


Download Center


These resources are available to assist you in setting up a Praying in Color workshop or retreat in your area.

Praying in Color Flyer - 13 ways to use Praying in Color
13 Tips on leading a Praying in Color workshop in your area
Watch a sample video of the Praying in Color DVD
Sample Intercessory Advent Calendar

What others have said about Praying in Color:

"I tried praying in color on my own. And here's what I discovered: Normally I hate drawing. I got self-conscious about my lack of talent somewhere in fourth grade and just shut down. Even my doodles are limited to letters and circles and lines. But even I was able to pray in color because I didn't think of it as drawing . . . just as letting my heart move across the page in a squiggly way. My heart kept beating and my hand kept moving and I felt confirmed and released. I found praying in color to be child-like, not childish, and it felt good. I got over myself and for the first time was able even to feel negative emotions in prayer . . . like anger . . . another aspect of self I started repressing in about fourth grade."
-Ellen Klyce

"I am a botanical artist and Jewish, so I am coming from another point of view. Being Jewish, I found praying in color an insightful process. It kept me focused and connected, both to my thoughts and my intentions."
-Sally Markell

"I introduced the practice to dear friends whose long awaited baby ended up critically ill for months in intensive care. They were staying with us because we lived closer to the hospital and of course, needless to say, were beside themselves with worry and fear. The mother said she just couldn't pray because her mind was racing all the time and she was sick with fear. I packed up my pens, pad, and pencils and told her how this method might helpful and comforting during those long hours of waiting. She later brought me a page of her prayers of assurances of what God could do to heal her son and to give strength and courage to her family. I was so glad I knew about this type of prayer and could pass it on. It was a perfect way to prayer for them."
-Lisa DiScenza

"Sybil presented this praying technique in a workshop at our church and again to a women's study/prayer group. I have difficulty staying focused as I practice meditative prayer and praying in color was very appealing. A short time after following Sybil's presentations, I decided to use the technique at a half-day silent retreat for Christian women. We were in a lovely wooded spot, away from usual distractions. I was amazed how quickly time passed as I used my colored pencils and a special notebook just for praying. I truly felt I was connecting with God in silence and in my color graphics. While I don't pray in color on a regular basis, when I do, I am amazed how relaxing, cleansing and refreshing to my body, mind and spirit the practice is."
-Linda Nelson

"This would be a terrific book to use during retreats, youth group meetings, prayer groups, and for personal devotion and meditation times. Writes MacBeth, "A new prayer form gives God an invitation and a new door to penetrate the locked cells of our hearts and minds." A beautiful image, and one I'm planning to draw - the next time I go to God in prayer. Thanks Sybil!"
-Cindy Crosby

Those struggling with contemplative or intercessory prayer might want to consider communing with God through markers and crayons. So says Sybil MacBeth in her new book, Praying in Color: Drawing a New Path to God. MacBeth, a left-brained math wiz and self-avowed "third grade artist," encourages the use of lines, shapes and colors as a way of centering and of keeping the individual or situation being prayed about before God. "Partly, this process is about creating a time and space when the focus of my sitting is devotion to God," said MacBeth. "Yet it's also like bringing a 'blankie' to your time with God, a prop, where you don't feel so naked."
About four years ago, MacBeth was sitting on her porch praying for a number of friends with cancer. Tired of hearing her own words, she began doodling. Soon she had a whole sheet of shapes with the names of her friends in each design. MacBeth felt it was like spending time with each of them, she said, "and by the end I had a visual prayer list. The images stuck in my mind for the rest of the day. I had prayed unceasingly, and I was able to offer people into God's hands without needing to use words. I was able to put friends in God's care and out of my worry."
Carol Showalter, director of publicity for Paraclete, told RBL, "The idea at first seemed so simple it was almost silly. However, as we tried the process in relation to prayer, we realized something important was happening. The use of color and the action of drawing while in prayer adds a new level of focus." Incorporating art into devotional time is catching on. MacBeth has led about 15 workshops, with more scheduled. She will open Dealers Day at the Religious Booksellers Trade Exhibit (RBTE) in St. Charles, Ill., at the end of May.
Amy Tracy
Publisher's Weekly- Religion Book Line
May 9, 2007

Dancer and mathematics instructor MacBeth's charming book may be the first to combine the pleasures of doodling with a discussion of, among other things, lectio divina. Here, she shows how simple drawings-often hardly more than circles and lines with names or ideas or places sketched in and enlivened with color-can focus the praying heart, making prayer something better than a shopping list or a chore and helping the praying believer to carry the wishes and thoughts of the prayer through the day. MacBeth's book is not for unbelievers or those who do not pray; it is directed to those suffering something more like spiritual attention deficit disorder. Still, it is one of the most appealing books on prayer to appear in the last five years. Highly recommended.

Library Journal
May 1, 2007

Sybil MacBeth would like to help people draw closer to God-literally. She's developed a simple new approach to prayer described in her book Praying in Color, to be released in April by Paradete Press. She talked about her method recently with Associate Editor Mary Jacobs. Here are excerpts.
Tell me about your approach to prayer.
I would describe it as visual way to pray. I started praying this way about four years ago, when I had a whole slew of friends who had cancer all at once. I didn't know what to pray. I got tired of the saying the same old things: "Please, God, make them better, make them comfortable."
I'm a doodler. One day I was sitting on my porch doodling and I realized I had put the name of somebody in one of these shapes. I thought "I don't know what to say but Jean sit with this person in prayer. I can do that by drawing and coloring and constantly keeping my attention focused on the person and lifting him up to God" And that's how it got started.
Do you need to have artistic ability to do this?
Absolutely not. I can't draw a cat. But I love color. I think that's one of the reasons that it works for me.
Describe the steps you take.
I night draw a shape first. Then I'll put the name of a person I want to pray for in the shape. Or, sometimes I'll put a name for God in the first shape. I don't try to force words because the words sometimes get in the way. Then I'll draw around the shape. I'll do squiggles or curlicues or lines, just different shapes-just to keep my hand moving and always my attention on lifting the person up to God.
I'll spend 3-5 minutes on the person. Then I'll move to another spot on the page and do another shape and pray for another person who is on my mind. So it might end up with one person on the page or I might have ten, depending on how many friends or family members need prayer.
Then I'll often carry that sheet with me. Sometimes I'll put it on the fridge, or I'll put the sheet in front of an icon and a candle in the kitchen. So every time I'll walk by the sheet, I'll see it and it jogs my memory to pray unceasingly for the people on the paper. Not necessarily with words-just offering them into God's care.

