practicing pilgrimage at home and abroad
Jenny Wade is a Seattle-based therapist and yoga instructor, and today we talk about the significance of the body when it comes to the spiritual journey, as well as how opening ourselves up to the Sacred Feminine—whether we’re male or female—can impact how we relate to our bodies, our faith, and our way of being.
As I settle back in at home, I’ve been embracing our recent practice of Breath Prayer in the Lent 40 Days to Pray series to help center me as I return to my everyday life. (We practiced it on Iona, too!) This week we turn to praying with Prayer Beads—a practice close to those of us who journeyed to Iona as we carried our own Iona-inspired prayer beads with us, allowing the words of St. Columba and the wisdom of the Celtic Christian tradition to guide us along the path. (Get an Iona-inspired set of your own, available in the Journey Shop for the season of Lent).
I included Prayer Beads in the Pilgrim Pack for my Iona pilgrims because I love the way the repetition of the prayers and the touch of the beads helps usher me into the presence of God in body, mind, and soul—so essential for the pilgrim’s journey, whether at home or abroad. Here’s more on the practice of praying with Prayer Beads and instructions on how you can join in, too.
Beads have been used as tools for spiritual practice for millennia and across multiple faith traditions, drawing seekers closer to the Divine with each bead touched and prayer offered. They are perhaps most used as a somatic aid during prayer, some of the commonly recognized prayer beads being mala beads, used by Buddhists and Hindus, and rosaries, used by Catholics. In fact, at least in the English language, the words “bead” and “prayer” are connected—the word “bead” comes from the anglo-saxon bede, meaning prayer.
Even the Desert Mothers and Fathers used a tangible object similar in shape to a bead as a vehicle for prayer, carrying pebbles in their pockets and dropping them as each prayer was released.
Today, the practice of praying with beads has become available to all through the development of Anglican prayer beads, developed in the 1980s by an Episcopal priest from Texas. A group of contemplative practitioners in the priest’s church had been praying the rosary, but when they wanted a practice that was more experimental, the priest decided to devise a set—and a practice—of his own. Studying the prayer beads of various traditions and hoping to develop a practice that might act as a bridge between the Eastern and Western Church, the priest modeled his Anglican prayer beads after the Orthodox Jesus Prayer Rope and the Roman Catholic Rosary while also allowing it to remain distinct.
Anglican prayer beads are made up 33 beads, a number which calls to mind the age of Christ when he was crucified. These beads are separated by a varying number of spacer beads. There are two sections of the prayer beads—the stem and the circle of prayer. The stem, which consists of a charm and the invitatory bead, is where the prayer begins and ends. The main part of the prayer is recited in the second section of the prayer beads—a circle made up of four sets of week beads containing seven beads each (a holy number harkening back to the days of creation) divided by four cruciform beads which form a cross. These four beads can also represent the four gospels, the four seasons, the four directions, or the four parts of the self—body, mind, spirit, and soul.
Each type of bead is assigned a particular prayer:
charm
A cross or alternative symbol with spiritual significance used when beginning and ending the prayer.
invitatory bead
A single bead on the stem located between the charm and the first cruciform bead. When beginning, the invitatory bead serves as a call to prayer, stating the intention of your practice, and is oftentimes a verse of Scripture or inspirational phrase. When closing, it serves as a benediction and can be used to recite the Lord’s Prayer, spend time in personal prayer, or end with more words of inspiration.
cruciforms
Four beads spaced evenly throughout the circle of prayer that form a cross. The cruciform beads are connected to a repeated phrase that aligns with the desire of your heart and the theme of your prayer and can also be used for the prayers of the people, assigning a different category to each bead (prayers for the Church, prayers for the nation, prayers for the world, prayers for those who suffer, etc.).
weeks
Four sets of seven beads set in between the four cruciform beads. The week beads are the heart of the prayer and are used with a phrase you desire to repeat multiple times or an entire phrase spread across one week (seven beads) or even the entire set of four weeks (twenty-eight beads).
You can use prayers collected specifically for prayer beads or develop your own from your favorite Psalms, quotes, hymns, and passages of Scripture. Download a PDF of four prayers created to be used with prayer beads on the resources page or purchase pocket-sized prayer bead prayer cards in the Journey Shop.
Don’t have your own set of prayer beads? Start with a beaded necklace or bracelet that you have at home. While having different types of beads to represent the different parts of each prayer is valuable, just moving your fingers from one bead to the next can still help facilitate the meditative somatic state that so many prayer bead practitioners have come to love.
You can also purchase your own set of prayer beads from The Journey Shop. Each set in the Journey Shop is designed to be worn on your wrist so your prayers can accompany you throughout your day. The limited edition set inspired by Iona is only available during the season of Lent and stock is running low!
