I had a big epiphany this weekend

• I was running with a friend and the conversation turned to time and activity commitments. ‘One more thing on the calendar.’

• I think we often postpone spiritual practice the same way we postpone exercise: after New Year’s, next week, when life settles down, or when we feel more ready.

• Because it seems like a LOT. Because w…

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This week’s Practice

Each Coffee with Coaches session focuses on a Trexo Practice.

This week we’re focused on the Jesus Prayer Practice…

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This week’s Practice

Each Coffee with Coaches session focuses on a Trexo Practice.

This week we’re focused on the Jesus Prayer Practice…

Read more

This week’s Practice

Each Coffee with Coaches session focuses on a Trexo Practice.

This week we’re focused on our basic Practice: ‘Hearts up!’

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This week’s Practice

Each Coffee with Coaches session focuses on a Trexo Practice.

This week we’re focused on our basic Practice: ‘Hearts up!’

This week’s Coach

Hippolytus of Rome (c. 170 – c. 235)

• A Roman priest and theologian who lived at the very beginning of the third century.
  
  

• Author of ‘the Apostolic Tradition’, written around 215 AD - one of the very …

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This week’s Practice

Each Coffee with Coaches session focuses on a Trexo Practices. Since we just consolidated Trexo under Free Range Priest, we’re focusing on all the Practices in their new location…

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Your Bodily Prayer coaches

You’re not doing this alone.

You have coaches - ancient Christian Practice trainers - who’ve been guiding souls for centuries on the practice of lifting hearts to God.

Gym members meet them at Coffee with Coaches live on Wednesdays at 3:30pm Eastern.

Coffee with Coaches

To join the gym, become a paid subscriber and

• get all the Practices

• join us for Coffee with Coaches

• and build your Trexo Workout (Rule of Life)
  
  

Subscribe now

Free Range Priest. Reimagine Ministry.

I’d like to introduce you to two of them with particular connection to the Bodily Prayer Practice:

1. Tertullian of Carthage: Your ‘make it constant’ coach

North African theologian, c. 155-220 AD

Tertullian says:

‘In all our travels and movements, in all our coming in and going out, in putting on our shoes, at the bath, at the table, in lighting our candles, in lying down, in sitting down, whatever employment occupieth us, we mark our foreheads with the sign of the cross.’

Tertullian’s experience:

Early Christians made the sign of the cross constantly. Not just at church. Not just during formal prayer.

It was the Christian’s identifying mark. It sanctified every ordinary action. It marked them as belonging to Christ in a world that was very hostile to Christians.

Tertullian’s coaching :

Don’t separate ‘spiritual’ from ‘physical.’ Your body is spiritual.

When you cross yourself - or practice any other form of Bodily Prayer - you’re:

• Marking yourself as belonging to Christ.

• Teaching yourself - and others - the basics of faith.

• Engaging directly with God.

• Sanctifying ordinary life.

Tertullian’s assignment:

For one week, make the sign of the cross at every transition:

• Entering/leaving your house.

• Getting in/out of your car.

• Before opening your laptop.

• Before picking up your phone.

• Before any important conversation.

Do what the early Christians did:

Whatever employment occupieth us, we mark our foreheads with the sign of the cross.

Notice what happens when you make every transition sacred.

2. St. Cyril of Jerusalem: Your ‘don’t be ashamed’ coach

Bishop of Jerusalem, 4th century (c. 313-386 AD)

Cyril says:

‘Let us then not be ashamed to confess the Crucified. Be the cross our seal, made with boldness by our fingers on our brow and in everything; over the bread we eat and the cups we drink, in our comings and in our goings out; before our sleep, when we lie down and when we awake; when we are traveling, and when we are at rest.’

Cyril’s wisdom

Bodily Prayer is public witness.

When you pray with your whole self, you are praying boldly, publicly.

The cross was Rome’s method of execution for criminals and slaves. It was meant to humiliate and shame. Jesus made it the instrument of our salvation. To make the sign of the cross is to boldly say: ‘I follow a crucified God, and I’m not hiding it.’

Bodily prayer is supposed to be visible. Your body becomes living testimony.

