Body Prayer

June 28, 2025.

How is your body feeling today? Do you even know? Is there tension or tightness somewhere? Maybe some numbness, nausea, or fatigue? For me these, and other bodily feelings come and go depending on what’s happening with my health, in my life, and in the world.

Sometimes we don’t even pay attention to our bodies. We often live in our heads, hardly noticing our bodies’ pain and fatigue. This was true for me until my chronic pain escalated during perimenopause. No longer could I push through the pain. I had to stop and pay attention to my body’s needs or I'd go into a paralyzing flare up. Thankfully, the flare ups have been less frequent and less intense since menopause.

However, with the rapid and disturbing news cycles of 2025, the stress has brought on several flare ups.

Living with chronic pain has been hard and debilitating. Yet it has also taught me about the need for bodily awareness, which in turn has helped in my spiritual journey. I’ve learned that I can experience God not just through my mind, but also through my body. And this isn’t unique to me, it’s a common human experience.

Cynthia Bailey Manns reminds us that we are embodied spirits, spiritual beings on a human journey and human beings on a spiritual journey. Both leading us into a deeper relationship with the Holy,[1].

This is supported by the Christian understanding of the Incarnation, that is Jesus being fully human and fully divine. Christ showed us that “embodiment is one of the most important spiritual journeys we make,” [2].

And so, as we pray with our bodies as well as our minds, we are able to experience God in new ways, [3]. And these experiences of God can assist us in living in amongst the turbulence of 2025.

Several weeks ago, the blog/vlog invited you into breath prayers, which is one form of body prayer. Other body prayers can involve movement as well as all of our senses, [4].

Today’s video invites you into a simple Gesture Prayer. Enjoy!

Gesture Prayer

(by Trish Black, 1998)

My life is from God.

I am sustained by the earth.

All I am I have received.

In gratitude I offer back.

Open to the Spirit flowing through me.

1. Cynthia Bailey Manns, Claimed: A Transformational Journey of Holiness, Wholeness, and Ministry in Embodied Spirits: Stories of Spiritual Directors of Color, ed. Sherry Bryant-Johnson, Rosalie Norman-McNaney & Therese Taylor-Stinson (New York, Morehouse Publishing, 2014), 51.

2. Christine Valters Paintner, The Wisdom of the Body: A Contemplative Journey to Wholeness for Women, Sorin Books, Notre Dame, IN, 2017, 1.

3. Teresa Blythe, 50 Ways to Pray: Practice from Many Traditions and Times, Abingdon Press, Nashville, TN, 2006, 85.

This blog is dedicated to the memory of Maureen Fowler, a beloved spiritual mentor.