Oración corporal, un tesoro escondido

Abstract

Prayer in the life of the believer is the means and place in which he finds God, man involves his whole being (body and soul) and an integral being seeks perfection and configuration with the creator, as it was said by St. Thomas Aquinas in his theological reflection on the nature of man. The body was used as a basic part in prayer. Different texts and biographies of men, for centuries manifest this relationship; for instance, the biblical experiences found in the Old and New Testament, the texts of apostolic tradition, the lives of the Fathers of the Church and the life of saint Dominic of Guzman. In modernity, the relationship with God has gone into the background reducing private prayer and mental expressions, which in turn has caused the loosing of prayer with the body and from the body. It will be until the Twentieth Century when an attempt to recover this form of prayer will be done, but mixed with prayers and methods of Eastern religions that distort the relationship with God, in seeking man's encounter with his inner self.