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...