Breath Prayer

This week as we continue to pray alongside Thomas, we focus our thoughts on Breath Prayer. Breath prayer refers to prayer said in conjunction with one’s breathing. A phrase is said on the in-breath and another on the out-breath. It is a form of prayer that became popular in the West in the 19th century through a Russian tale entitled, The Way of the Pilgrim.

In this short story, a man goes to his spiritual father for help to follow the apostle Paul’s encouragement in I Thessalonians 5:17 to pray without ceasing. The Father told him to pray with his breathing. On the in-breath say “Jesus Christ, Son of God” and on the out-breath say, “Have mercy on me a sinner.” This phrase came from the gospel account of Jesus healing blind Bartimaeus who cried these words as Jesus approached. It is considered the most widely used prayer in the monastic traditions. The Father advised the pilgrim to pray the prayer with his breath one hundred times a day. The man returned after a time and said he still was not praying without ceasing, so the Father assigned that he pray it one thousand times a day. The man returned a third time and said he still had not met his desire to pray without ceasing, so the spiritual father suggested he pray ten thousand times a day. Thus, it became that on every in-breath, the pilgrim was saying, “Jesus Christ, Son of God,” and on every out-breath, “Have mercy on me a sinner.” Finally, he was praying without ceasing.

The point of this prayer, and of Paul’s admonition to pray without ceasing, is to increase our awareness of God’s presence. We are different when we remember that God is with us. The phrase used in this prayer form can be the traditional phrase of blind Bartimaeus, but other phrases can be used as well. One option used by many is the 23rd Psalm - “The Lord is my shepherd” on the in-breath, “I shall not want,” on the out-breath. Another version is “I am the beloved’s” and “He is mine.” The exact choice of phrase is less important than its help in centering our thoughts on Christ.

Several years ago, I taught this prayer form as part of an undergraduate course entitled “Disciplines for Christian Living.” Each week of the fifteen-week semester, the students practiced a different discipline, such as fasting, scripture, simplicity, music, etc. Different students resonated with different disciplines. One young man who was a student athlete came to love breath prayer. At the beginning of the semester, he was not happy about having to take the course. He was curious, however, and found that he liked trying out different Christian disciplines. He came back to class one day after a week of practicing the breath prayer and had become a zealous evangelist of the discipline. He exclaimed that he could do it anywhere, at any time and it had become so helpful to him. He was practicing it before and after games and even during games. It took only a moment, so with any anxious thought, he could pause and focus on his breathing. He shared it with his teammates and soon many of them were using it to center themselves on Christ in the moment.

I encourage you to try this one on for size. You can use the traditional phrase of the pilgrim or create your own phrase. The point is to allow yourself in the moment to focus on your breathing and through the phrase to center yourself on Christ.

-       Jackie L. Halstead