Reporter Resources
March 23, 2007
Just as Julia Cameron, in The Artist's Way, showed the hardened Harvard businessman he had a creative artist lurking within, MacBeth makes it astonishingly clear that anyone with a box of colors and some paper can have a conversation with God. Frustrated by a laundry list of what she calls "prayer dilemmas," and the unfortunate situations of more than half a dozen friends and family members on her "critical prayer list," MacBeth, a math professor by trade, spent an afternoon doodling before she realized she'd in fact spent the afternoon in prayer. As she takes particular care to emphasize, this method most effective for intercessory prayer, but adaptable for other approaches requires absolutely no skill, merely a desire to connect with God. (Readers should therefore ignore any lingering self-doubt planted by a first grade art teacher.) Amid gentle personal anecdotes, MacBeth illustrates each step of the process, providing not just instruction but inspiration by sharing her own prayer pages as well as those of her students. She even includes a chapter on using one's computer for the process. Readers of all ages, experience and religions will find this a fresh, invigorating and even exhilarating way to spend time with themselves and their Creator.
Publisher's Weekly
January 31, 2007
In her book Praying in Color: Drawing a New Path to God, author Sybil MacBeth introduces a new way of praying that inspires playfulness and joy by using the art of doodling. Praying in Color targets those who may be struggling with their prayer life or others who want to enhance their relationship with God. The book offers short, entertaining, and easy-to-read chapters that provide a step-by-step guide to doodling prayer in color. "A new prayer form gives God an invitation and a new door to penetrate the locked cells of our hearts and minds," explains MacBeth. "For many of us, using only words to pray reduces God by the limits of our finite words." Part One of the book explores dilemmas and frustrations of praying, especially for those who are visual or kinesthetic learners or who have short attention spans and are easily distracted. Part Two offers a step-by-step guide to getting started that includes a supply list as well as time and place suggestions. Part Three includes tips and techniques on how to enhance drawing, to add color, and to create an image that encompasses the people for whom you want to pray. MacBeth thoughtfully incorporates a section on how to overcome prayer barriers. Praying in Color can be used in a variety of settings, such as intergenerational events, workshops, Vacations Bible Schools and summer camps, Bible studies, mid-week church programs, and youth confirmation retreats. It has suggestions for enhancing other forms of prayer, such as lectio divina and discernment prayers, and for creating personal Advent or Lenten calendars. Praying in Color is an excellent resource for anyone seeking to promote playfulness and joy in prayer time with God. Also available is a DVD with everything you need to know to lead your own Praying in Color workshop, featuring author Sybil MacBeth.
Episcopal Teacher
Winter 2008
SybilMatBeth, a mathmatics instructor by profession, and dancer by avocation, has written, and doodled, a daring devotional. Praying In Color: Drawing a New Path to God**** chronicles her 'experiments in intercession and challenges readers to take pens and paper in hand and, well, intercede. Although the daughter and granddaughter of artists, MacBeth was convinced by her own ugly artworkthat something "had gone awry in the tossing of the genetic salad." Her point: The absence of skill presents no barrier to an individual's discoveries linking doodling and prayer. That's because prayer involves trust and being real before God. MacBeth's doodling discoveries came from a crisis. About three years ago, a litany of cancers—lung, brain, breast —struck among family, friends, and colleagues. The suffering within her circle was overwhelming. Worry became her starting point—but not her stopping point. Even now, she writes, "worry invites me to prayer." As a teacher facing a summer off, MacBeth had no papers to grade but instead possessed what she calls a "critical prayer list." Going to the back porch, she doodled a random shape and wrote a name in its center. "The name belonged to one of the people on my prayer list. I stayed with the same shape and the name, adding detail and color to the drawing. Each dot, each line, and each stroke of color became another moment of time spent with the person in the center." When she sensed the time was right, she moved to another part of the page and drew another shape and put another name in its middle. She embellished it with lines, dots, colors. She continued drawing new shapes and names until her friends and family formed a colorful community of designs. "To my surprise," she writes, "I had not just doodled—I had prayed." MacBeth has been leading workshops in the U.S.about praying in color for two years. Her book contains balloons, labyrinths, vegetables, clovers, triangles, kites, quilts, calendars with prayer requests and names, and purposefully shaped squiggles. She recommends 15 to 30 minutes for the process, half spent in drawing and the other half in carrying the visual memories or actual images throughout the day. Instead of being a prayer warrior, she calls herself "a prayer popper," one who prays in fits and spurts with "half-formed pleas and intercessions, and bursts of gratitude and rage." MacBeth is transparent, accessible, and human. She exercises what she calls spiritual imagination as she works on, in, and through prayer. She trusts herself enough to experiment, mess up, and try again in prayer. She trusts God enough to guide her as she falters, succeeds, and grows stronger. Her book emboldens others to trust their instincts, too.
Robin Gallaher Branch, professor of biblical studies, Crichton College
Christianity Today
January 28, 2008

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