Physicality in Worship

First off, today is the Feast of the Guardian Angels.

So, have you hugged your angel today? ;)

Okay, so that's probably only funny to me, because I did a post a while back titled 'Don't Hug the Angel' - which was all about how angels are not fluffy bunnies of love like some people think.

On to the post!

We, as human beings, have been given both bodies and souls and minds. It's not enough, in my opinion, to worship God *only* with your soul and mind. The body (since we're the only created beings who get all this) *must* be involved.

I see too much of this:

People just sitting in their pews, as if their mere physical presence in a church is enough. I don't think it is. Part of what attracted me to Catholicism, and part of what I appreciate in Orthodoxy and Islam as well, is that your body is engaged in the act of worship.

Now, of course, as I go along, things change, and I wish that there was *more* physicality in Catholic worship. I wish we could prostrate in Mass. I wish we didn't have *pews* and had an open floor plan like a mosque or some (older) Orthodox churches.

Since, however, we *do* have pews, I just prostrate to my little hearts content in private worship at home. :)

I usually wind up like these women kneeling in sujood (only I like to think my butt isn't that high, but it probably is...):

There is, of course, a *wrong* way to throw your body into worship, like these lovely Pentacostal people here (it was one of the only ones I could find that didn't involve snake handling):

Look, I'm 90% sure that none of these people have ever participated in a Sabbat or other pagan ritual. If they had, they'd realize the frenzy they work themselves up to is almost exactly what happens in *so many* of them.

Also, 'praying hands' vs. orans. I fall on the side of orans.

To me, it feels like this: With my hands clasped, I feel like I'm *begging*, and *clinging* to myself and my troubles, my wants. When I lift my hands up, I'm *offering* to God. Offering everything - myself, my problems, my desires, my life.

So I typically look similar to this young woman when I pray:

Though I don't hold my hands in front of my face like she's doing.

Aannnddd...on a vaguely related note. Why do all Muslim prayer outfits look like they're made out of bed sheets? They all have these little patterns on them that literally make you look like you took a sheet and wrapped it around yourself. Why?