Prayer Posture - Important or Not?

A friend commented about my post yesterday, Making the Lord's Prayer Come Alive. In that post, I mentioned that I get down on my 70-something knees each night to pray. She mentioned that her DM prayed lying in bed because of a heart issue.

I don't believe prayer posture is carved in stone as rigidly as our beloved guidelines, the Ten Commandments.

I enjoy kneeling when I can. During the recuperating months after my foot surgery a year or so ago (two toes - bunion on one, hammer toe on other), I could not kneel down without risking danger to the steel rods in my toes at that time. I did not feel badly about it. I do admit I missed it.

Kneeling to pray is wonderful when, and if, we can do it. God knows what is in our hearts. He understands, I am certain, that some of us just cannot do that.

The most important part of prayer is our focus during prayer. If our mind and soul are focused on a one-on-one talk with our Creator, then it is a wonderful and successful prayer time.

There will be a time in the not-so-far-away future in which I will not be able to kneel any longer.

As it is, as a Catholic, I used to genuflect in church at certain times. However, the past year or so, this is not do-able for me. The last time I tried it, I had to use two hands on the corner of the pew to pull myself back up. Thankfully, I always go before the crowd(s) arrive. Even so, I looked around in embarrassment and saw a gentleman a few pews behind me, watching me. Then he smiled a little and nodded in understanding. From that moment onward, I did not feel guilty for not genuflecting. And I did not feel guilty when my knees were bad enough to keep me from kneeling at certain points in the service.

Father, help us to focus more on what we are saying to you in our prayer sessions rather than focusing on our physical posture at that time