Breath Prayer

I mentioned in a post to the church that it can be helpful during fasting (or any difficult time) to have a breath prayer that articulates briefly and succinctly your “cry of the heart” that you can offer up over and over without a lot of forethought.

I gave some examples, such as: "You are my daily bread;" or "I depend on you, Lord;" or "I live by your every word;" or "Fill me Holy Spirit;" or "Good Shepherd, feed me..."

But I forgot to mention the simplest and most common breath prayer: "Lord, have mercy." Obviously, it's our Kyrie, but it comes from the prayer the tax collector prayed in Jesus' Parable in Luke 18 (which is the Ash Wednesday Gospel in the Daily Office Readings, Year II), "God have mercy on me a sinner." Jesus was pointing out that the man that prayed this prayer went home justified, while the Pharisee did not. He prayed something like, "God, thank you for helping me be so great - I fast twice a week and I tithe, and I'm not like that sinner..."

The beautiful "Jesus Prayer," which I think comes out of the Russian Orthodox tradition, developed out of this kyrie - "Lord Jesus Christ, Son of the Living God, have mercy on me, a sinner." This is another breath prayer, to be prayed continually throughout the day; it can also be used as a focusing prayer - said repeatedly for a few minutes, breathing in during the first part, and breathing out during the second part. Taking in the Lord and his Spirit, as it were, and letting go of sin and disbelief as we exhale...

Love Song, Dietrich Bonhoeffer

This is today's entry in "A Year with Dietrich Bonhoeffer". I thought it was beautiful, honoring "earthly love" and "earthly affection" in all its forms, but connecting it to, placing it within, building it upon, God's love.

"God wants us to love God eternally with our whole hearts - not in such a way as to injure or weaken our earthly love, but to provide a kind of cantus firmus to which the other melodies of life provide the counterpoint. One of these contrapuntal themes (which have their own complete independence but are yet related to the cantus firmus) is earthly affection. Even in the Bible we have the Song of Songs; and really one can imagine no more ardent, passionate, sensual love than is portrayed there. It is a good thing that that book is in the Bible, in face of all those who believe that the restraint of passion is Christian (where is there such restraint in the Old Testament?). Where the cantus firmus is clear and plain, the counterpoint can be developed to its limits. The two are 'undivided and yet distinct,' in the words of the Chalcedonian Definition, like Christ in his divine and human natures... Do you see what I am driving at? I wanted to tell you to have a good, clear cantus firmus; that is the only way to a full and perfect sound, when the counterpoint has a firm support and cannot come adrift or get out of tune, while remaining a distinct whole in its own right. Only a polyphony of this kind can give life a wholeness and at the same time assure us that nothing calamitous can happen as long as the cantus firmus is kept going."

(from Letters and Papers from Prison, pp 150-151)