Breath Prayer

Today’s episode is about the spiritual practice of breath prayer, an ancient and simple practice that helps us be more fully embodied. We breath, on average, 20,000 times a day and we mostly do it by default. But ever since the sixth century CE Christians have been wedding prayer to the rhythms of breathing, an echo to the creation story in which God is said to have breathed in us the "breath of life" (Genesis 2). Christine Valters Painter’s book, “Breath Prayer: An Ancient Practice for the Everyday Sacred,” is a recent example of making this practice sing in today's context.Try on this spiritual practice today, reciting a simple phrase as you inhale and then a simple phrase as you exhale, such as, "Be still and know/that I am God" or "Do not be afraid/I am with you always" or "Jesus/have mercy." Feedback? I'd love to hear from you at [email protected]. Thanks for listening, friends. You are loved and never alone!