I’m working into the wee hours every night to finish up the manuscript for my book, Of Such is the Kingdom: A Practical Theology of Disability. Sometimes when I’m writing along, doling out advice, I realize that there’s an urgent need for resources to help my fellow Christians pray. Tonight, when I wrote about matching prayers, I thought, now that’s something I can help with right now! For anyone with communication challenges, with a need to pray without speaking, who might have trouble with working memory, who might need to pray with their hands, but who does not have a visual impairment (these images are not high-contrast friendly or readable by touch), this prayer offers an easy-to-repeat sequence.
So here it is. A Board Maker symbol version of The Jesus Prayer. A few explanations if you are not familiar with the way this pictoral language works: The cloud with light is the Board Maker symbol for God, added to the symbol for “son”. The symbol for “have mercy” is a combination of the symbols for “help” and “love.” The outline of a circle on top of the line means, “on,” and the symbol with it means “me.” Because “sinner” doesn’t translate into this pictoral language, I have stopped with the shorter version of the prayer.
To use this prayer, print out the paper and cut along the dotted line. Cut out the images in the lower half to match with the images on the top of the page. You can laminate the cards and page, use velcro, or leave as-is.
Download the PDF here: Jesus Prayer Match
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Thank you for this!! My 9 year old son just asked me how God is Jesus’s father. Hee has autism 1, adhd, dyslexia and dysgraphia along with gross and fine motor delays. Anything to help him understand the faith is so wonderful. I love these visuals. Thank you! 🙏