Bead One, Pray Too: A Guide to Making and Using Prayer Beads by Kimberly Winston
A Bead and a Prayer: A Beginner’s Guide to Protestant Prayer Beads by Kristen E. Vincent
Another Bead, Another Prayer: Devotions to Use with Protestant Prayer Beads by Kristen E. Vincent
Praying with Beads: Daily Prayers for the Christian Year by Nan Lewis Doerr and Virginia Stem Owens
A String and a Prayer: How to Make and Use Prayer Beads by Eleanor Wiley and Maggie Oman Shannon
How are things going so far? It’s amazing that even though we’re devoting a week to each practice, moving through at this pace can feel like a whirlwind. Such is the nature of contemplative prayer—it takes time to sink in, time to savor, and time to transform. But that time is worth it, because it brings us to the time of the present/presence and the time beyond time known as kairos where heaven is near and Sacred Encounter is around every corner.
Now that we’ve practiced Welcoming Prayer, Centering Prayer, and Lectio Divina, let’s pause in the middle and take a breath, shall we?
Though not a well-known practice, Breath Prayer is shaped by the action most essential to our lives: our very breath. It is our first action on the day we are born and our final act on the day that we die. Breath plays a central role in Scripture, too, from the very beginning in which God breathes life into human form and throughout the text, which Paul describes in 2 Timothy as “God-breathed.” Even the words for “spirit” in Hebrew (ruach) and Greek (pneuma)—the two languages in which the Bible was originally written—can also mean “breath.” It seems breath is not only essential to our physical existence but our spiritual nourishment, too.
The Breath Prayer that we know today originated with the Desert Mothers and Fathers as a way to “pray without ceasing” (1 Thessalonians 5:17). Considered foundational to contemplation and a way to cultivate silence and attention, the Desert Mothers and Fathers would take a short excerpt of Scripture, breathing in with the first part of the text and breathing out with the next, repeating this pattern for extended periods of time. While any text would do, the most common Scripture used for Breath Prayer became “Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me, a sinner,” echoing the petition made by the tax collector in Luke 18:13.
Over time the text and the prayer that accompanies it became known as the “Jesus Prayer” or “Prayer of the Heart” in the Eastern Orthodox tradition, shortening to “Lord Jesus Christ, have mercy on me,” or even simply “Jesus, mercy.” Breath Prayer, too, began to expand beyond the use of Scriptures, becoming a way to invoke the name of God and ask for help in just a few short words.
With the scientific knowledge we have today on mindfulness and the effectiveness of deep breathing on the body, mind, and soul, it’s no wonder that this form of prayer gently but surely transformed those who practiced it. Science tells us that our brains are constantly transforming and are shaped by what we focus on. For example, while anxiety begets anxiety, focusing on peace can lead to a sense of peace. We also know that deep breathing directly impacts the part of the brain where stress dwells, encouraging our nervous system to slow down and eventually melt into the present moment.
When we combine the positive reinforcement of the mind through a meditative phrase with the deep breathing that relaxes the body and centers the soul, we become less reactive and more receptive to the presence of God in us and in the world. Breath Prayer is indeed a holistic practice for body, mind, and soul, and as it clears the path for you to abide in Christ (the very union of the spiritual and the physical) it also makes space within for Christ to dwell in you. As you cultivate your practice you’ll likely find that even when your prayer has finished, the effects of the prayer will remain, your sense of God’s presence as close to you as your very breath.
Breath Prayer is as informal as they come, requiring only a simple phrase and the breath you carry with you every moment throughout the day. While it is undoubtedly valuable when practiced in silence and solitude for an extended period of time (scientists say that 12 minutes of deep breathing each day is enough to transform the mind—set a soothing timer using the Insight Timer app), it can also be practiced during everyday tasks, such as washing the dishes or commuting to work, allowing even the most mundane moments of the day to be whitewashed with the Sacred.
Breath Prayer Brings God Into the Body from NACC
Holy Listening with Breath, Body, and Spirit by Whitney R. Simpson
Mysteries of the Jesus Prayer by Norris Chumley
Learn more about connecting the body with spiritual practice in Christine Valters Paintner’s new book, The Wisdom of the Body.
Not in the play-all-day show-some-skin ways of summer, but in the gentle rhythms of rest and relaxation, hibernation and holy listening. Winter encourages me to listen to what is moving below the surface and waiting to patiently to sprout like a bulb in spring. Just in time for the arrival of spring and the season of Lent, Christine Valters Paintner is releasing her latest book, The Wisdom of the Body: A Contemplative Journey to Wholeness for Women, inviting us to attune ourselves to the Sacred insight stirring within, from breath to bones, waiting to be released.
Today I’m sharing an interview with her on her new book and how to begin to tap into the body’s wisdom. The book doesn’t release until March 3, 2017, but you can enter to win a copy of your own at the bottom of the post! (Only US readers eligible.)
Labyrinths—maze-like formations with single, unhindered paths that lead to and from the center—have been used as spiritual tools throughout millennia and across traditions. As humanity entered a new season of awakening over the past few decades, the labyrinth has experienced a resurgence in popularity, becoming a well-known spiritual practice and commonly used tool for the journey.
