Concerning the Breath Prayer

This past Saturday my wife and I spent time with a number of friends on a spiritual formation retreat. The so-called "breath prayer" was one of the exercises, and called for a two hour period of silence, repeating a short prayer continuously. This was, of course, taken from ancient tradition involving the Jesus prayer -- "Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me, a sinner" -- and the use made of this prayer by the anonymous author of The Way of the Pilgrim, among others.

For me, this was a wonderfully refreshing time -- for many others it was simply unrealistic and frustrating. Reflecting on the exercise afterward, I think that the biggest problem was that the people were just thrown into the exercise without being given the resources needed to really enter into it properly. This post is intended to document some of my experience with this sort of prayer, in the hopes that it would be useful to others.

Why this form of prayer?

While this form of prayer does have some places of contact with Brother Lawrence and his Practice of the Presence of God, it is much directly related to an attempt to take Paul's admonition to "pray with ceasing" seriously and literally. In The Way of the Pilgrim, the pilgrim sought instruction on how he could obey this command, and eventually received the suggestion that he pray the Jesus prayer, tying it to the rhythm of his breathing. Over many years, the pilgrim found that this Jesus prayer sank deeper and deeper into his heart and soul, taking on a life of its own. This prayer was there, undergirding everything he did, everything he said, everything he thought, just like his breathing or his heart beat. And God did indeed show mercy to the pilgrim by transforming him much more fully into the image of Jesus Christ, slowly and surely, through the constant presence of that prayer.

In essence then, the practicing object of this form of prayer is not the conscious mind, but the subconscious, the heart, the soul. The conscious mind is just the doorway to the deep places where this prayer really is intended to live.

A More Contemporary Metaphor

The name "breath prayer" refers to the pilgrim's practice of tying the prayer to the rhythm of his breathing. I expect that most contemporary North Americans are like me -- not really aware of our breathing, unless we're short of breath. For us, trying to tie prayer to breathing is made more difficult by first having to become aware of our breathing. And so it becomes more of a breathing exercise than a prayer exercise, or an exercise in long term spiritual formation.

For me, it is more helpful to think of this prayer as being analogous to that song you just can't get out of your head. But instead of trying to stop the song, this time we want to perpetuate a particular song -- the song that represents the deepest prayer of our heart, the song that we hope to pray 24/7/365 for the rest of our lives.

Thoughts on Picking a Prayer Song

Rhythm

It's probably the catchy rhythm that makes songs stick in your head, but too catchy a rhythm is probably also what makes them irritating. We want something that will stick for a lifetime, hold its own when all the other sounds and rhythms of life are all around, be present enough to inform and transform our lives, but not so present as to get in the way of the life we do need and want to live.

For me, this means a rhythm that is a bit slower than breathing, and that also contains a quiet gap between phrases -- a gap where life can go on while I am learning.

A Simple Structure

In order for the prayer song to be driven deep into our souls, it needs to have a simple structure. If it is too complicated, we will lose our place, mix up the stanzas, or just give up trying to keep it all straight. However, if it is too simple, or too flat, it will become boring long before we are able to push it down deep. Some of the examples given this weekend were probably not the best in that they were too simple, too flat.

The ideal prayer song probably has a structure involving maybe 3-5 lines, with some noticeable repetition -- either of words, or thoughts, or sounds. Consequently, the prayer:

Lord, have mercy.
Christ, have mercy.
Lord, have mercy
on me.

has more staying power for me than the original:

Lord Jesus Christ,
Son of God,
have mercy on me,
the sinner.

Tied to the Heart's Deep Cry

The core idea of the prayer song really has to resonate with the deep cry of the heart, otherwise it won't last. This means that the text will have to be far more individualized in a 21^st century North American culture than ever it had to be in the past. However, it dare not be faddish nor tied too closely to one stage of life only. It needs to be a prayer that one will always need to pray, no matter how far along the journey toward holiness one progresses. Thus, we will always need mercy, we will always need our hearts changed more toward the heart of God, we will always the indwelling comfort of the Holy Spirit. These themes are probably good choices, but do not necessarily exhaust the things for which we will always need to pray.

Room to Improvise

This last suggestion may be something that relates more to my particular idiosyncrasies, but I find that anything I am going to repeat over a long time needs some room to improvise, some room in which to express the variations on the theme that strike me now as being particularly relevant, poignant, or needful.

So far, this improvisation has taken two main forms for me: (a) the creation of additional "stanzas" that fit the same rhythmic pattern but vary some of the lines to express a slightly different perspective on the same general prayer, and (b) the insertion of a different prayer song at points, to create a sort of medley. The latter allows one to supplement a contemporary text or rhythm with a more ancient one. Perhaps also in time, the song can evolve in something like the way whale songs evolve, both remaining the same over long periods of time, yet constantly changing to reflect the particular emphasis that seems most needful right now.

How to Start

I really think that assigning two hours as a starting "sink or swim" exercise was not the wisest choice. A better way to start would have been:

• Make the objective of the exercise clearer. This is a long term practice that will show its fruit over many years. Don't expect it to produce dramatic results at first -- but don't be closed to discovering new things about prayer even in this exercise.
• Have everyone practice a common example prayer for 2-5 minutes, just to get a feel for how the repetition and rhythm work.
• Talk about the suggestions I've made above for picking something that will work for you.
• Give some examples of possible song prayers that might be tried. As I noted before, there were many examples, but they were too similar, too simple, and too flat.
• Have everyone pick a something they want to try, and practice it in the classroom for about 5 minutes.
• Let people go off on their own for maybe 30-45 minutes to try this out. This would mean that the entire exercise, including instruction and initial practice would be about one hour.
• Offer to stay around to provide additional guidance, clarification, assistance to those who need something explained further.

Don't Forget

The object of this sort of prayer is not to replace everything else in your mind. You will have other thoughts come to mind while you are praying this way. Do try to make sure the song prayer continues, but don't try to force out everything else. Rather let those other thoughts form part of the prayer that happens in those quiet spaces you left in the rhythm of your prayer song. The things you see, the things you notice, the thoughts that come to mind might just be part of the way God is beginning to answer your prayer right off the bat.

Eventually, if you decide to pursue this form of prayer as an ongoing discipline, all of life will happen while the prayer continues. So it can't hurt to let some of life join in even as you begin.