When you:

• Cross yourself before a meal in a crowded restaurant = You’re witnessing

• Kneel when others stand = You’re confessing humility

• Lift your hands in prayer = You’re declaring openness to God

Cyril’s assignment:

This week, practice ONE visible bodily prayer in a public setting:

• Cross yourself before a meal when others can see

• Bow your head deliberately in thanksgiving somewhere public

• Kneel during a prayer when others are sitting

Do it “with boldness” as Cyril says.

Notice: Your body is preaching even when your mouth is silent.

Common Struggles & Solutions

As you practice Bodily Prayer you’re doing something new. You’re building your soul’s endurance. It can feel hard.

This is normal. Here’s how to work through the most common struggles.

‘What if people at my church don’t do this?’

Bodily prayers are ‘personal expressions of piety’ - which can be done in public worship.

Most Christian traditions use Bodily Prayer extensively - but in different ways.

Catholic Christians (Anglican, Roman, Orthodox) tend to use the sign of the cross, bowing, genuflecting, and even prostration in worship.

Non-denominational and Evangelical communities often raise their arms in the orans position when they sing or pray.

Mainline Protestant traditions don’t do as much bodily prayer, but they do kneel or stand to pray.

All of this is Scriptural: “Lifting up holy hands” (1 Timothy 2:8), “Let us kneel before the Lord” (Psalm 95:6).

You Can:

• Practice the gestures most often used in your community.

• Be ‘counter cultural’ in your worship context and use a Bodily Prayer not usually practiced (like crossing yourself in an Evangelical church, or lifting up your hands in prayer in a Protestant church).

• Only use Bodily Prayer in your private devotions.

The key: It’s all part of the earliest Christian tradition. All our ancestors took part in some form of Bodily Prayer.

What about my physical limitations?’

Use your body as you are able to focus on engagement with God.

Can’t kneel?

• Bow your head instead.

• Sit forward on your chair with head bowed.

• Lower yourself as far as you’re able.
  

  ---

Can’t lift your hands?

• Lift them as high as you can.

• Open your palms where they are (in your lap, on armrests).

• The intention matters, not the height.
  

  ---

Can’t stand?

• Sit with dignity and reverence

• Focus on interior posture (heart lifted to God)
  

The Incarnation teaches: The human form is made in the image of God. We are reflecting that with our posture, as we are able.

How do I teach my kids this?’

Bodily Prayer is wonderful spiritual formation for all ages.

• Just like in physical exercise, they’ll follow you.

• Cross yourself before meals, and watch your kids start doing the same.

• Tell them why you’re lifting your hands in prayer or bowing when the cross goes by in procession.

Make it their spiritual protection: “When you’re scared, you can cross yourself and remember God is with you.”

My seminary lived in community - we ate meals and prayed together every day, all the students and faculty and our families.

I remember once watching some of the young kids playing after church: they were playing ‘procession’! One of them held something up, and the others followed him as he walked. When they walked by some of the other children - who were 3-5 years old - the kids bowed their heads!

It was great fun for them - and they were learning to turn towards God with their bodies, even before they understood how they were doing so with their souls.

The Complete Bodily Prayer Practice:

To join the gym, become a paid subscriber and

• get all the Practices

• join us for Coffee with Coaches

• and build your Trexo Workout (Rule of Life)
  
  

Subscribe now

Free Range Priest. Reimagine Ministry.

What Bodily Prayer is

The intentional use of physical postures and gestures - kneeling, making the sign of the cross, lifting our hands, bowing - as expressions of worship that engage our whole selves (body, mind, heart, and will) in praise to God.

It’s our engagement with God

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From Genesis to Revelation, God’s people have worshiped with their whole bodies.

The intentional use of physical postures and gestures - kneeling, making the sign of the cross, lifting our hands, bowing - as expressions of worship that engage our whole selves (body, mind, heart, and will) in praise to God.

It’s our engagement with God.

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Bodily prayer is older than Christianity - by hundreds of years.

‘And at the evening sacrifice I rose from my fasting, with my garment and my cloak torn, and fell upon my knees and spread out my hands to the Lord my God.’

• Ezra 9:5 (at least 500 years before Jesus was born).

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What Bodily Prayer is

The intentional use of physical postures and gestures - kneeling, making the sign of the cross, lifting our hands, bowing - as expressions of worship that engage our whole selves (body, mind, heart, and will) in praise to God.

It’s our engagement with God.

Read more

When I was in seminary, we learned to use the orans position - lifting our hands - as both a priestly posture and a general prayer posture.

We learned that ancient Christians - like modern Muslims and Jews - faced East to pray at sunrise.

So in this particular class, every time we gathered, we first rose to our feet, faced East together, and lifted our ha…

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Your Jesus Prayer coaches

You’re not doing this alone.

You have coaches - ancient Christian Practice trainers - who’ve been guiding souls for centuries on the practice of lifting hearts to God.

Gym members meet them at Coffee with Coaches live on Wednesdays at 3:30pm Eastern.

Coffee with Coaches

I’d like to introduce you to two of them with particular connection to the Jesus Prayer Practice:

1. Amma Syncletica: Your ‘don’t overthink it’ coach

4th century Egyptian Desert Mother

Amma says:

‘Listen! There is struggling and toil at first for all those advancing toward God; but afterward, my children, inexpressible joy. Indeed, just as those seeking to light a fire at first are engulfed in smoke and teary-eyed, thus they obtain what they seek.’

To you:

• Did you just say 10 Jesus Prayers and feel nothing? Good! You’re right on track.

• Did you try for 50 and kept getting distracted? Perfect. That’s the smoke before the fire.

• Here’s what you need to understand: You don’t have to feel anything for this to be working.

Amma’s fierce encouragement:

Your life striving for the presence of God is like Paradise; it must be guarded by a flaming sword - of prayer and the remembrance of God.

That flaming sword? It’s the Jesus Prayer.

It’s not complicated. It’s just reaching out to Jesus, over and over.

And feeling him reaching back.

The Anonymous Russian Pilgrim: Your “keep it simple” coach

19th century

The Pilgrim says:

‘The continuous interior prayer of Jesus is a constant uninterrupted calling upon the divine name of Jesus with the lips, in the spirit, in the heart...

One who accustoms himself to this appeal experiences as a result so deep a consolation and so great a need to offer the prayer always, that he can no longer live without it, and it will continue to voice itself within him of its own accord.’

• I was just like you. I heard “pray without ceasing” and thought: How? I have to work, I have to eat, I have to live my life!

• Then my spiritual father gave me the simplest instruction: Say ‘Lord Jesus Christ, have mercy on me’ 3,000 times a day.

• I thought he was crazy. But I did it.

• And you know what happened?

• At first, nothing. It was mechanical. It was boring. My lips got tired.

But I kept going. And then something shifted. The prayer started saying itself. It became like breathing. Like my heartbeat.

The Pilgrim’s promise:

Eventually the prayer will sink from your lips to your heart. It will pray itself when you’re not even thinking about it. You’ll wake up and realize you’ve been praying in your sleep.

That’s when you’ll know: you’re not praying anymore. The prayer is praying you.

And that is how you pray without ceasing.

Common Struggles & Solutions

As you practice the Jesus Prayer you’re doing something new. You’re building your soul’s endurance. It can feel hard.

This is normal. Here’s how to work through the most common struggles.

‘I can’t count to 100 - I keep losing track’

Get Prayer Beads

• 33 knots or beads (representing Christ’s 33 years).

• You can order them online, make them yourself, or buy them at religious bookstores.

• Or use: a rosary, dried beans, pebbles, shells in your pocket.

Or: Don’t Count

Abba Isaac says:

‘It’s not about the number. It’s about consistency’.

Just say it throughout the day. Morning. Noon. Night. In between.

Don’t worry about hitting a specific number. Let it become the background rhythm of your day.

My mind wanders constantly’

St. John Climacus says:

’Fell off 100 times? Get back on 101 times. That’s the whole ladder.’

‘How long before this becomes natural?’

The Pilgrim’s answer:

’Eventually, the prayer will sink from your lips to your heart. It will pray itself when you’re not even thinking about it.’

The timeline:

• Week 1: It feels strange and mechanical

• Week 2: You start remembering it more naturally

• Week 3-4: It becomes part of your day’s rhythm

• Month 2-3: It starts praying itself in the background

After 3 months of consistent practice, you’ll wake up one day and realize: the prayer has been running all night in your sleep. And you feel closer to God.

The Complete Jesus Prayer Practice:

To join the gym, become a paid subscriber and

• get all the Practices

• join us for Coffee with Coaches

• and build your Trexo Workout (Rule of Life)
  
  

Subscribe now

Free Range Priest. Reimagine Ministry.

First, it helps to memorize it.

Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me, a sinner.

It’s that simple. You can try it right now. Say it until you don’t need to think about the words - because that’s what the goal is: to have the prayer pray you.

Then, start incorporating it into your life.

• Say the Jesus Prayer - aloud or silently - as many times as …

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‘Have mercy on me, a sinner’.

We’ve established that the Jesus Prayer was developed by monks following Paul’s advice in 1 Thessalonians (5:16-19): Pray without ceasing.

But what often gives people pause when they begin to pray it is the ‘sinner’ part. It’s hard to think of ourselves as sinners.

Yet this is the true Biblical origin of the prayer.

It’s our c…

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The Jesus Prayer began in the 4th and 5th centuries with Christian monks in the deserts of Egypt and Syria.

These Desert Fathers took St. Paul’s command seriously:

‘Pray without ceasing.’ (1 Thessalonians 5:17)

But how do you pray constantly while also living your life?

They developed short, repetitive prayer forms that could be prayed constantly: while wor…

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What the Jesus Prayer is

Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me, a sinner.

A simple, ancient invocation repeated throughout the day that brings your whole self into constant communion with Christ and transforms you from the inside out.

It’s our communication with God.

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Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me, a sinner.

There is a monastic legend that a seeker came to a desert Father and asked, ‘How do I become a Christian?’

The monk says: Pray 100 times a day.

The prayer the seeker was taught? The Jesus Prayer:

Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me, a sinner.

A simple, ancient invocation repeated through…

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Your ‘Hearts up!’ coaches

You’re not doing this alone.

You have coaches - ancient Christian Practice trainers - who’ve been guiding souls for centuries on the practice of lifting hearts to God.

Gym members meet them at Coffee with Coaches live three Wednesdays a month at 3:30pm Eastern (we skip the first Wednesday and the fifth, if there is one).

Coffee with Coaches

Two Trainers with ‘Hearts up!’ connections

1. St. Cyprian of Carthage

Third century Bishop of Carthage (North Africa). Led Christians through devastating plague, persecution, and martyrdom. A wealthy convert who sold everything for the poor, and rose quickly to bishop. He wrote extensively on prayer, unity of the church, and facing trials.

Cyprian’s teaching on the Sursum Corda:

For this reason also the priest, by way of preface before his prayer, prepares the minds of the brethren by saying, ‘Lift up your hearts,’ that so upon the people’s response, ‘We lift them up unto the Lord,’ he may be reminded that he himself ought to think of nothing but the Lord.

Let the breast be closed against the adversary, and be open to God alone; nor let it suffer God’s enemy to approach to it at the time of prayer. For frequently he steals upon us, and penetrates within, and by crafty deceit calls away our prayers from God, that we may have one thing in our heart and another in our voice.

• On the Lord’s Prayer, Chapter 31

2. St. Cyril of Jerusalem

A fourth century bishop, theologian, and Doctor of the Church known for his Catechetical Lectures, which detailed baptismal and Lenten practices. As Bishop of Jerusalem (c. 350–386), he was a major figure in defending the Christian faith against heresy, resulting in multiple exiles. He is revered by Catholic, Orthodox, and Anglican traditions

Cyril’s teaching on the Sursum Corda:

In his fifth mystagogical instruction, provides a detailed analysis of the dialogue within the context of the “most awesome hour” of the Eucharist. Cyril’s approach is characterized by a high degree of liturgical realism and a sense of sacred dread (which for him, in his time, would be like awe for us).

Cyril explains that “at that most awesome hour we must indeed raise our hearts high to God, not keep them intent on the earth and on earthly matters“.

Common Struggles & Solutions

What if it feels awkward or forced?

That’s normal. You’re learning a new language. Your soul is stretching.

Remember:

• Billions of Christians have said this for 2,000 years. You’re joining them.

• Physical exercise feels awkward at first too. Keep practicing.

• The Early Church understood: this is training, not natural instinct.
  

What if I don’t feel anything when I say it?

Good News: You Don’t Have To

This isn’t about feeling. It’s about orientation. It’s about where you’re pointing yourself.

St. Cyprian would say: The enemy wants you to think it’s not working because you don’t ‘feel’ anything. That’s the distraction.

How does this connect to Eucharist if I don’t go to church regularly?

You are still part of the church as the community prepares to come to the table.

Even if you never participate - or never go to church! - you’re participating in the basic, required orientation towards God for those who do. You’re still part of the community.

When/if you do gather for Eucharist, you’ll recognize:

‘This is exactly what I’ve been practicing every day.’

Many church-goers say: ‘We lift our hearts to the Lord’ at every Eucharist without realizing they are participating in one of the earliest communal prayers of the Christian faith.

You’re widening the circle of the liturgy (worship, praise, devotion) from the Eucharist out into the world.

The Complete ‘Hearts up!’ Practice

Ready for the next Practice?

Go to the Jesus Prayer

Find all the Practices HERE.
Coffee with Coaches archive HERE.
The Trexo story HERE.

At Free Range Priest, we’re bringing church to people.

Bite-sized ways that YOU can re-imagine ministry and get ‘unstuck’.
Subscribe to re-discover ministry JOY.

Subscribe now

Sign up for the Newletters - and manage your preferences HERE.

What the ‘Hearts up!’ Practice is

An ancient command to orient your entire self - mind, body, spirit - toward God’s presence, used for 2,000 years at the Eucharist and available to you every moment of every day.

It’s our orientation towards God.

The Sursum Corda literally means ‘Hearts up!’

It’s the command to orient ourselves to God before celebrating and partaking in the Eucharist.

AND - we can orient ourselves towards God anytime.

This ancient phrase of devotion and attention is our constant call to turn to God with our whole lives.

The morning ‘Hearts up!’

It’s your spiritual warm-up.

You’re waking up your soul, orienting your mind to God, preparing yourself for the day.

You’re establishing your foundation.

Before the busyness starts, before the ‘have to’s’ pile up, before we get too distracted:

Hearts up!

Throughout the day

These are your reset moments.

Like pausing between sets at the gym, you pause to refocus. You shake off whatever is keeping you down and recommit to what matters.

Before that difficult conversation: Hearts up! When things are not going well: Hearts up! When you notice something beautiful: Hearts up!

It becomes automatic. You don’t have to think about it. You just turn toward God.

When things are going badly

My beloved dog died recently. I work from home. For the first few weeks afterwards, I rattled around the house without her, reaching for the leash before I realized I didn’t have to.

’Hearts up!’, I said. Out loud. Alone, through my tears.

When I didn’t know what to do with myself, I did what I knew how to do - I literally turned towards God.

To comfort and encourage others

I admit - at first it feels weird. It can feel a little bit like ‘buck up, little camper!’ Like something a tiny bit saccharine and even flippant.

But it’s not. It’s full of joy, but also seriously grounded in the Christian tradition - and God’s never-ending love.

It’s showing the way. God is with us - in our pain and suffering, in our loneliness and despair, in our moments of struggle - and also JOY.

We just need to turn to him.

’Hearts up!’

What Happens When You Practice

You might not feel anything - at least at first. And that’s ok!

You’re setting your intention. You’re saying: ‘God is above me, around me, calling me. I orient myself toward God’s presence and power.’

The practice becomes automatic. You don’t have to think about it anymore. You just turn your heart toward God.

Like the earliest Christians. Like billions of Christians over thousands of years.

The more you practice, the more you stretch and strengthen your soul. The more peace, connection, grounding, and JOY you feel.

The gym parallel (why we practice it at Trexo)

Think of ‘Hearts up!’ as your spiritual stretching.

At a physical gym:

• Before we start, we make sure to gently move our bodies and get them ready for testing.
  

Hearts up! works like this for our souls.

• It turns us gently back towards God - looking in the direction of our hope and our salvation.

• It puts us in proper relationship with God - and each other.

  • We’re all side-by-side, lifting our hearts to God.
    

Just as a physically stretching prepares us for tests of endurance, a spiritually trained soul can live more consciously in God’s presence, and experience greater transformation and JOY.

The Complete ‘Hearts up!’ Practice

Ready for the next Practice?

Go to the Jesus Prayer

Find all the Practices HERE.
Coffee with Coaches archive HERE.
The Trexo story HERE.

At Free Range Priest, we’re bringing church to people.

Bite-sized ways that YOU can re-imagine ministry and get ‘unstuck’.
Subscribe to re-discover ministry JOY.

Subscribe now

Sign up for the Newletters - and manage your preferences HERE.