12 New Breath Prayers

Breathing through our prayers together

Hi friends,

Before we begin this week’s Field Notes, I just wanted to quickly circle back up about last week’s post (read: The questions I haven’t been answering) and simply say thank you for your kindness. Your response was overwhelming. I read every single comment. It is such a fraught and complex topic but you met me with such gentleness and support. I’m grateful for you all.

But as a result of that post, we do also have a lot of new folks here at Field Notes: welcome! We’re so glad you’re here. Subscribers usually hear from me once a week, typically around Tuesdays. If you want to get an idea of what Field Notes is and what sorts of things you’ll see, I’ll point you towards our 2022 year in review so you can get an idea there of content, essays, devotional series, and other fun in store:

Field Notes 2022 in Review

Pop into the comments and say hello if you’re new here, this is a lovely community of readers who unfailingly kind and wise. You’re in good company.

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Breath Prayers

Today, I wanted to share a few new breath prayers that I’ve been working through over the past month or two. I first shared about breath prayer with you all way back in the early days of the pandemic in March 2020 with Breath Prayers for Anxious Times. Some of that also found it’s way into my collaborative book, A Rhythm of Prayer about a year later.

Breath prayer remains an integral part of my own spiritual practice because it hits on something to do with embodiment and quiet that I sorely need in my life.

Plus, this form of prayer is a real low barrier for those of us who sometimes feel a bit weird about prayer or have lost the old pathways of prayer. Sometimes this is the only way I can pray for broad stretches of time. It connects prayer between my body and my soul well - and deep breaths are never a bad thing for any of us.

RELATED: Praying in an Apocalypse

So today, I have some new breath prayers I’ve been writing for my own self over these past couple of months to share with you. You’ll see some of the recent themes from the Field Notes missives, I imagine, since I usually am writing to you from the centre of whatever is going on in my life and mind and heart any given week. And that’s also how I write and pray through breath prayer. So there are themes here about having fun on purpose or joy, about embodiment, about self-care vs. self-comfort, hope etc. Your own breath prayers from your own life would obviously be different but we’d love to hear them, too.

I hope that one or two of these serves you but if not, please do take a look through your own life or time in scripture like the Psalms, perhaps a song that is speaking to you right now or a poem or a conversation with a friend, anything. I’ll share a couple below that were even inspired by our youngest daughter as an example of that. Your own breath prayers have roots in your right-now life. But let’s begin now.

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First, How to Practice Breath Prayers

Breath Prayer is an ancient form of prayer and it is easily adaptable. Simply choose one or two lines to meditate on and inhale and then exhale through them.

The most common or historic form of breath prayer is known as The Jesus Prayer.

So, with that as an example, here’s how it works:

Inhale. Fill your whole self with breath.

Feel the air in your lungs. And then pray:

“Lord Jesus Christ, son of God,” 

Exhale slowly and fully.

“Have mercy on me, a sinner.”

And simply repeat this practice. Start with ten good breaths in and out, with the words being spoken aloud or quietly held in your mind, it’s up to you.

(You could consider switching the word “sinner” for “your beloved child” and notice how your body and soul responds to the change.)

Now let’s begin.

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A Centring Practice to Begin

You can pray a breath prayer literally anywhere without any special rituals or whatever but I’ve found that I like to find a quiet corner for a few minutes and I usually start by lighting a candle.

Then just quietly become aware of your body. Sit in a way that is comfortable for you, a position that will allow you to take a deep breath in and out. Close your eyes.

Imagine a room or a place where you feel safe, your own sanctuary: it can be a real place or one that exists in your imagination. Imagine yourself in that sanctuary. Imagine the way the air smells and the way the light feels.

Breathe slowly and deeply while holding that place in your mind for a few moments, until you have all the details of it gathered around your soul.

You’ll enter into your time of prayer or meditation from within that sanctuary.

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12 New Breath Prayers

Inhale: I can plant seeds for my own joy on purpose,

Exhale: I steadily tend to that flourishing and hope for a harvest of delight.

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Inhale: Pleasure is part of why we were created,

Exhale: I enter into the joy in every good gift from Mother God.

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Inhale: I release the seduction of constant self-comfort,

Exhale: I embrace the challenge and practice of true self-care.

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Inhale: I will not put myself to sleep in these days,

Exhale: I will rise to the questions of my time with love.

¹

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Inhale: I am made in the image of God,

Exhale: I behold myself and others with loving, steady, faithful care.

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Inhale: I resist the temptation of despair,

Exhale: Everything I hope is true about love is already here.

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Inhale: The light is quietly and subversively always with us,

Exhale: I will welcome the luminous presence of God in my common life.

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Inhale: I am content with who I am,

Exhale: I am a proud owner of everything that can’t be bought.

²

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Inhale: My inside world - my mind, my heart, my soul, my body - is being set right,

Exhale: I can see God at work in the outside world.

³

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Inhale: Absolutely nothing can come between me and the love of God,

Exhale: I am always embraced by Jesus.

⁴

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Breath Prayers with Maggie

As an example of how breath prayers can arise from our own lives, here are a couple inspired by our youngest daughter Maggie. She is a deep thinker and artist, regularly working out what she hears or hopes or learns about God through art and writing little books. This is one of her latest ones and it actually inspired a couple of breath prayers for me over the past week or two with her.

Inhale: God is like a Mum Chicken, She takes care of me.

Exhale: I am warm and safe under Her wings.

Inhale: God is like an earthworm, He takes care of the earth,

Exhale: And I welcome the turning over and renewal of my own life’s soil.

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Within that sanctuary, begin to breathe through one of those prayers you’ve chosen as we discussed above.

And then:

When you are finished, imagine yourself slowly leaving that sanctuary.

Transition slowly from prayer to rising.

May you find ways to breathe prayer through your own life, finding God’s breath in your own breath.

Love S.

YOUR TURN: If you have your own Breath Prayer you want to offer up to others as a gift, please just click through to the comments and share with us.

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And in case you missed these recent Field Notes:

• The questions I haven’t been answering; Or, Pulling Levers (for subscribers)

• Having fun on purpose: My 2023 Invitation (for subscribers)

• Field Notes 2022 in Review: Looking back on the year that was around here (for everyone)

• What we hope is true about love (for everyone)

• How have you accepted and embraced your losses in the wilderness? A Community Conversation (for subscribers)

1. That phrase “rise to the questions of our time” is from my dear friend, Idelette McVicker’s wonderful poem Let Us Be Women Who Love, which was also featured in Jesus Feminist.

2. This one is inspired by the Sermon on the Mount, Matthew 5:5 in the Message translation.

3. I’ve been spending more time in the Sermon on the Mount lately, obviously, as this one is also inspired by that passage, specifically verse 8.

4. This one is inspired by Romans 8:38-39