Praying the statio: Spiritual practice spotlight.
The goal of prayer is a life of prayer, that we’d move from particular, set-apart times of talking with God to everyday activities as laced and laden with prayerfulness as they are with breathing. Numerous practices and rhythms of prayer can help us to integrate prayer momently. One of the simplest and easiest is the statio prayer.
What is a statio prayer?
A statio prayer is essentially a “holy pause.” (It translates from Latin as “station,” “position,” or “watch”—also “I stand” or “I remain.” Whatever the etymology for monastic practice, any of these may be significant and appropriate.) You might already be able to think of places in your day where you could use a pause. Benedictine monks and nuns especially would pause before beginning a time of chapel, to become still for a moment, and to be mindful of what they’re doing before beginning the next thing.
We, too, in our everyday life can use the momentary “stop” of a statio prayer to become mindful of where we are, Who God is, and what we’re about to begin.
How to practice statio.
There’s no need for words in a statio prayer. You can simply take a deep breath. Or you can pray something simple: “Thank you Jesus. Bless this next task I’m about to begin for You,” for example. You can also pray it any time, as often as you want through your day, whenever you’re stopping one thing and beginning another—such as:
after tying your shoes to go out
between responding to emails
when going from from washing dishes to drying
after putting the kids to bed and before going back to your evening
As small and simple as a statio is, we can still break down its basic anatomy.
1. Stop.
When you pause for a statio, stop completely. Don’t settle for just the half grace of stilling and centering your attention while, in the back of your mind or with your hands, you’re wrapping up some task on autopilot. Taking even that much opportunity to become aware of yourself and God is wonderful—yet why nibble when you can savor by the mouthful? So avoid the temptation to come to a “rolling stop,” where you carry forward basically the same momentum.
Physically, mentally, come to a complete rest—if only for this brief moment.
2. Breathe.
When we make space, often we create a vacuum. Thoughts, distractions, even nervous activity will rush in. So instead, we make sure fill it with nothing, with emptiness, with the volume of a full, deep breath. Just breathe, and notice (gently direct your focus) for just that moment: here you are, breathing. How good it is to breathe! This is enough!
Let your lungs holding the space of a breath become a picture for you of how your spirit now is holding the space of this quiet little prayer.
3. Recollect.
To recollect (re-collect) is to recall, to bring back to conscious awareness, to gather back to yourself all that may be scattered. What are we recollecting? Whatever there is, in such a brief moment, to gather up before us: that we are who we are, that we have been doing x, that we are about to do y, that we are in the presence here of a God who desires us.
This is but a taste of meditation and contemplation, and for a statio and the graces it gives, we needn’t reach for more than is ready to hand or dwell for more than a passing moment. We could spend hours in recollection. Here, we just take a moment. Humbly, all we desire here is to be aware, now, in this place, with the God who is in the place where we are.
Try it out.
Virtually any moment can accept a “holy pause.” Any moment where we might have the opportunity to stop, breathe and recollect is perfect and lends itself perfectly to prayer.
Notice wherever you might be drawn this week to receive the gift of such a pause. Try pressing down fully and gently on the brakes, and in just the momentary space of a fresh, holy breath, try out praying a statio.