Pray an Advent Breath Prayer

Pray an Advent breath prayer.

Breath prayers are one-line prayers with a name for God and a request. The prayers are said over and over again until they become as natural as your breath. It is a way to move toward “praying unceasingly.” Some people pray one line on the inhale, one line on the exhale. You can grab your breath prayer whenever you need to pray — especially when you can’t think of what to say — and pray is as many times as you like.

Here are some Advent-specific breath-prayers:

Come, Lord Jesus, come.

Come quickly, longed-for Savior.

Beloved One, be patient with me.

Creator God, heal our world.

Father-Mother God, rescue me from despair.

God of light, break into my darkness.

Holy One, repair our world.

Excerpted from Sybil MacBeth’s new book, The Season of the Nativity: Confessions and Practices of an Advent, Christmas, and Epiphany Extremist (Paraclete Press, 2014).

Image:  Xerones, Flickr Creative Commons