The Jesus Prayer

First, I need to apologize to you.  I have been planning to show you a new spiritual exercise for some time now, but I finally realized that I have not prepared you for this more advanced practice.  So please forgive my enthusiasm.  In my excitement to share this new exercise with you, I forgot that many of you are not regular meditators.  I’m afraid that if I share this new practice with you now, you may be a bit overwhelmed.  So, out of the abundance of caution, and out of my concern for your spiritual growth and well-being, I’m having to walk back my promise to you.

Monologistic Prayers

In its place, I would like to introduce the Jesus Prayer, the oldest, commonly-used monologistic prayer in Christendom.  Monologistic prayers are similar in many ways to the mantras of the Eastern religions.  The word “monologistic” refers to the short prayers (mono  logos = one  word) developed within the Christian faith, which are continuously repeated during one’s meditation practice.  These prayers are suitable for both beginning and advanced meditators, and they offer many benefits.  Examples of these kinds of meditation include the Jesus Prayer, the prayer described in The Cloud of Unknowing, and the more modern Centering Prayer.

For beginners, monologistic prayers are great tools for learning to focus your attention.  As we have said previously, a focused attention, capable of being sustained over long periods of time, is an absolute requisite for the kind of spiritual progress we are exploring.  As you develop more and more comfort and expertise with these practices, these prayers can take you deeply into a profound inner stillness.  This stillness is the precursor to those unitive states that signal we are reaching the conclusion of our spiritual journey.  

The Jesus Prayer, in its several variations, holds the distinction of being the oldest continually-used monologistic prayer in Christendom.  Furthermore, it has probably been used by more people, and in more varied circumstances than any other.  It is one of the great treasures of the Church.

The Jesus Prayer has three parts which are practiced simultaneously.  First, the practitioner opens to God's Presence, using one of the practices of Recollection.  Second, the practitioner places his attention in the region of the heart.  And third, he begins to repeat the words from the heart, "Lord Jesus Christ, have mercy on me."

The Development of the Jesus Prayer

The roots of this Prayer extend back to the time of Christ Jesus.  From the earliest times, devotion to the name of Jesus has been a part of the Church.  This devotion is embodied in two central references in the New Testament.  The first, from St. Paul, says, "God...bestowed on Him the name above every other name, so that at Jesus' name, every knee must bend in the heavens, and on the earth, and under the earth."  The second reference is in St. John's gospel:  "Whatever you ask the Father, he will give you in my name."  These texts form a powerful rationale for praying using the name of Jesus.  The Jesus Prayer refines this by focusing directly and exclusively on the name of Jesus.  In this way, the prayer functions as a tool through which divine grace is channeled into the heart of the believer.

The second element of the Jesus Prayer, embodied in the words, "have mercy on me," appeals for God's mercy and forgiveness.  Here the one who prays focuses on their relationship to God, and asks for grace.  In practice, as the meditator prays in this way, there frequently arises a deep sense of grief and an outpouring of tears.  These tears seem to cleanse the soul from the passions which separate us from the Divine.

The third element, the frequent repetition of the prayer, is an attempt to follow St. Paul's injunction to "pray without ceasing."  We hear mention of this practice of constant repetition throughout the surviving writings of the Desert Fathers.  By this means, these early monks and nuns strove constantly to remember God, and to live and move in an awareness of God's constant Presence.

The fourth element, the quest for inner stillness, is the hallmark of non-discursive prayer, and the beginning of contemplation.  Evagrios of Ponticus, who lived with the Desert Fathers, states that "prayer means the shedding of thoughts."  Another translation renders the passage, "Prayer is the rejection of concepts."  Evagrios' concern was to still the restless wanderings of the intellect so that the essential unity of the soul with the Divine can stand revealed.  In most people, their mental turmoil obscures the Presence of God.  Only through focusing our attention can we go beyond conceptual thinking into those unitive states where we dwell with the Divine.

The History of the Jesus Prayer.  While the four elements of the Jesus Prayer were clearly recognizable by the fourth century, it was not until Bishop Diadochus in the fifth century unified these elements into one recognizable prayer that the Jesus Prayer, per se, came into being.  Diadochus was the first to bring these elements together for the purpose of entering into the state of non-discursive, imageless prayer.  He states that the intellect is inherently “restless,” and needs some activity to satisfy its needs.  He engages the intellect with the ceaseless repetition of the name of Jesus, which ultimately leads to quieting the discursive mind.  Of importance is Diadochos' instruction to "give [the mind] nothing but the prayer, 'Lord Jesus'."  This unvarying repetition brings the restless intellect into stillness, "reaching out beyond language into silence, beyond discursive thinking into intuitive awareness."

From this essential catalyst, the Jesus Prayer appears again in clear form in the deserts of Egypt, Sinai, and Palestine.  St. John Climacus, who lived in the Sinai and wrote the core work, The Ladder of Divine Ascent, recommends the prayer.  Due to the widespread influence of his writings, the Jesus Prayer spread throughout the Orthodox churches.  St. John's followers, St. Hesychius and St. Philotheus, are even more explicit in extolling the virtues of the Jesus Prayer.  

