I'm Writing a Book on Christian Prayer for Autistics

Post Reply New Topic

This morning I signed a book contract to write a book on Christian prayer for autistics & our families.

I hope it can be a great resource for my fellow Christians on the subject.

Is there anything that some of you have experienced in your Christian prayer that you think might be good to mention in a book like that? (You can reply or PM.)

(Obviously, I know some here think prayer & / or Christianity is junk. The point is not to push our faith on you but to provide help for those on the spectrum who want to live the Christian faith when most resources don't take into account our neurotype.)

Like i've Already Intimated once; i am one of those Folks on the Asperger's
Syndrome Spectrum, Unique, Where Anything But Honesty Really Makes my Skin Crawl; Certain Parts Don't Smell
Great When They 'Cross' my Nose; Ignorance and Lies that Are Currently Rampant in the Catholic Church i Attend Supporting the Lies at the Top of the Trump Administration That are almost too Dangerous to Even Stomach to
Attend Church; For Anyone With Any
Common Sense Who Understands
You Don't Copy The Role Model
Leader Who Doesn't Wear A Mask;
Delivering Communion in a Pandemic;
But of Course That Ignorant Behavior By
Priests and Associated Officials only Does the Same
To Those Who Are Ignorant Enough To Fall Under 'the Lies' more.

Tell the Church to tell the Truth Without Ignorance.

Tell The Church to Pray About Love.

Better Yet Do Love and Do It With REAL TRUTH;

NOT JUST a Political
Ploy for Subjugation
And Control For More Donations.

Do understand that some
Folks Will Never Stay Silent When Lies are
Told; That's What Folks Like me are Best at for Contributing to 'Light'.
We are not Afraid of Being Rejected As 'Corner Stones of Truth'; We've
Seen that Ignorance Buried Back in Grade School As Fear of Outcast no Longer Breathes.

Smiles; But Of Course
Group Think "Normally"
Does not Allow Truth to Breathe IN LIGHT;
Just DarK Muse for Poetry my FRiEnD; i understand 'the Nature of this Beast'..

In Short; Pray For Truth More Than Ignorance And Lies, too Afraid to Dance And Sing Light.

And Again; Not Unlike The Second World War; The Catholic Church is Once Again in Ignorance
Supporting 'the Dictators'; The Church IS Politics As Far Away Now From the Nature of God That
Human Naked Love Innate From God Nature Will Possibly See. The Church Will Never Be A Bride
For Love; As Truth Sees Light This Way As It Never Was; Just
Another Brick And
Mortar God;
And Statues
of Idols that
Complement Empty
Vessels of Love (Words).

PRAY FOR LOVE;
PRAY FOR TRUTH iN Light; The Lies
Are Already Heir Apparent As Dark;
PRAY FOR LIFTING VEILS oF iGnorance;
If This Human Species Will Even Survive at all;
DO MORE THAN Prayer Tell AND DO Truth oF LoVE that Harms Folks Less.

Last edited by aghogday on 17 May 2020, 2:54 pm, edited 1 time in total.

Well...let's break it down.

How exactly does neurology effect "prayer"?

Random memory.

I remember my Mum saying I could tell God about what I did, like when I was going to play at my friend's house. I was 6 years old.

I asked why? I don't remember what she said.

I didn't see the point because God knows everything anyway.

Us autistic people need reasons for doing things.

<<Us autistic people need reasons for doing things.>>

That's true
I read in a book about Christianity and autism, that faith is sometimes not enough to believe in something: reasons are required (which are none, unfortunately)
That seems to end in a worst case scenario: nihilism.
Until you can find out that there are sparks of happiness within nihilism; after overcoming your first fear of it, you could move on to some sort of nihilism 2.0, including ideas such as: less obligations, less fear, more freedom, total empowerment by moments of joy, etc etc

I'm still a Christian btw. I have found reasons to believe. I just don't see the point in telling God what I'm doing because he already knows.

I do pray, just about other things.

The Meek shall inherit the Kingdom of Heaven .

The Meek shall inherit the Kingdom of Heaven .

A Vietnamese convert in Hanoi, experienced apparitions of St. Therese of Lisieux. (who actually wanted to go to Hanoi to evangelize there before she died.) During their conversations, at one point the young Vietnamese man asked St. Therese something along the lines of, "why pray to God at all since He knows everything, even our prayer intentions?" and St. Therese answered something along the lines of, "because God, being a loving Father, loves to hear us talk to Him, even though He already knows everything."

That being said, I myself, also don't tell God what I'm doing either; I've tried to have conversations with Him and Our Lady in the past, about my everydays' going on, but it always seemed kind of awkward to me, so maybe it's just not my calling.

I guess my first bit of advice is don't be scrupulous about what you say. In the past I've tried be overly specific with my prayers, and make sure I cram-in as many theological truths as I can, when addressing God or Our Lady; trust that God and Our Lady will understand you clearly and if you want to add theological truths to your addressing of Them, stick to ones you really like or are intrigued with. My second bit of advice is try not to view prayer too much as a "tool" or "weapon," by that I mean when you're faced with a certain problem and want to solve it through prayer, don't assume that you need a lot of "firepower" to get the job done; if you're looking for a missing item, don't think that you need to say a whole novena to St. Anthony to find it, a simple "Saint Anthony pray for me, help me find [item]" will suffice. Of course this falls under the fact that prayer is not a magic spell, it's talking to someone; as a nun put it, "don't just say the Rosary, savour the Rosary!"

On a personal note, right now I'm sort of experimenting with saying the Miraculous Medal prayer (as well a Latin translation of the modified rendition of St. Maximilian Kolbe's version) repeatedly, in the same fashion that Eastern Christians say the Jesus Prayer.

Totally, We will ask questions and not accept "just because that's the way things are" as easily. I think that can be helpful in the faith if we have someone (or some books) who knows to guide us but can result in the kid of nihilism Grischa spoke of where it seems like there are no reasons.

Thank you! At times I have used the Divine Mercy prayer like the Jesus prayer. I think the Miraculous Medal Prayer can work too.

I think the sense of avoiding scruples is a big on too. I think our anxious love of ritual and anxiety can lead to a certain scrupulosity in prayer for many on the spectrum if we aren't careful.

Oh hang on. Love of rituals isn't an aspie thing. It may be a thing some aspies love, but it's not universal.

I can't stand traditions. I hate to use this term again, but I don't see the point of them.

I'm from a very non-traditional family. My parents are aspies and really don't like traditions or rituals.

You're welcome. I'm probably reading too much into this but, I've always found it interesting how during the apparitions of Our Lady of the Miraculous Medal, at one point She appears holding a golden globe and says:

“This globe represents the entire world... and every person.” Emphasis mine.

Of course. However, multiple sources I've read noted that we tend to like rituals notably more than NTs as an overall average.

There was that study a few years ago showing that each of a dozen NT brains followed the same basic structure in connections while each of the dozen autistic brains were different but each was different in a different way.

I think if you were going to do this and really have it be resoundingly useful you'd want to focus on this:

a) a Psalm-like approach, meaning focusing on specific problems and obstacles in life.

b) The prayer is mostly centered on gratitude and thanks-giving but also has the solution and personal self-adjustment needed to inwardly survive that circumstance embedded in its stanzas.

I say all of that considering that most prayer is about truing up our relationships with ourselves and the universe, and anything that delivers useful and actionable guidance for inner alignment is worth far more and likely far better lived than any prosperity doctrine, The Secret, or any sort of other 'get rich mystically' approach. That and - autists are under incredible pressure so any guidance you can give for internally aligning to survive as best they can through circumstances largely outside their control is critical.