Lent & Embodied Prayer

Beloved in Christ,

As I reflect on the Lenten season we find ourselves in - and as we speed right along to Holy Week, I think I’ve finally figured out why I particularly love this season so much.

It is an embodied season wherein we tend to take up spiritual practices that engage the body more fully.

The Solemn Prayer over the People replaces the general blessing given at the end of Eucharistic services. They begin “Bow down before the Lord.” The act of kneeling or bowing in response to this has always been something I treasure. It’s a stark reminder - both intellectually and physically - that God is God and I am not, and that it is right to kneel and bow before the One who creates, sustains, and adores all things.

This is an act of embodied prayer.

We pray the Stations of the Cross on Friday mornings, which entails slowly moving ourselves around the perimeter of the Sanctuary as we walk the steps of Christ and His Passion. We stand, we bow, we genuflect, we lament and mourn with Mary and the women of Jerusalem. The most poignant part of the service for me is when, at Christ’s death, we take a prolonged moment of solemn silence either bowing or kneeling in light of the death of the incarnation of God.

This is an act of embodied prayer.

Lastly, during Holy Week I will offer the Rosary following Evening Prayer on Holy Monday and Holy Tuesday. Praying with beads or prayer ropes has been within the Christian tradition for thousands of years - and it’s a common practice in many other religious traditions, too. The act of praying and the act of touching the beads as we go about our prayer connects the hands, the heart, and the mind in a way that mental prayer alone doesn’t quite grasp.

This is an act of embodied prayer.

God makes us to be embodied.

We are not merely spirits in a bodily vessel waiting to break out of it. One of the key hallmarks of humanity is that God makes us physical beings and calls it good. One of the key hallmarks of Christianity is that God incarnated and took on a physical form for us.

This is, in part, why the resurrection is so important and why, at the end of the ages, when Heaven and Earth are united once more like in the Garden of Eden, the final resurrection will take place and humanity will be born anew - physically. We will have bodies once more after our death and time with the Lord in spirit.

We are embodied beings - mind, soul, and body. And God calls it good.

I pray that for the remainder of Lent you may experience some of the blessing of embodied prayer in your life of faith!

Yours in Christ,

Alex+