Contemplative Prayer

Practice: Becoming Aware of My Body

1.  I find a sitting position that is comfortable, but not so much so that I will fall asleep easily. A cushioned chair that forces me to sit up straight usually does the trick. In the long run, breathing is easier and more relaxed when I’m sitting up. I sit quietly a few moments, allowing my breathing to slow down and my body to relax.

2. Without moving and in that same quiet state, I focus all of my attention on the big toe of my right foot. I sense the presence of that toe as I never have before. I feel its contentment with simply being there at the end of my foot. In my heart I say to God repeatedly, “Thank you, Lord.” After a while, I move on to my entire right foot. I note its peacefulness and tranquility — its lack of anxiety or fear. I say again, “Thank you, Lord.”

3. I now allow its partner, the left foot, into the reflection, noting its quietness and thanking God for creating it. I slowly move up from my feet and focus on the solitude of the shins. I continue moving slowly up my body, noting at each stage how peaceful and content each body part is and thanking God for it. I do this exercise very slowly, spending a while at each spot without becoming struck on any one.

4. When I have reached the top of my head, I pull away slowly and try to get a sense of my entire body as a unified whole at rest and at peace. I go back into my body, very slowly traveling through my various body parts, again observing the stillness that pervades everywhere. I now pull away again and revisit the quietness of my entire body.

5. I spend a few minutes soaking in that quiet state.

It’s sort of like…

The whole experience can be likened to the image of a scuba diver in the ocean. Instead of swimming on his own, he is lowered down and hoisted up by a rope that runs from his suit to the surface above. The scuba diver loves to dive as deeply as possible, so he will go as far down as the rope will allow. On some days, the rope allows him to spend the whole time on the bottom. On other days, the rope is so short that he spends his whole time floating on the surface. On still other days, he finds himself bobbing up and down from the ocean floor to the surface. The moments he spends down on the bottom are the most precious to him, but he is not sad or angry when the rope doesn’t allow him down that far. He loves diving so much that it doesn’t matter mush to him how far down he is at any given moment. Each depth of the ocean has its own life and adventure. Whatever depth he finds himself in he thoroughly enjoys. He will play and explore there until he notices that the rope has more give to it, allowing him the opportunity of going deeper. So down he goes. Or maybe he will notice the rope gently tugging him back to the surface. No matter: He’ll enjoy any level.

In prayer, I lean into being and away from activity. If I am doing some prayerful activity and notice my spirit beginning to get quieter, I’ll put whatever I’m doing down and let myself slowly sink. Otherwise. I’ll enjoy the prayer activity I have in front of me at the moment. I may even find myself on the surface for the entire time. It won’t feel as though this prayer time is very deep at all Instead, it wioll be filled with silly distractions and useless thoughts. Even this is no problem.I’ll find the Lord floating among the rubber duckies, too.