Overview: For centuries, European thought has separated mind and body and consequently prayer has been taught either as a purely verbal process, a product of the rational mind or as an attempt to overcome, subdue or forget the body.

This book draws on the gentle spirituality of St Francis and St Clare of Assisi and the embodied practice of the Alexander technique to put the body back into our prayers and to reclaim the physical as a site of the sacred.

Verdict: Written from within the Christian tradition but intended for those of any faith or none, it contains practical ideas for exploring prayer through simple movements and gentle physical practices, reclaiming the body as the heart of prayer.

It is written from the perspective of a professional Alexander technique teacher, ordained minister in the Church of England, and life long practitioner of body/mind disciplines including Aikido, tai chi and qi gong.

Each chapter concludes with practices to promote greater peace, physical ease, spiritual depth and a more restful approach to life, and having now read it twice, back to back, I can honestly say that it is, quite possibly, one of the most impassioned and honestly embodying sets of prose that I have had the pleasure to read in the past couple of decades.

And just so you get a feel for who wrote this book, Embodying Prayer: Exploring Franciscan Spirituality with the Alexander Technique, author Revd Dr Jennifer Fox Eades PhD, PGCE, MSTAT, TSSF has worked all her life in education and studied for her PhD, in well-being in education, while training as an Alexander technique teacher. She graduated as an Alexander teacher in 2014 and received her PhD in 2018. She is now a priest in the Church of England, a member of the Third Order of the Society of St Francis and Honorary Research Fellow at The Queen’s Foundation, Birmingham.

As for the central focus of this book, for 42 years St. Clare of Assisi lived religious life in the San Damiano monastery where she promoted St. Francis’s way of life and his ideal of poverty. A simple ordinary life where the sisters lived in a closed community, with nowhere to hide from themselves and no one to impress, through her contemplation of the Crucified Christ, Clare wanted to be transformed into him and then to imitate his love for all creation. We are called to do the same today.

Indeed, today we reflect on Clare’s prayer method of prayer, gaze, consider, contemplate, and imitate which comes from her Second Letter of Clare to Agnes of Prague (verses 19-20): “Look upon Him Who became contemptible for you, and follow Him, making yourself contemptible in the world for Him. Your Spouse, though more beautiful than the children of men (Ps.44-3), became, for your salvation, the lowest of men, despised, struck, scourged untold times throughout His whole body, and then died amid the suffering of the Cross. O most noble Queen, gaze upon Him, consider Him, contemplate Him as you desire to imitate Him.”

Thus here within these pages, Eades guides you gently by the hand to learn more about God’s gift of love and overall presence, and showcases a divine way to live life with lightness and ease. Inclusive of elements of the Franciscan spirituality and the Alexander technique, God’s design is both wondrous and wide, deep and heartfelt, and always there whenever you need it, so buy this book and allow yourself to be enveloped by some incredible words of empowered spirituality.

About the Author - Jennifer combines a Franciscan spiritual pathway with teaching the Alexander technique, being an ordained minister in the Church of England and making bread whenever possible. She lives in Macclesfield, UK.

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