Movement Prayer

Hand motion is vital to movement prayer. This article introduces some basic gestures that can be incorporated with congregational prayer. "Every part of the body is an expressive instrument of the soul. The soul does not inhabit the body as a man inhabits a house. It lives and works in each member, each fibre, and reveals itself in the body's every line, contour and movement" (Romano Guardini, Sacred Signs [St. Louis: Pio Decimo Press, 1956], 15). Watch any person while he or she talks, and you will find feeling being expressed, not just in the words being spoken, but in the whole being of the person speaking in movement and gesture. Watch particularly the hands. Apart from the face, the hands may be most expressive. They may move animatedly when the person is excited, be clenched if he is worried, or lie quietly in his lap if he is speaking thoughtfully or pausing momentarily in his thought. The movement of a person's hands can also belie his words. The hands may indicate that the p…