"This is My Body"

I have a body.
Sometimes I love my body. Sometimes I don't.
Sometimes I am critical and judgmental of my body.
Sometimes I want to nip it and tuck it and suck it in.
Sometimes I pamper it and treat it well.
Sometimes I am grateful for it and other times I wish it were altogether different.

It was only recently that I came to understand how often and how truthfully my body speaks to me. Interestingly enough, I find that my body doesn't ever lie to me. My wandering heart will lie to me. As will my restless mind. My body, on the other hand, tells me exactly what I ate, what I drank, and how long it has been since I exercised and slept well. It doesn't ask for stuff it doesn't need. It doesn't ask me to do dangerous things. It serves me and carries me and accepts all the abuse I can heap on it.

This is my body. Today, I am grateful for it.


The Vessel
By Anthony DeMello

I ask God for a special kind of body
And get the one I have right now.
What thoughts and feelings do I have about this body?

We hear of saints who hated or were neutral to their bodies.
What attitude is mine?
Where did I get it?



In the blueprint I have drawn up for my life, how does my body help or hinder?

If it could speak, what would my body say about the blueprint?



My relationship with my body powerfully affects my life for good or evil.
The finest way to heal, or deepen, the relationship is dialogue.

My body must be frank in expressing its resentments and its fears – of me.

I must be just as frank.

We keep at it until we are reconciled and understand and love each other better.

We must then state explicitly our expectations of each other.

Before we end the dialogue, I ask my body for a word of wisdom.



Scripture reveals my body’s spirituality.
It says my body is God’s temple, the spirit’s dwelling place.
What does that mean?


It further says our bodies are not ours but Christ’s, so he can say of me,
”This is my body.”
Again I wonder at the meaning of those words.

I see myself go through the actions of the day
(eating, washing, playing, sleeping)
with my consciousness
that my body is the home of the divine.

Or caring for it as for the body of my beloved.

Finally I speak to God about my body.
And listen as He speaks to me.