Sunday, May 26, 2024
The Solemnity of the Most High Trinity
(click here to listen to or read today’s scriptures)
Breathe in, breathe out
Those who are led by the Spirit of God are sons and daughters of God. You have received a Spirit of adoption, through whom we cry, “Abba, Father!”
A few days ago a pastor I know who sometimes tells stories on herself wrote in her blog:
I wasn’t looking for a new way to pray. I was searching for a new way to be. The old routines and ruts were no longer working.
She sought less, rather than more – a “place to enter into silence, a threshold where you emerge different from when you entered.”
This “different” might be big or small, deep or shallow, it might last a long time or fall quickly to pieces. But any “different” looks pretty good from the old routines and ruts. Greener grass, and all of that.
My friend happened upon the idea of breath prayer in an “elegant” book by artist Christine Valters Paintner. Christine offers 40 very short prayers for “the grace of daily tasks” and for “blessing the seasons of our lives.”
The Spirit himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God.
Can I make my own breath prayers? Yes, just as surely as I can breathe God’s air.
Do a few breathings first. Breathe in, and allow my diaphragm to hold the air in for a few seconds. Then purse my lips and release the air slowly. Wait a few seconds before breathing in again. These little breathings change everything, and I realize God loves me as much as the lilies of the field, or the sparrows.
Breathe in. Breathe out. Five times maybe.
Then …
Breathe in. Listen.
Breathe out. Smile.
Breathe in. Birds are singing.
Breathe out. God’s words.
Renee reminds me that “the focus on breath is both ancient and new. It is a way of attending to what gives us life.”
Behold, I am with you always, even unto the end of the age.
In the morning, breathe in possibility. Breathe out gratitude.
Prayers like haiku
Green frog leaps into the pond
A few words later
Henri Nouwen reminds me that breath prayer can be visual as well as verbal. We see God and we hear God, as did Job (Job 42:5). So I imagine the presence of Jesus as I breathe. I can sit in the cave entrance with Elijah (1 Kings 19) and wait for God to appear, not as a clanging symbol, but as a still small voice, breathing in … and breathing out.
When air becomes breath
And I see God, I hear God
Words come, fall away
Nouwen also suggests doing this together sometimes, sitting in silence:
When we sit together in silent prayer, we create a space where we sense the One we are waiting for is already touching us.
As Jesus told us, “There am I in your midst.”
(Deuteronomy 4, Psalm 33, Romans 8, Revelation 8)
(posted at www.davesandel.net)
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