Breathe

Read Psalm 145:13-21

He was praying in a certain place, and after he had finished, one of his disciples said to him, "Lord, teach us to pray, as John taught his disciples." Luke 11:1 (NRSV)

A few years ago, Alan Li Camarillo, from Missouri, studied acting. One of the classes taught techniques for breathing and movement. Just prior to the acting sessions, we would lie down on the floor and practice slow and deep breathing exercises. The purpose was to gain coordination as we incorporated the breathing and movement techniques into our acting sessions. It was something relatively simple to do but at ties some of us would skip this regimen. That was when the professor would vigorously call out: "Breathe!" And we would stop what we were doing, lie down, and begin our breathing routine.

Alan sees a similarity in our life of prayer. It can be easy to be distracted by other tasks and fail to nourish our spiritual life with active prayer. Many times we are full of excuses. Communion with God, our Breath of Life, is always free, and God wants us to be fully engaged. Prayer is an opportunity to breathe deeply and coordinate heart, mind, body, and soul to be attentive to God's voice.

Prayer: God of creation, center our thoughts so we can be in complete communion with you. Thank you for teaching us to pray: "Father, hallowed be your name, your kingdom come. Give us each day our daily bread. Forgive us our sins, for we also forgive everyone who sins against us. and lead us not into temptation (Luke 11:2-4, NIV)." In Jesus' name. Amen