Praying with Our Hands: Twenty-One Practices of Embodied Prayer from the World's Spiritual Traditions [Paperback]

Jon M. Sweeney (Author), Jennifer J. Wilson (Photographer), Taitetsu Unno (Afterword), Mother Tessa Bielecki (Foreword)

Book Description

Publication Date: October 2000

What gives our prayers meaning? How can we carry a prayerful spirit throughout our everyday lives?

In this inspiring 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. Twenty-one simple ways of using our hands to speak to God to enrich devotion and ritual are presented here in word and image. Some may be familiar, some are new. All demonstrate the various approaches of the world’s religious and spiritual traditions to bringing the body into worship.

This compendium of prayerful spiritual practices will introduce you to the tradition of embodied prayer, opening the way for further personal exploration.

Spiritual traditions represented include Anglican, Sufi, Zen, Roman Catholic, Yoga, Shaker, Hindu, Jewish, Pentecostal, Eastern Orthodox, and many others.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel spoke of praying with his feet during civil rights marches. Sweeney (Who Is My God?) agrees that we don't pray just with words, but with our bodies, particularly our hands. In this brief, meditative book, short essays and stunning black-and-white photographs show off nearly two dozen prayers people perform with their hands. The Shakers knew that handiwork was prayer (photographer Jennifer Wilson provides a shot of gnarled hands weaving a basket). Jewish women light two candles to welcome in the Sabbath, while many Christians receive the Eucharist with their hands. Other images depict worshipers clasping hands before saying table grace or "laying on hands" during prayers for healing. Sweeney shows that we use our hands to break bread (whether at the communion table or the picnic table), touch icons, count prayers on rosaries or wash one another's feet. With hands we make the sign of the cross, sprinkle holy water, pass the peace and hold hands. The message of this bookAthat prayer happens in our bodies, not just in our minds or on our lipsAis instructive. But more than instructive, the book is inspiring. It will make readers want to roll out their prayer mats, kneel or twist into the lotus positionAand get praying. (Jan.)
Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Library Journal

This is a kind of picture-book for the spiritually inclined but no less valuable for that. A host of beautiful photographs highlights many attitudes of worship and prayerfulnessDthe mudra, the breaking of bread, the passing of the peace, touching iconsDall with the simple but persuasive goal of bringing worship and prayer into the body. As the final chapter states: "Embodied prayer is an expression of who we really are." The photographs alone are worth the price of admission, and the graceful texts and reflections surrounding them make this little volume doubly worthwhile. Highly recommended.
Copyright 2001 Reed Business Information, Inc.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 96 pages
• Publisher: Skylight Paths Publishing (October 2000)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1893361160
• ISBN-13: 978-1893361164
• Product Dimensions: 7.8 x 7.8 x 0.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 11.2 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #496,279 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Jon M. Sweeney has lived in Vermont since 1997. He has three kids, one in college, one in high school, and a new baby girl. He writes and reflects on spiritual matters in books, articles, blogs, and other media, and he works in book publishing.

Jon was the cofounder and editor-in-chief of SkyLight Paths Publishing for several years. Since 2004 he has been the associate publisher at Paraclete Press.

His spiritual and religious life continues to evolve, and much of Jon's writing is about this. His first 20 years were spent as an involved evangelical (a story he told in the memoir Born Again and Again); he then spent 22 years as an active Episcopalian (see The Lure of Saints and Cloister Talks, among other books); and in the fall of 2009 he was received into the Catholic Church. Today, he is a practicing Catholic (of a more monastic variety), but his most regular spiritual practice is Jewish, as he prays regularly with his wife, a rabbi, and they keep a Jewish home.

Sweeney often says that he loves the church, the synagogue, and other aspects of organized religion, and wants to see these organisms survive (he loves religion; he's not just spiritual), but he also is not interested in doing things to simply prop up falling institutions. In all of his writing, Jon is drawn to the ancient and medieval (see Strange Heaven, Beauty Awakening Belief, The Road to Assisi, and the forthcoming The Pope Who Quit).

Sweeney has a special passion for Saints Francis and Clare of Assisi. He has written several books on Francis and Clare including Light in the Dark Ages: The Friendship of Francis and Clare of Assisi, a History Book Club and BOMC selection, The St. Francis Prayer Book, and The St. Clare Prayer Book. He has also written books on embodied prayer, the Virgin Mary, and other subjects. His most recent are Almost Catholic: An Appreciation of the History, Practice, and Mystery of Ancient Faith, published by Jossey-Bass, and Verily, Verily: The King James Bible--400 Years of Influence and Beauty.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Beautiful and moving: spirituality for anyone, October 27, 2000

By 

Susan Theodoric (Chicago area) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Praying with Our Hands: Twenty-One Practices of Embodied Prayer from the World's Spiritual Traditions (Paperback)

This unusual book caught my eye; I wasn't looking for anything about prayer. But it isn't your usual book about prayer, either. This is embodied prayer, prayer as our way of living. Pictured in beautiful black and whites and described in evocative prose, I feel like I can do prayer this way.

I found it very moving--and motivating--to look anew at my spiritual life.

8 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Interesting introduction - repeat introduction, July 6, 2001

By 

M. J. Smith (Seattle, WA USA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Praying with Our Hands: Twenty-One Practices of Embodied Prayer from the World's Spiritual Traditions (Paperback)

This is a book I was prepared to love based upon a newspaper review. Having read the book I have a far more ambivalent opinion - the concept for the book is excellent, the photography is excellent, the research for quotations is excellent - but the book is filled with over-simplifications. For example, it refers to the "Boddhisatva" ideal in Buddhism as if were basic - in fact, the southern school of Buddhism does not share this as an ideal. It refers to the practice of clearing the mind and non-attachment as if this separated mind from body and nature, whereas many of the traditions see these practices as making one more aware of the physical world as it is i.e. minus the distorting factor of mind. It refers to the washing of feet as "little known", an editorial comment that would puzzle most Catholics and other "high church" Christians. It speaks of gifts of the spirit (charisms) as if they belong to an exclusively Pentecostal strain of Christianity.

While the book occasionally notes its oversimplification, I am not comfortable with balance it achieves. It is, however, an excellent way to introduce the concept of physicality in prayer. It's photos and text firmly place physical prayer into the mainstream of religious practice and firmly negate any "new age" or "new fangled" charges leveled against it.

7 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars This Book Deserves More Than Five Stars, December 11, 2000

By 

Alan L. McGinnis - See all my reviews

This review is from: Praying with Our Hands: Twenty-One Practices of Embodied Prayer from the World's Spiritual Traditions (Paperback)

If Amazon.com allowed more stars I'd give this a 10. I've written several books and wish that I could have thought up one that was as good as this on spirituality in general and prayer in particular. Believers and seekers of all traditions should find "Praying with Our Hands" inspiring. Sensitive photographs and lavish layout--a bargain gift book.