Christians are often ambivalent about their bodies. This is odd because of the central place of the incarnation in Christian theology. Why would God take on our humanity by becoming flesh if human flesh is such a bad thing?

This ambivalence has frequently resulted in a disembodied spirituality. However, any spirituality that is not embodied is escapist and dangerous. If the spiritual journey is to be grounded in the human journey, it must first be grounded in the body for this is the primary home of self.

Alienation from our bodies lies at the core of our alienation from our deepest self and from the world. Until we can be at home in our bodies, we can never truly be at home anywhere. Until we can return to being grounded in our self as a biological organism, we will be forever vulnerable to looking for other substitute anchors for our being.

It might be a surprise to discover that Julian of Norwich—a 14th-century anchoress (a religious hermit who enters seclusion to devote her life to prayer)—offers us a powerful resource to grounding our spiritual life in our bodies. In case you are not familiar with this remarkable woman, her book, Revelations of Love, stands as the earliest surviving book in English written by a woman. But more importantly, that book made her one of the most loved Christian mystics because of its powerful message of the transformational potential of personal knowing of God’s love.

But Dame Julian, as she is often called, offers us much more. She also offers us a powerful practice of body prayer. But before we look at it more carefully, let’s talk for a moment about prayer and how it differs from praying. Understanding this is essential for appreciating the value of the unique resource for embodied spirituality she offers us.

Prayer: Much More Than Praying

If we are honest, most of us have to admit that prayer is often more of an obligation than something arising spontaneously from desire. Part of the reason for this is that prayer is frequently presented as a spiritual discipline. Disciplines are things that we do not naturally do but feel we should do because they are supposed to be good for us. Most children don’t need to be told to play. It is only adults for whom play as a discipline might be necessary, and potentially helpful! However, prayer is the natural language of the soul. So there is something seriously wrong when it feels like something we should do.

But our problem is deeper than merely thinking of prayer as something that we should do. The real problem lies in thinking of prayer as something that we do. Understood more correctly, prayer is what God does in us. Our part has much more to do with consent than initiative. That consent is most simply saying “Yes” to God’s invitation to loving encounter.

Prayer is so much more than we could ever imagine because God is so much beyond what we can imagine. Prayer includes praying, that is, saying things to God either silently or vocally, but it is so much more than this. It can also include:

Reading a passage of Scripture and listening for God’s personal word to you in it
Meditatively walking the Stations of the Cross
Lighting a candle
Allowing music to draw your spirit toward God’s Spirit
Reciting the creeds
Fingering beads as a framework for meditation
Allowing your hunger during a fast to draw your attention toward God
Sub-vocal repetition of a mantra (i.e., “Come, Lord Jesus” or “My God and my all”) that moves prayer from consciousness to the unconscious, and from mind to heart
Going for a long rambling walk while repeating the Jesus Prayer (“Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy upon me, a sinner”)
Smelling incense during a liturgy and having your spirit drawn toward God
A contemplative walk in the forest that moves you from self-preoccupation to God-consciousness
Making the sign of the cross or bowing before an altar or crucifix
Sitting in silence—allowing your heart to be drawn back to God by the periodic gentle repetition of a love name for God
Attending to your breathing—drawing in God with each in-breath and releasing God to the world with each out-breath
Singing or pondering the words of a favourite hymn or song
Meditating on an icon or a work of biblical art
Allowing your heart to soar in unworded praise in response to a sunset, a storm, a flower, or a tree
and much, much more.

Some of these may seem strange to you, possibly so far outside your spiritual comfort zone that you may wonder if they are worthy of being called Christian prayer. But all have been richly rewarding for Christians across the major divisions of the Church over Christian history. All, therefore, are Christian forms of prayer and have much to teach anyone who desires to be open to God.

However, it is very important that we acknowledge that none of these things is automatically prayer. Even addressing words or thoughts to God is not automatically prayer. But all of life can be prayer when it is offered to God in faith and with openness. It is the underlying orientation of the heart that makes something prayer. Without a heart that is open to God in faith, it may look like prayer, and it may sound like prayer, but it won’t be genuine Christian prayer. Genuine prayer always begins in the heart and is offered by an act of opening of our self as we turn toward God in faith.

The Body Prayer of Julian of Norwich

While some of the forms of prayer involve words, many do not. That is why I say that prayer is much more than praying.

Two broad categories of prayer do not involve words or even thoughts. The first of these is contemplative prayer. The essence of contemplative prayer is simply being with God in wordless, thoughtless, and imageless presence. The second, and the focus of this blog, is body prayer—prayer that is not vocalized or thought but involves our hands, feet, or body.

Julian of Norwich gives us a body prayer that is built around four key words: Await, Allow, Accept, and Attend. Each word has an associated body movement with it, which you may do either standing or sitting.

AWAIT (hands at waist, cupped up to receive): Await God’s presence, not as you expect, hope, or imagine, but just as it is in this moment.

ALLOW (reach up, hands open, above shoulders if you can): Allow a sense of God’s presence (or not) to come and be what it is, without meeting your expectations.

ACCEPT (hands at heart, cupped towards body): Accept as a gift whatever comes or does not come. Accept that you are not in charge. Accept the infinity of God’s presence, whether or not you are aware of it.

ATTEND (hands outstretched, ready to be responsive): Attend to what you are called to do by way of response to God’s presence.

Consider repeating this prayer several times in a row. This allows the movements to flow into each other, like a dance or yoga postures. A short video demonstration of this can be found here.

Prayer is so much more than praying. True prayer becomes a way of being and living.

Don’t settle for praying. All of life can be prayer when offered to God in faith and openness. And, if you are not familiar with body prayer, I encourage you to start with the body prayer of Dame Julian.