The Posture of Prayer

At the very least, they [humans] can be persuaded that the bodily position makes no difference to their prayers; for they constantly forget, what you [Wormwood] must always remember, that they are animals and that whatever their bodies do affects their souls…Teach them to estimate the value of each prayer by their success in producing the desired feeling.
– The Screwtape Letters | C.S. Lewis

In this latest dispatch to Wormwood, Screwtape advises him how to disrupt the Christian’s communion with God, which we ought to call prayer. Wormwood is to persuade the Christian that the body and posture does not really matter. For the Faith is only a “spiritual” thing. This way of thinking, prevalent in our own time, divides the human being in two, often with the assumption that the really real “you” is the immaterial, the “spiritual,” the intellect. The body seems to then be only the casing, the wrapper, of our true selves. Such way of thinking runs deep in the world and also the Church. It also dovetails into the supposed desire of being “authentic.” What this typically means is, “only if/when I feel a certain way will I participate. For, to do otherwise, would not be true to myself.” But that is like a young child determining that he will not walk until he feels like learning the art of it. Of course, unless the child begin with baby steps–stumbling, falling, getting back up and falling again–he will never be able to walk to a friend’s house, run to the aid of another, ascend the heights of mountains beautiful. “Be true to yourself” be damned. (I mean that in the most godliest of senses.) Rather, much to the horror of Screwtape, we ought to begin inhabiting the bodily practices that mirror the spiritual habits. For, whatever [our] bodies do affects [our] souls. This is why our Eucharistic life–worship, prayer–involves so much of our bodies, for we are embodied souls. What affects the soul affects the body and vice versa. And since it is far easier to move the body that we might move the soul, let us begin where we can. In the Anglican tradition we stand to praise, the erectness of our bodies demonstrating the upwardness of our praise to our God who is in heaven. We sit to listen, which is a posture of a student to a teacher. We do not “stand” in authority over Holy Scripture; we sit in submission to it. Lastly, we kneel to pray, for kneeling is the posture of humble petition and request.

Screwtape also advises Wormwood that he is to have the Christian man estimate the value of each prayer by [his] success in producing the desired feeling. In other words, prayer “works” if I “feel” it working. Of course, how one measures if one feels enough, or feels rightly, is entirely subjective. Our feelings are also subjected to being tossed to and fro, carried about by a variety of winds that blow about us. If/when we place virtue and efficacy of our prayers on how we feel at that moment, we inadvertently cripple ourselves by the very act by which we are meant to be drawn deeper into rest in God. We also end up attempting to accomplish by our own strength the things for which we pray. “When they meant to pray for courage, let them really be trying to feel brave,” advises Screwtape. And this way of thinking makes sense, if we need to hype ourselves and God up that he might give notice. This is like the prophets of Baal (1Kings 18) who danced around their altar, slashed and cut themselves, shouted and cried out in hopes that Baal would hear them. Elijah even derides them saying that they need to shout louder, just in case Baal is on the toilet. Yet with Elijah, there is no pomp and circumstance. The “efficacy” of his prayer is not bound to his performance nor how much he might feel his prayer working. Rather, “at the time of the offering of the evening sacrifice, Elijah came near and said, ‘Lord God of Abraham, Isaac, and of Israel, let it be known this day that thou art God in Israel…’” Simple words, offered unto God with a posture of body that reflects the posture of the soul. This is a reason why there is such goodness in praying the Psalms, praying the Collects, and other composed prayers. Though they are written prayers, there is a simplicity to them, a deep richness and beauty in their theology, and they can help teach us that our attention is not to be placed on producing the desire affects of our prayers. Our attention, our gaze, is to be trained on the God who loves us.