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BOB ABERNETHY, anchor: Now, a look at some of the many ways worshippers use their bodies to pray. The techniques are collected in the book, PRAYING WITH OUR HANDS. They are explained by the book's author, Jon Sweeney.
JON M. SWEENEY (author, PRAYING WITH OUR HANDS: 21 PRACTICES OF EMBODIED PRAYER FROM THE WORLD'S SPIRITUAL TRADITIONS): There isn't really a way to understand prayer or the spiritual life without doing it.
Embodied prayer ... the idea that it's not just mental or vocal when you pray, but it's something that comes in through and out of your body.
We don't just understand things because we know the right words to say. We understand them because we've internalized them. And the way we show that we've internalized them is to use our hands.
The most common in Protestantism would be table grace, which everybody has probably done.
Also Sufi is a beautiful example of praying with your hands. You would think it was feet because it's twirling, but the hands have a universe of meanings.
JON M. SWEENEY (author, PRAYING WITH OUR HANDS: 21 PRACTICES OF EMBODIED PRAYER FROM THE WORLD'S SPIRITUAL TRADITIONS): There isn't really a way to understand prayer or the spiritual life without doing it.
Embodied prayer ... the idea that it's not just mental or vocal when you pray, but it's something that comes in through and out of your body. We don't just understand things because we know the right words to say. We understand them because we've internalized them. And the way we show that we've internalized them is to use our hands.
The most common in Protestantism would be table grace, which everybody has probably done.Also Sufi is a beautiful example of praying with your hands. You would think it was feet because it's twirling, but the hands have a universe of meanings.
