Living Prayer

There is one more type of prayer that must be mentioned, though it is not Lenten in spirit. Neither can it be confined to a single season, for it cannot be practiced for a limited time. In Richard J. Foster's "Prayer: Finding the Heart's True Home", it is termed Unceasing Prayer, but perhaps a better description is Living Prayer. For more than any other type of prayer, it requires the believer to incorporate prayer into every activity of life. And not just as an add-on, where a pause is inserted before each task and a prayer is offered, lifting up the work to God's glory. No, Living Prayer becomes part of the task itself, such that the work is done while in prayer and the work itself is transformed into evidence of God. Because it is so ingrained in the day-to-day, Living Prayer is accessible to even the least of God's children.

In some ways, Living Prayer may be the aspiration of those who adopt a stronger prayer life for Lent. Learning to be dependent on prayer and to be completely at ease speaking with the Lord and Creator of the Universe sound wonderful and maybe a little bit frightening, but it's what the truest believers have always done. Besides, as Foster points out:

"... steady, faithful communion is in some ways easier than our normal way of praying. It is harder to pray inconsistently than consistently in the same way that it is harder to play a good game of tennis when we practice only once in a while. Do we really think we can experience integration of heart and mind and spirit with an erratic prayer life? Do we really believe we can, like Moses, "speak face to face" with God as someone would a friend by our unpredictable prayers? No, we develop intimacy by regular association. We develop ease as well. Why ease? Because we are forming fixed habits of righteousness. In time these "holy habits" will do their work of integration so that praying becomes the easy thing, the natural thing, the spontaneous thing - the hard thing will be to refrain from prayer."

Of course, habits don't form overnight and intimacy deepens with time, seemingly without end. So Lent is far too short a time to become good at Living Prayer. Even a lifetime is not enough time. But Lent is certainly an excellent time to start the journey that leads to Living Prayer. At any point on the journey, but especially at the beginning, travelers may be aided by a technique called Breath Prayer. The classic breath prayer is the Jesus Prayer: "Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me, a sinner." This prayer is based on the prayer of the tax collector recorded in Luke 18:13 and it came into widespread use in the sixth century. It is simple, direct, and can be uttered with a single breath. Many believers from all walks of life have used this prayer, offered over and over each day, to draw closer to God.

But this is only one Breath Prayer and aside from its traditional success, any number of other breath prayers are equally good. Foster encourages each person to discover their own breath prayer by reflecting meditatively on a personal obstacle to God's presence, on a favorite personal address to God and on a memorable way to combine these into a short phrase. Selected in this way, the Breath Prayer becomes uniquely individual and easier to remember, but additional reminders or daily trigger events can help keep it in mind often. Breath prayers are meant to be instinctual, even reflexive and said without forethought, but they should be allowed to change slowly as life moves on and needs change.

The Breath Prayer is a great tool to approach Living Prayer, but it isn't Living Prayer. That requires a great deal of time and effort, starting with the mechanics of repeating a prayer over and over. From there it moves into the subconscious, so that realization the prayer has been said occurs only after it is finished. Continued Living Prayer then moves the sentiment to the heart and then into every fiber of being, such that life becomes a life of prayer, a prayer in continuous action. Life and prayer become one, indistinguishable, one from another. The prayer is alive and living is prayer, Living Prayer.

May your Lenten practices help you become a living prayer with God.