Breath as Prayer

Photo by Steven Depolo. Breath of God Spectrum
 Hospital chapel. 

It is estimated that older children and adults breathe 17,000 to 30,000 times a day, although it is a mostly unconscious activity. With Pentecost approaching, when we remember how the resurrected Jesus breathed on his disciples and said, “Receive the Holy Spirit,” we have the opportunity to be conscious of breathing as an act of prayer, of gratitude, of solidarity with others.

We usually associate prayer with word and ritual, but Thomas Merton offered a different option when he said, “How I pray is breathe.” When we simply sit and breathe, we remember who gives us breath. We recognize how vulnerable we are when we can’t breathe, which leads to humility. We learn that we don’t have to accomplish anything to earn God’s love—awareness of God’s presence through awareness of our breath is itself a gift to our Creator.

In these days especially, our breath can carry a prayer for persons with the COVID-19 virus and other respiratory ailments who are struggling to breathe. Heather Sellers, who had been practicing how to breathe for years as part of her meditation practice, wrote in The Sun magazine that after she contracted the virus, it became her breathing teacher. She said, “It has to do with observing and allowing. Now as I walk…every step is a mindfulness meditation. I can’t believe how hard it is to allow an in-breath and gently let that breath go. There are many moments I think I’m not going to make it…I’m not going to keep breathing. And I must allow that, too. And I do.”

It is typical for us not to appreciate what we have until we are deprived of it, but we can make a different choice. We can let the breath of the Holy Spirit infuse us with gratitude for our own breath, which animates us, unites us to God and each other, and centers us in the present moment. Lenny Kravitz reminds us, “You’re never promised your next breath.” With humility and gratitude, we can set aside time each day to welcome each breath when it comes, so we can let go with no regrets on the day it does not come again.