Letter from the President September 2020

“Prayer Positions During COVID Crisis”

This week I learned of two friends who died due to the Coronavirus. My wife and I prayed for them

and their family. Then, at the end of a recent staff meeting someone invited us to hold our hands in

the “prayer position,” meaning palms together over the heart.

This prompted a member of our staff to say, “In my faith tradition we hold a prayer book in our

hands when we pray - we can’t put our hands in the “prayer position” and hold a prayer book at the

same time. This initiated a robust discussion about what positions are appropriate when praying.

Actually, there are many body positions mentioned in the sacred writings of all faiths. Some people

pray while prostrate, laying flat on the floor face down with arms spread out. Some kneel to pray,

while others stand with arms and hands raised towards the heavens. Many sit with their head

bowed and eyes closed, while other pray with their eyes open. Some pray while walking and others

while biking or gardening.

Many Christians kneel to pray, especially when coming to the altar to receive Holy Communion. In

my tradition we stand to sing hymns, kneel to pray, and sit to listen to the sermon. The up and

down movements in a service are often called “holy calisthenics.”

Perhaps the most familiar posture for prayer is that of the Muslim tradition, in which adherents

pray five times a day, kneeling and bowing their foreheads to the ground. Muslims perform this

ritual in mosques, homes, public parks, and wherever they may be at the appointed hour of the day.

The Qu’ran describes these postures in surah 48:49, “Muhammad is the Messenger of Allah; and

you see those with him bowing and prostrating [in prayer], seeking bounty from Allah and [His]

pleasure. Their mark is on their faces from the trace of prostration.”

Whatever position we may take, heartfelt prayer is making a connection with one’s higher power,

whether that power is called God, Allah, Krishna, Great Spirit, or perhaps we prefer to not to name

that power, but to stand, sit, kneel, or lay prostrate in awe of the great mystery of the Universe. In

the face of a deadly virus, we pray for God to protect of our loved ones and at the end of our prayer

we say, Amen – “so be it.”

John K. Graham, MD, DMin

President & CEO

Institute for Spirituality and Health