Praying with our bodies...

Prayer means a lot more than lifting our hearts to God. For Catholics it means praying with our entire selves, body and soul. Our body movements during prayer have a lot of merit and should never go unnoticed. TOB writer Joel Haubenreich has more on this subject in his latest article on TOB Exchange:

Crucial to the understanding of the necessity of physical prayer is the fundamental Christian belief that we do not merely have bodies, but in fact are bodies. At Mass we profess our belief in the resurrection of the body, our hope in the reunification of our whole persons. Our bodies will on that day be rejoined to our souls, and we will once more be complete. Our bodies, then, here on earth must have a part in every action, even spiritual actions. We must, taking seriously Jesus’ charge to “love the Lord you God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your strength, and with all your mind,” commit ourselves fully to his service, using every faculty given to us.

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