Often in His teachings, Jesus called the people of His day to return to their roots—to the Shema that defined their faith—and truly live by it. Recorded in Deuteronomy 6:4–6, the Shema reads: “Hear, O Israel: The Lord is our God, the Lord alone. You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might” (NRSVue).
Our might resides in our bodies, and we rightly interpret this to mean serving the Lord with our bodies. That includes ways in which we express love to God in prayer, music, art, work, service and worship. In the spiritual formation traditions, creative expression of worship through our bodies has emerged as a significant personal and group experience. Similar to liturgical dance, Body Prayer is interpretive movement and can enable our souls to express the deeper longings of our soul.
Through Body Prayer, we open our hearts to the Holy Spirit in creative ways. It enables us to engage our whole being in communion with God—Mind, Heart, Soul and Body. When our bodies are allowed to express the longings of our soul, we experience new freedom in prayer and a deepening sense of being in touch with God.
So, I offer you this morning prayer and encourage you to use your imagination to form movements of your body (perhaps like Yoga) to express the yearnings of your soul as these words guide you.
Morning Body Prayer
Lord, I stretch to You like a flower to the sun, seeking Your life-giving Presence to imbue me with the power and energy I need for the living of this day.
I bow to You in Worship and Praise, for You are “Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace,”[1]—Lover of my soul, Redeemer of my life, and Eternal Guardian of all that is. You are the God who comforts me like a perfect Mother and who reveals truth to me for my life.
I bow to You in deep and sorrowful contrition for all my many manifold sins and failures—the things I have done that I should not have done, and the things I should have done but did not do.
I stretch out to You in absolute surrender, for You are Sovereign God and I am Your creation, created and re-created in Christ Jesus for good works which You have fore-ordained that I should walk in them, and which I have failed to do as I ought to have done.
Wash over me with Your waves of Love, Mercy and Grace; and cleanse me till I am “whiter than snow”[2], until I have clean hands and a pure heart, that I might stand in Your Holy Presence and see You, O Beautiful God, in all Your Glory—and serve You forever.
I thank You for all my sustenance in life and the Presence of Your Holy Spirit to guide and teach me. Hold me up when I and others fail, as we often do in the course of life. Bring me back into Your Womb of Love and Transforming Grace. Bring me back through gestation in Your Will and remake me in Your Divine Image. Re-form me like clay on a potter’s wheel until I am shaped according to “the whole measure of the fullness of Christ,”[3] into a vessel fit for service in Your Kingdom.
Fill me with Your Spirit and enable me to stand and move and have my being for the Praise of Your Glory now and forever. Amen.
[1] Isaiah 9:6 (NRSVue)
[2] Psalm 51:7 (NRSVue)
[3] Ephesians 4:13 (NIV)
Scripture quotations marked NRSVue are from the New Revised Standard Version Updated Edition.
Copyright © 2021 National Council of Churches of Christ in the United States of America.
Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.
Holy Bible, New International Version®, NIV®
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