One of the practices I have learned, and that I call upon from time to time, is a breath prayer. I am no longer sure how I learned it, but I do know that it brings me comfort and strength.
What is a breath prayer? As mentioned in the link below, it is prayer in which our breathing supports our practice. With each inhale I pray a short line, and with each exhale I pray a short line. The prayer I learned goes like this:
Inhale: Jesus Christ
Exhale: Son of God
Inhale: Have mercy on me
Exhale: A sinner.
This is also called the Jesus Prayer. There are occasions when I pray this prayer over and over, each breath and repetition bringing me clearer focus on the content of the prayer. It is a prayer of praise and humility, a prayer of intercession, and a prayer that is always in my heart when I don't know how or what to pray.
This web page suggests that we create our own breath prayers and offers further examples: https://www.upperroom.org/resources/the-breath-prayer
Today I tried creating my own for the first time. I find that I prefer a four-line prayer so that I have two sets of inhales and exhales. My prayer is:
Lord of Life
Gentle shepherd
Grant me courage
To walk your path
I hope you will try breath prayer, and I wish you a glorious month.
Be sure to visit Ruth at There's No such Things as a God-forsaken Town. You will find links in the comments to others in our Spiritual Journey group. Click HERE. Thanks for our prompt this month, Ruth, and for hosting.
