Praying with the Body: Bringing the Psalms to Life

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Pray with more than just your mind—learn how to use your whole self

In this innovative prayer book, readers are invited to do more than read—they are asked to move in prayer by expressing the Psalms with motion. This way of praying helps deepen and broaden a relationship with God. It allows the pray-er to better come to understand God as "Holy One"—and in other timeless expressions of the psalmists.

In Praying with the Body readers will find both prayer tools and companionship. Black and white drawings showing the postures and expressions of the body, accompany the scripture texts and explanations by Roy DeLeon. Working together, these elements invite readers to taste, explore, and discover a new and different way of knowing God.

This book is for anyone who wants a more integrated and reconciled approach to prayer. It proposes a way of prayer that, depending on your level of readiness, could influence both our interior and daily life. Its meditations and reflections connect readers to their deepest needs to be with the Beloved, to be reassured of the divine presence in our midst. They address hunger and longing for true happiness, for freedom from fear, and for deep peace.

"The four basic ways of praying –oral, mental, affective, and contemplative—are all contained here." —Father Tom Ryan, author of Prayer of Heart and Body

Roy DeLeon is an Oblate of St. Benedict, spiritual director, and a certified yoga instructor. He represented his community, St. Placid Priory in Lacey, Washington, at the First World Congress of Benedictine Oblates in Rome, Italy in 2004. He teaches an ongoing Blessed Movements (praying with the body, heart, and soul) class at Yoga Barn in Issaquah, Washington, and conducts workshops at monasteries and retreat centers across the U.S. He makes a living as a graphic designer and lives in Bothell, Washington with his wife, Annie.