We have to overcome the idea that the body is irrelevant to prayer. In fact our souls express themselves through our bodies. We are spirit enfleshed. Monks know this: their desire is for God, and they pray with their bodies when they stand and sit and sing the psalms each day.
They also believe that bodily work, with the intention of serving God, is prayer. Ignatius of Loyola would enthusiastically agree. Augustine remarks that those who sing, pray twice. We bow our bodies as a sign of adoration. We join our hands and bless our bodies with the sign of the Cross. We receive the host at communion and eat it. We go on pilgrimage, which is a bodily prayer, with its abandonment of creature comforts: we focus toward the goal of the pilgrimage with our bodies, as well as our hearts. Truly the body prays, because it is as human persons, body and soul, and not as angels, that we meet our God. You won’t hear God saying: ‘Now, when you pray, please leave your body behind you. I’m interested only in your soul!’
For those who love God, their final breath, whether conscious or not, matches the prayer of Jesus when he says: ‘Father, into your hands I commend my spirit’ (Luke 23:46). His Father had been the desire of his whole being, body and soul, throughout his life, even when he was busy or sleeping. The Father is our desire too. Concentration of mind may lapse during my time of prayer, but my body is still in the place of prayer. If someone asked me what I was doing, I’d say, ‘I just want God, and this is the best I can do to show it.’
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