# 50 - Trouble Tree Prayer

The “trouble tree” provides a visual focus for a family’s intercessory prayer during Lent. It’s simple; just a bare tree branch in a container filled with plaster or sand kept near the kitchen table. Near it keep a supply of long, thin strips of paper on which to write the names of people who are looking for work, fighting sickness, facing tests, our undergoing other challenges. Anyone can add petitions for all to pray. And daily prayer beside the tree can draw the family together. Begin with the Sign of the Cross (see “Ways to Pray #44”), mention a few petitions, and end with this short prayer, Jesus, we know you came to love us, to forgive us and to make us new. We give you all of our troubles, large and small. Help us as we walk with you now on your way to the cross. Amen.

# 49 - Fasting

Fast for one meal a day for a week, or from eating for a whole day, or from an activity.
The battle of prayer is against two things: wandering thoughts and lack of intimacy with God. Fasting confirms our dependence upon God as we find in Him a source of sustenance beyond food. As bodily food fattens the body, so fasting strengthens the soul
Is it because we have nibbled so long at the table of the world that our souls are stuffed with small things? There’s nothing magical about fasting. It’s just one way of telling God that your priority at that moment is to be alone with him. When exercised with a pure heart and a right motive, fasting may provide us with a key to unlock doors where other keys have failed.

# 48 - The Money Prayer

This is a 7-day exercise, and extremely challenging. On Monday, set aside 7 dollar bills, one for use each day of the week. (Any coin or currency may be substituted.) Each day for 7 consecutive days identify a need, one you have not previously addressed, and personally give your dollar, or its equivalent. Then, having given, lift the need once again to God in prayer. This exercise will require much prayer, both in finding a daily need every day and in meeting it. For example, take a dollar to the local food pantry, or use your dollar to buy yarn for a shut-in who knits.

# 47 - Touch Prayer

Everyone you know, no matter how “together” their life seems to be, needs God’s touch. The Touch Prayer is when in prayer you gently rest your hands on another’s hand, back, or shoulder, and prayerfully let the Spirit of God flow through you to them. Breathe deeply and slowly. The other person doesn’t have to know at all what you are doing. Just touch, be still and pray, and imagine God ministering to their deepest need. The Touch Prayer is a prayer you can feel. You can feel the warmth, the spiritual energy, even the wholeness (or shalom) of God as you share the powerful presence of God in those silent extended moments of grace. They can feel it too, but may never tell you so. The Touch Prayer is a selfless prayer, a prayer you can only give away. Bless someone you love with it and watch your relationship grow—you and them and God.

The Colors of Love

How we love and want to be loved

In some ancient cultures the colors of the rainbow represented the stages of human and spiritual development, beginning with the red clay of the earth and rising to the colors of the heavens, fairest violet, white and gold.

Red, the foundation of the rainbow, represents personal identity, “who I am,” “me, myself, and I.”

Red love, therefore, is characterized as loving a person just as they are, for who they are, and is the kind of love everyone of us most seriously wants and desperately needs (approval, worthiness, the right to exist).

In elementary school my Mom told me I had to give a valentine to everyone in the class, not just the ones I liked, “because everyone deserves a valentine.” Was she teaching me about red love? or about John 3:16?

Orange Love is characterized by affection and friendship, relationship and romance. This kind of relational love and emotional intimacy is the love that meets one’s deepest yearnings and overcomes the ache of isolation and loneliness.

Yellow Love is energetic and productive. It is the love of work and those with whom one works, of being satisfactorily invested in something worthwhile, of vocation and avocation. It is the love on which brotherhoods and sisterhoods are built, and on which community thrives.

Green Love, at the center, the very heart of the rainbow, is caring love. It is the pure, unselfish love of others. This generative and re-generative love (the love that gives life) is far more difficult to receive than to give, for it comes only as grace and can never be repaid. Yet, when received, even in times of turmoil, it brings quiet to the soul.

Blue Love is the love of pursuing higher truth together, of listening and sharing. Blue love connects virtual strangers together in their search for and the celebration of grand ideas commonly held. It is the basis of the arts, of public rallies, of civic and religious communities. We experience it as a need when we have strong but unclear ideas and feelings and no way to let them out.

Purple Love is creative, empowering, transforming love, love that sees a vision of something grand and in it finds purpose, structure and order. Purple love is wisdom, like Solomon’s. It is the passion for peace and good will among all, and motivates the high-minded among us—prophets and saints, philosophers, entrepreneurs and world leaders, everyday dreamers—who, having a dream, are selfless and of highest virtue in its pursuit.

White Love (sometimes Gold or Violet) is eternal love, perfect harmony and unity with Christ. It is the grandest of all loves, its need etched deep in the being of every creature, but only momentarily, if ever, experienced until its total embrace is ultimately gained.

In your life’s journey what color of love best characterizes your most pressing need? And what color love needs do others have? Do you need to love in new ways?

# 46 - Names for God

Knowing one’s name, calling one’s name, that’s power! that’s connecting! There are many names for God in the Bible, and as well, for Jesus and the Holy Spirit. Set aside some time, a day maybe, and list all the names for God, Jesus, and the Holy Spirit you can. Probe your memory. Search the Bible. Use Bible helps. Ask someone to help you with the project. Google Names for God. Think (or talk) about each name you find. If you are patient and prayerful your vision of God will expand. Each name you recall will bring greater glory to God and a rich blessing to you.

# 45 - Five Finger Prayer

1. The thumb – as it is nearest you, pray for those closest to you.
2. The pointer – as it gives direction, pray for those who teach, instruct, guide.
3. The middle finger – as it is the tallest, pray for all who lead.
4. The ring finger – as it is the weakest, pray for those in need.
5. The little finger – as it is smallest, pray for yourself, but let that prayer be least.