The body in chronic pain numbs focal attention. It limits the kind of attention that reflects, plans, envisions and wants. It also limits the kind of attention central to intentional prayer. Attention is more than an agency of intellect and will. Attention, said Simone Weil, is also prayer as prayer is attention.
Pain defines how and when attention prays.
As pain spreads and deepens, it possesses attention, both the focal and prayerful kind. The gravity of pain translocates prayer. There is a paradox in unremitting pain. Pain that persists without relief and refractory to the mind's intention becomes a spontaneous prayer of the ensouled body-self. Oscillating between gravity and grace, pain works like a mantra.