it sounds quite a bit like what we Catholics do prior to the reading of the Holy Gospels...

This brings back the image for me of going to the Buddhist temples in Korea, and watching the particularly devout performing ritual bows in altar pavilions ~ hands in "prayer position" (palms together, fingers up) and tapping the thumbs to the forehead, the chin, and the sternum (close enough to the heart for me). I guess I never really thought of it in Geoff's terms, "all that I think, and all that I say, comes from the heart", but I like that. I always regarded it as a thoughtful, sincere gesture anyway. Now you've given me words to put to it. Thanks, from the bottom of my heart.