WHAT ARE THE ORIGINS OF CHRISTIAN PRAYER GESTURES?
Hands stretched heavenward or at our sides? Palms open or joined? Standing or kneeling? The gestures we use in prayer feel deliberate and significant. They are rooted in history, although like other traditions passed down over generations, we can find ourselves repeating them without understanding the reason for their existence.
In this essay, I want to review some of the most common prayer gestures and uncover their historical roots. I hope this will offer new meaning to the gestures you use while you pray.
1. Hands joined in prayer
This gesture comes to us from the precarious ages of feudal Europe. Beset by thieves and murderers, ravaging armies and famines, many turned to powerful individuals in their society for safety and security. Dropping to their knees, they defenselessly stretched out their joined hands. In a show of protection, the powerful closed their own hands around those of the weak. As both completed this act, the weak became vassals bound to service, while the powerful became their lords bound to protect their vassals.
The Act of Homage1
Eventually, this gesture – homage – became common in acknowledging Jesus, the Lord of Lords. Marc Bloch, acclaimed historian of the feudal era, wrote, “The ancient attitude of prayer, with hands outstretched, was replaced by the gesture of the joined hands … Before God, the good Christian in his inmost soul saw himself as a vassal bending the knee before his lord.”2
This is the side of the act that we often practice – knees bent, head bowed, hands joined and perhaps pointed heavenward. It centers us as we make our prayers. But with these earlier Christians in mind, we may see a second side to the act; homage could not be made alone. As we join our hands, we can envision God’s hands closing around our own, promising protection and sanctuary from the troubles of the world.
Prayer
While homage may seem like a sort of contract – a trade of service for protection – it was less transactional and more transformational. Homage comes from the Latin term for “man,” and in those days, the act meant that someone had become a “man” of their lord.3 Through joined hands, in a sense, the believer recognizes themselves as a woman or man of God.
2. Hands outstretched.
Before homage, as Bloch noted, we tended to pray with hands outstretched. Throughout the Old Testament, we see references to believers reaching out their hands to God and His “most holy sanctuary.” (Psalm 28:2) There is a sense that these early believers reached out their hands to be closer to God: “I stretch out my hands to you; my soul thirsts for you like a parched land.” (Psalm 143:6). It was not only a physical gesture. As their hands reached out, their hearts strained upwards toward God. (Lamentations 3:41)
God responded to these outstretched hands. In Exodus, we read of a great battle during which Moses stretched his hands skyward while holding the staff of God.
Whenever Moses held up his hand, Israel prevailed; and whenever he lowered his hand, Amalek prevailed. But Moses’ hands grew weary; so they took a stone and put it under him, and he sat on it. Aaron and Hur held up his hands, one on one side, and the other on the other side; so his hands were steady until the sun set. And Joshua defeated Amalek and his people with the sword. (Exodus 17:11-13)
As with Moses’ falling hands, the believer would lose God’s goodwill if they reached out in the wrong way. God would discover if one stretched their hands out to a “strange god.” (Psalm 44:20-21) The outstretched hands had to be spiritually clean as well. “When you stretch out your hands,” God commands in Isaiah, “I will hide my eyes from you; even though you make many prayers, I will not listen; your hands are full of blood.” (Isaiah 1:15)
Some early Christians modified this ancient gesture to imitate Jesus’ sacrifice on the cross.4 In the orans gesture (Latin for “praying”), believers open their palms and stretch their hands outwards to either side of their body in the shape of a “Y.” Jesus Himself prayed three times in this position:
“Father, forgive them; for they do not know what they are doing.” (Luke 23:34)
“My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” (Mark 15:34)
“Father, into your hands I commend my spirit.” (Luke 23:46)
Appropriately, the gesture is most commonly used by the presider during the Holy Eucharist, as we remember Christ’s Last Supper before the cross.5
3. The Sign of the Cross.
The sign of the cross is more commonly used by the whole congregation. Its meaning differs depending on how it is used; it can be sanctifying or marking, a blessing or a prayer. Early Christian writer Tertullian notes, “we make the sign of the cross on our foreheads at every turn, at our going in or coming out of the house, while dressing, while putting on our shoes, when we are taking a bath, before and after meals, when we light the lamps, when we go to bed or sit down, and in all the ordinary actions of daily life.”7 Today, it may appear optionally at various points in the service, though is specifically mentioned only in three cases in the Book of Common Prayer: the consecration of a church, baptism, and the laying on of hands.8
