Breath Prayer: For When You Don’t Have Many Words
Hey, friends.
As we continue to journey through varying degrees of social distancing, sheltering in place, quarantining, and hunkering down at home, I wanted to offer a prayer practice that may be helpful.
I have to admit that prayer has been a bit off for me the last few weeks. I just haven’t quite been able to find the words, and there have been some moments when God has felt very far away. Aside from intercession and praying for others, the easiest forms of prayer lately have been the Lord’s Prayer, those written by others (there are some beautiful prayers being shared via social media right now, aren’t there?), and breath prayer.
MaryKate Morse writes in her book on prayer that this ancient way of praying brings “comfort and order out of chaos” (The Guidebook to Prayer). Does that not sound like the kind of praying we need right now? It’s one of the simplest ways to pray when words come slowly, or you need to borrow the words of another. It’s been called the “prayer of the heart” for centuries, as it’s meant to be just a few, deeply intimate words that come straight from your heart and are prayed upward to the Father, matching the movements of your breath.
Breath prayer is rooted first in scripture, but it’s been a prayer practice of Christians for centuries—dating all the way back to our friends, the Desert Fathers and Mothers of the 4th century. One of the oldest resources we have on breath prayer is The Way of the Pilgrim, a book that teaches us one of the most famous breath prayers, called the “Jesus Prayer”: “Lord Jesus, Son of God, have mercy on me, a sinner."
(If you want to know a little more about the history of breath prayer, I’ve linked a few great blog posts and articles, as well as a few books written by other lovely humans for you to check out! See below.)
HOW TO PRAY A BREATH PRAYER
Breath prayer is so simple. It goes like this:
Take a few full breaths. Breathe in, slowly and deeply. Let your lungs and abdomen fill with each breath. Pay attention to your body, heart, mind, and spirit in this moment. Breathe in the Holy Spirit, and breathe out any anxieties or worries (Bill Gaultiere, "Breath Prayers”).
Breathe in again, and as you do, call upon a name of God (“Holy Father,” “Lord Jesus,” “Prince of Peace,” “Spirit of Life,” etc.).
Breathe out, and with your breath, let out a “simple, God-given desire” (Sharon Lee Song, “Take Time for Breath Prayer”).
Repeat your prayer of the heart several times, following the rhythms of your breath.
Here’s a classic example, the Kyrie Eleison:
[Inhale] “Lord…”
[Exhale] “…have mercy.”
EXAMPLES OF BREATH PRAYER
I’ve always loved praying breath prayers written by others. Here are a few of my favorites, and their respective sources:
“Lord, have mercy” (the Kyrie Eleison)
“Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me, a sinner.” (The Jesus Prayer)
“Lord have mercy…Thee I adore…into Thy hands.” (Steve Summerell)
“Father... love me.” (Sharon Lee Song, “Take Time for Breath Prayer)
“Let me be still and know…that you are God.” (Song, “Take Time for Breath Prayer”)
“The Lord is my Shepherd…I shall not want.” (Bill Gaultiere, “Breath Prayers”)
“In Christ’s humility…consider others better than yourselves.” (Phil 2:3, Bill Gaultiere)
“Abba... I belong to you” (Brennan Manning)
“Healer…speak the word and I shall be healed.” (Adele Calhoun, Spiritual Disciplines Handbook)
“Shepherd…bring home my lost loved one.” (Calhoun)
“Holy One…keep me true.” (Calhoun)
“Lord…here I am.” (Calhoun)
“Holy Spirit...come focus on me.” (MaryKate Morse, The Guidebook to Prayer)
“Your will be done.” (Morse)
“Holy Father... I need your peace.” (Morse)
“God...help me to see.” (Morse)
“Spirit...guide my path.” ( Morse)
“Holy Spirit, fill me.” (Marjorie Thompson, Soul Feast)
“Give me strength...O Christ.” (Thompson)
“Father...show me your love.” (Thompson)
“Teach me patience...gracious God.” (Thompson)
“My God… and my All.” (Saint Francis)
“Come... Lord Jesus!” (Thompson)
“God of love...heal your children.” (Christine Li Suh, “Practicing Abundance in an Age of Anxiety”)
“Father...have mercy.” (Li Suh)
“Jesus/Immanuel... you are here/with me.” (Li Suh)
WRITING YOUR OWN BREATH PRAYER
You may wish to write your own breath prayer, and if so, it may come to you slowly. Don’t worry so much about getting the words right—let it come out of a place of quietness and trust in God. Using words from scripture, such as the Psalms or words prayed to Jesus in the Gospels, are a great place to find your own prayer of the heart. My breath prayer in this season of pandemic has been: “Oh loving God, hold me, as you hold the world.”
Marjorie Thompson gives some great wisdom in how to write your own breath prayer:
"Visualize Jesus standing before you, asking you: ‘[your name], what do you want me to do for you?’ Let your response surface from deep within. If more than one thing comes to mind, identify the root desire beneath all the others.
Next, identify how you normally address God in prayer: Lord, Jesus, Holy One, Living Spirit, Eternal God? Find your name for [God].
Combine your desire with your name for God in a single short phrase that flows easily from your mind. You may need to experiment with phrasing to find a comfortable rhythm.
Sit quietly and repeat the phrase gently in your mind for several minutes. Take a walk, repeating your prayer while you move. Note how the prayer shapes your perceptions. You can carry this prayer with you through the day.” (Soul Feast, pp. 51-52)
The irony isn’t lost on me that a prayer practice done in movement with my breathing should be so comforting during a respiratory virus pandemic…perhaps it’s simply a reminder of the Spirit of God with us in the brokenness of this season, as the ancient Hebrew and Greek words for spirit are also the words for breath. Still, it’s been a simple way for me to come to the Lord in a very raw posture, to cry out to Him, and to notice the sweetness of His presence with me. May it be a gift to you, too, when you don’t know what else to pray.
Madame Guyon wrote this in Experiencing the Depths of Jesus Christ:
“In the beginning, you were led into His presence by prayer; but now, as prayer continues, the prayer actually becomes His presence. In fact, we can no longer say that it is prayer hat continues. It is actually His presence that continues with you. This is beyond prayer. Now a heavenly blessedness is yours. You begin to discover that God is more intimately present to you than you are to yourself, and a great awareness of the Lord begins to come to you.” (Madame Jeanne Guyon, Experiencing the Depths of Jesus Christ, 67)