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The Body Prayer of Julian of Norwich

This offering of The Body Prayer of Julian of Norwich comes from The Plural Guild, a music, arts, liturgy collective

The 14th century Christian mystic, Julian of Norwich, once wrote, “The fruit and the purpose of prayer is to be 'oned' with and like God in all things.” After suffering immense pain she created this body prayer as a simple and beautiful way to pray without words.

These days when so many of us have been handed a faith tradition that ignores or distrusts or sometimes even hates the body, and when we live in a society that has made the body a commodity, and has privileged certain kinds of bodies more than others, this prayer can be a way to reclaim God's love for all our bodies.

Julian of Norwich’s body prayer can help us resist the idea that the body is something we need to renounce or transcend in order to experience communion with God. Instead, Julian invites us to be in our bodies, embrace our physicality as a way to ground ourselves, and find oneness with the divine and with all living things. As youpray this prayer it can help you connect your heart, mind and body and to more fully experience God’s love for every part of you.

The prayer has four simple postures. And intentions.

 

  • AWAIT (hands at waist, cupped up to receive): Await God’s presence, however it may come to you.

  • ALLOW (reach up, hands open): Allow a sense of God’s presence) to come …or not…and be what it is.

  • ACCEPT (hands at heart, cupped towards body): Accept as a gift whatever comes or does not come. Accept that you don’t know everything, that you are not in charge.

  • ATTEND (hands outstretched, ready to be responsive): Attend to what you are called to, willing to be present and be God’s love in the world, however God calls you to.

 

You can find the prayer here: