Hands, Prayers, and Spiritual Practices

I saw a video by the former bishop of the North Carolina synod of the ELCA, and he showed us how to use our hands to pray.  No, not in the folded hands posture, but by using each finger as a prompt for prayer.  It's not his idea, and he gave Pope Francis full credit.

As I did some research, I am feeling like I'm the last person to discover this prayer.  I used it the other morning on my walk, and found it a potent way to pray.  Here's how it works:

We touch each finger as we pray.  The thumb is closest to the body, so it reminds us to pray for those we are closest to, our family and our friends.  The index finger points, so we remember to pray for educators and health care workers, those who point to important information.  The third finger is the tallests, reminding us to pray for leaders, all sorts of leaders.  The fourth finger, the ring finger, is the weakest (really?), so we pray for those who are sick, those who are going through difficult times, those who feel ignored.  The fifth finger reminds us to pray for ourselves.

As I've been writing, I've been thinking about the practice of prayer beads, which seems to fill the same kind of purpose of reminding us how to pray while giving us something physical, something tactile to do as well.

I'm also thinking of the anti-anxiety practice of tracing one's hand, which really does work for some of us.  There's also some breath work involved for the most effective approach.  

Part of the effectiveness of both the prayer and the hand tracing come from the fact that for most of us, our hands are always with us.  I might not always have prayer beads with me, but I always have my hands.  I look at my hands frequently throughout the day.  That, too, might remind me to pray.

Even though I might be one of the last Christians to have considered the use of hands in prayer practice, I'm happy to have made the discovery.