Our bodies have too long been in exile. We listen or pray with our hearts and minds but ignore much of our bodies; we become 'disembodied'. This illuminating book is about honouring what our bodies have to teach us. Brimming with words of wisdom that will allow you to discover what a gift your body is, 'Embodied Prayer' invites you towards wholeness of body, mind, and soul.

A spiritual guidebook for bringing prayer into our bodies The power of words is nowhere more evident than when we use them to pray, but prayer is also the place where we most often come up against the limitations of words. In this intriguing book of reflections and accompanying photographs, we see how our bodies, in particular our hands, can give meaning to our prayers in a way that words alone cannot. Here are twenty-one simple ways of using our hands to speak to God, presented in word and image. These spiritual practices are from a broad range of religious traditions—from Anglican to Sufi, from Buddhist to Shaker. Some may be familiar, some new; all demonstrate the universal importance people of all faith traditions have given to embodied prayer. They teach us to experience the unique spiritual enrichment that can be found when we pray with our hands.

EMBODIED PRAYER encourages the reader from an inward-focused prayer life into outward expressions. Having the knowledge of how to translate our prayers to a physical declaration gives us the freedom to release our hearts cry to the ears of The Father. Dance movement allows us to push past the mental limitations that we may have, to a place of renewal and refreshing. Embodied Prayer is a concise and easy to understand guide to help explore how movement can enhance and contribute to your growing relationship with Abba Father. Embodied Prayer comes because of workshops and requests about how to use our bodies to express our heart towards the Father. It gives practical applications and spiritual concepts to help the reader understand the idea of making our petitions known to God through dance and movement. Gail A. Glover gives us insight into dancing our prayers through practical information and exercises. She continues to write and give a voice to the many aspects of life that she wants to share with her kingdom family, known and unknown.

World Magazine Book of the Year Creative Quarterly Professional Graphic Design Runner-Up Christianity Today's Book of the Year Winner ECPA Top Shelf Book Cover Award "This book will make no attempt to defend God. . . . If you are looking for a book that boasts triumphantly of conquest over a great enemy, or gives a detached philosophical analysis that neatly solves an absorbing problem, this isn't it." Too often the Christian attitude toward suffering is characterized by a detached academic appeal to God's sovereignty, as if suffering were a game or a math problem. Or maybe we expect that since God is good, everything will just work out all right somehow. But where then is honest lament? Aren't we shortchanging believers of the riches of the Christian teaching about suffering? In Embodied Hope Kelly Kapic invites us to consider the example of our Lord Jesus. Only because Jesus has taken on our embodied existence, suffered alongside us, died, and been raised again can we find any hope from the depths of our own dark valleys of pain. As we look to Jesus, we are invited to participate not only in his sufferings, but also in the church, which calls us out of isolation and into the encouragement and consolation of the communal life of Christ. Drawing on his own family's experience with prolonged physical pain, Kapic reshapes our understanding of suffering into the image of Jesus, and brings us to a renewed understanding of—and participation in—our embodied hope.

Logos Book Award Do you long for a deep, fundamental change in your life with God? Do you desire a greater intimacy with God? Do you wonder how you might truly live your life as God created you to live it? Spiritual disciplines are activities that open us to God's transforming love and the changes that only God can bring about in our lives. Picking up on the monastic tradition of creating a "rule of life" that allows for regular space for the practice of the spiritual disciplines, this book takes you more deeply into understanding seven key disciplines along with practical ideas for weaving them into everyday life. Each chapter includes exercises to help you begin the practices--individually and in a group context. The final chapter puts it all together in a way that will help you arrange your life for spiritual transformation. The choice to establish your own sacred rhythm is the most important choice you can make with your life.

A liturgical dance artist & teacher shows how anyone can use body movement as a spiritual exercise - even if you can't dance, aren't particularly graceful, & aren't in great physical condition! Embodied Prayer is for anyone who wants to explore the biblical view that bodies are just as spiritual as minds. Embodied Prayer covers: the theology of embodied prayer examples of embodied prayer in Scripture & tradition instructions for exercising various prayer forms such as supplication, adoration, praise, thanksgiving, & lament. As for the exercises, they can take place in any comfortable setting. First you learn to "listen" to your body. (God may be trying to tell you something, like "slow down" or "turn it over to me.") This is followed by instructions on how to use breathing, speaking, & posture as attitudes for prayer - & how to let each act of prayer surge through the body. Embodied Prayer also features adaptations from a rich tradition of ritual that incorporates & celebrates such events as Jesus' breaking of bread, embracing the children, washing the disciples' feet, & touching the sick. Here, anyone who wants to go beyond purely mechanical prayer will find exercises & improvisations to fully express the deepest desires of the soul

Embodied Liturgy marks a “return to the body” in thinking about Christian liturgy and sacramental practice. Rooted in phenomenology and incarnational theology, the book gives primary focus to the body as it considers the prayer offices and the liturgical calendar, sacrifices and sacraments, initiation and vestments, ritual theory and play, word and meal, fasting and feasting, penance and celebration, rites of passage, cultural perspectives, and the role of art, music, dance, and drama in worship. The author invites readers to return to the experience of their own body through guided yogic exercises. As a text for students and liturgical practitioners, the volume gives fresh voice to the experience and practice of worship as bodily acts. Embodied Liturgy is a dynamic, accessible new resource in liturgical and sacramental theology from one of the premiere scholars in the field. Frank C. Senn distills an established legacy of expertise in an innovative and inviting perspective on bodily acts of worship.