Body Prayer

If the incarnation is true and we are the Body of Christ, then prayer is fully experienced when it is also from the bottom up, when we “pray from the earth” at the energetic, cellular level. Adam and Eve must receive and breathe the breath of YHWH for themselves. Only then are humans, composed of both breath and soil, fully alive.

There are many forms of body prayer—for example, chant, walking meditation, dance, yoga, tai chi, pilgrimages, prayer beads, gestures, and breathing exercises. Choose a contemplative movement to repeat as you pray. Rather than think your prayer, energetically feel it. Rest and lean into the Body of Christ already within you rather than trying to pull an Infinite God into your finite world. Your body itself receives and knows God; it is indeed a temple where God’s Spirit dwells (1 Corinthians 3:16-17).

To “pray from the clay” will also move you to the shared level of prayer. You will know that “you” are not doing the prayer; the Body of Christ is now praying through you and with you (Romans 8:26-27). Now you pray not so much to Christ as much as through Christ, and you will know experientially that you are Christ’s Body too.