Combining prayer and movement

One person might find himself walking for an hour while silently saying the words, "I am poor and needy," from Psalm 70. Another might find herself slowing her mind so that each footfall can match one word in a phrase from John 8:55, "I ... Know ... Him." At some point, after she has walked for 15 or 20 minutes, she might find that the verse has changed in her mind and she is now reciting the words, "He ... Knows ... Me."

Muslims repeat the same motions as they repeat the same prayers several times each day, explains Salt Laker Ghulam Hasnain. "It is very, very precise," he says.

And one must not only say the words reverently and mindfully but also must move reverently and mindfully, he explains. It is a ritual.

"But you are not just following blindly," he says. "You have to stand straight, bow down, prostrate, then sit, stand back up ... "

He does not try to explain exactly how this motion combines with the words to make the prayer more vital.

Hasnain does mention the hajj, the pilgrimage to Mecca that each Muslim hopes to make at least once before he dies. Hasnain describes the hajj as being one long, extended walking prayer.

As for the Rev. Travis Mitchell of the Sandy Ridge Community Church, he says his congregation takes part in a practice that evangelical Christians around the country are beginning to embrace.

His church started prayer walking two years ago. While some Baptists define prayer walking as setting out on an intentional walk around the neighborhood to pray for those who seem to need it — a single mom whose grass is dying, or an elderly couple who are having a wheelchair ramp installed at their door — the Sandy Ridge Baptists define prayer walking a bit differently.

Mitchell calls what they do "praying on site, with insight." When they walk in prayer, they do it together.

In March, about 14 members of his church met at the Pregnancy Resource Center. They first gathered in a group for a prayer for women in crisis. Then they split up and walked alone and prayed silently for about a half-hour. Then they met for another group prayer before going home.

The Sandy Ridge congregation has prayed at the park next door to their church. That day they prayed for every resident of the Salt Lake Valley. They've also gone to Sandy City Hall to pray for their local government.

They try to do a prayer walk once a month, Mitchell says. They also love to meet with people of other faiths for interdenominational prayer sessions.

Mitchell believes God wants Salt Lake City to be a praying community. And sure, churches are perfectly good places to pray, he says.

But praying out in the world, where a person can see and hear and smell, will add to the experience of the divine.

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E-mail: susan@desnews.com