4. The Laying on of Hands.
When Jesus offered blessings or healed the sick, he did so by laying his hands on the recipients. (Matthew 9:25, 19:13; Mark 5:41, 6:5, 7:33, 8:23-25, 10:16; Luke 13:13) He also conferred this power onto His followers, saying that the sick would recover if they made this gesture “using my name.” (Mark 16:18) The use of this gesture grew in the later books of the Bible as the apostles used it to allow others to receive the Holy Spirit. (Acts 6:6, 8:17, 13:3) In the Book of Common Prayer, the gesture is similarly used for confirmation, ordination, and healing.9
4. Kneeling and bowing.
Kneeling and bowing are universal gestures of submission. In the Bible, we read of these gestures made in deference to authorities of different kinds. In the Old Testament, when Joseph ascended in Egypt to become second only to Pharoah, the people cried out, “Bow the knee!” as he passed. (Genesis 41:43) Similarly, St. Paul wrote that “at the name of Jesus every knee should bend, in heaven and on earth and under the earth.” (Philippians 2:10) Jesus knelt as well when He removed Himself from his disciples to pray to God. (Luke 22:41)
Kneeling and bowing often took place in the context of the other forms of prayer. In the Middle Ages, would-be vassals dropped to their knees during homage. When King Solomon prayed at the altar of the temple, he “knelt with hands outstretched toward heaven.” (1 Kings 8:54) Similar to the outstretched hands, God knew when one knelt or bowed before the wrong authority: “You shall not bow down to [idols] or worship them; for I the Lord your God am a jealous God.” (Deuteronomy 5:8-9)
In the Book of Psalms, there is a theme of reversal with regard to bowing. Those that do not submit are forced down – “they had rebelled against the words of God … their hearts were bowed down with hard labor.” (Psalm 107:11-12) In contrast, God lifts up those who bow. (Psalms 145:14, 146:8; Ezekiel 2:2) Similar to homage, this origin adds a second side to our prayers. As we lower ourselves in submission, God lifts us back up. After falling before God, Ezekiel wrote, “The spirit entered into me, and set me on my feet.” (Ezekiel 3:23-24)
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Of course, these gestures do not represent the essence of Christian prayer. When Jesus’ disciples asked Him how to pray, He made no reference to any physical gestures. (Luke 11:1-4) Still, their ubiquity shows their usefulness. In public moments of praise, we may reach out our hands to God. In moments of private prayer, we may join our hands and lean into our transformational bond with the Lord. In this way, understanding the origin of these gestures helps to prepare ourselves for the true prayer that takes place within our hearts.
All Bible verses are taken from the New Revised Standard Version (NRSV).
1. Du Trévou, Henri Scribe, et al. The Major Chronicles of France, image 724. Library of Congress, link.
2. Bloch, Marc. Growth of Ties of Dependence, Translated by L. A. Manyon, Phoenix Books, 1964, p. 233. Vol. 1 of Feudal Society. Henceforth cited as Bloch. The author also references the story of Theophilus of Adana making a deal with the devil in order to become an archdeacon. Christian artists of the era depicted the deal by showing Theophilus paying homage, as the devil holds his joined hands (p. 115).
3. Bloch, p. 146.
4. See Tertullian’s writing on prayer: “In our case, not only do we raise [our hands], we even spread them out, and, imitating the Passion of our Lord, we confess Christ as we pray.” Tertullian. Disciplinary, Moral, and Ascetical Works. Translated by Emily Joseph Daly, Catholic University of America Press, 1959, p. 170. EBSCOhost, link.
5. Wyatt, Benjamin. “The Breaking of the Bread,” Earth and Altar, 19 June 2020, link.
6. “Orans Position.” An Episcopal Dictionary of the Church, link.
7. Tertullian. Disciplinary, Moral, and Ascetical Works. Translated by Edwin A. Quain, Catholic University of America Press, 1959, p. 237.
8. Book of Common Prayer. Church Publishing Incorporated, pp. 308, 456, 568. The Episcopal Church, link. Henceforth cited as BCP.
9. BCP, pp. 309, 455, 553.