Thus, between the fifth and eighth centuries, the Jesus Prayer emerges as a recognized spiritual way, sanctioned by the church hierarchy and widely practiced by both monastics and the laity.  In later centuries, as the Eastern churches declined in spiritual vigor, the practice of the Jesus Prayer fell into disuse.  In each of the several revivals which have swept through the Eastern Orthodox churches, the Jesus Prayer has played a significant role.  In Greece in the fourteenth century, and then again in the eighteenth century when the Philokalia was compiled, the Jesus Prayer was the central practice which fueled and sustained the revival.  Again, in Russia during the late eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, the Jesus Prayer plays a now-familiar and significant role in revitalizing the faith of an entire people.  

The Russian Pilgrim.  We in the West are familiar with this last revival through the works of the anonymous Russian author of The Way of a Pilgrim.  This anonymous author tells a fascinating story of his adventures during the decades before the freeing of the serfs in 1861.  An orphaned peasant from the province of Orel, he was raised by a grandfather, along with his older brother.  This brother was a drunkard and injured him repeatedly, first crippling his hand, and then burning his house down.  Crippled and widowed, with no ties to keep him, the younger brother began his wanderings.

The pilgrim's spiritual journey started in a church, when he heard a reading of the words of St. Paul, "pray without ceasing."  He began to wonder how this was possible, and asked every learned clergyman that he encountered.  No one gave him a satisfactory answer.  He kept looking for a method, but all he received were pious platitudes which begged the question.  Finally the pilgrim found a staretz, a wise old spiritual guide, who taught him the following:

The continuous interior Prayer of Jesus is a constant uninterrupted calling upon the divine Name of Jesus with the lips, in the spirit, in the heart; while forming a mental picture of His constant presence, and imploring His grace, during every occupation, at all times, in all places, even during sleep.  The appeal is couched in these terms, 'Lord Jesus Christ, have mercy on me.'  One who accustoms himself to this appeal experiences as a result so deep a consolation and so great a need to offer the prayer always, that he can no longer live without it, and it will continue to voice itself within him of its own accord.

In addition, the staretz read to the pilgrim from the Philokalia, a compendium of writings from the early Fathers which describes the "detailed science of constant interior prayer."  Various postures and other details about the Jesus Prayer were explained by reference to this work, introducing him to the writings of the early Church Fathers.  As the pilgrim began to progress in the prayer, his psychology started to change.  After a summer of practice, he reports:

I felt an absolute peace in my soul.  During sleep I often dreamed that I was saying the Prayer.  And during the day if I happened to meet anyone, all men without exception were as dear to me as if they have been my nearest relations....All my ideas were quite calmed of their own accord.  I thought of nothing whatever but my Prayer, my mind tended to listen to it, and my heart began of itself to feel at times a certain warmth and pleasure...My lonely hut seemed like a splendid palace, and I knew not how to thank God for having sent to me, a lost sinner, so wholesome a guide and master.

The Three Operations of the Jesus Prayer

The Jesus Prayer, as it was taught in Greece and Russia, has three mental parts or operations, and all of these need to be present for the Prayer to be effective. All too often the Jesus Prayer has been taught as if it has only one operation, that of saying the words.  This is the most misunderstood point in the practice of this great prayer.  The spiritual giants who have used this prayer are unanimous in stating that the words are the least important of the three operations of the Jesus Prayer.  The first and most important operation is the Recollection of God's Presence, opening ourselves to the immediacy of the Divine right here and right now.  This is the first and most important part of the Jesus Prayer. 

The second operation of the Prayer is to put the 'head in the heart', which means to move our attention from our head, where it usually resides, into our heart center, and to pray from the heart.  In the words of St. Theophan the Recluse, a major figure in Russian mysticism in the nineteenth century:

In order to keep the mind on one thing by the use of a short prayer, it is necessary to preserve attention and so lead it into the heart:  for so long as the mind remains in the head, where thoughts jostle one another, it has no time to concentrate on one thing.  But when attention descends into the heart, it attracts all the powers of the soul and body into one point there.  This concentration of all human life in one place is immediately reflected in the heart by a special sensation that is the beginning of future warmth....This warmth then holds the attention without special effort....From this there follows a rule of spiritual life:  if you keep the heart alive towards God, you will always be in remembrance of God.

This means that if we keep our attention focused in our hearts, our hearts will always be oriented towards the Divine. 

This mental operation of putting the attention into the heart is quite unusual for Western Christians.  We tend to think of attention as something fixed in the head.  Our reasoning goes like this:  'the brain is the organ of thought, so our attention must be physically rooted in the head.'  If you have ever stubbed your toe or barked your shin, you know this is untrue.  When one of these accidents happen, our entire attention is instantly unified at the location of the injury!

Actually, we can place our attention anywhere in the body that we choose.  Placing our attention in the heart feels strange at first, and many wonder whether they get it right.  But you will become more comfortable here as the practice becomes familiar.

The third, and least important of the three operations of the Jesus Prayer is the repetition of the words: "Lord Jesus Christ, have mercy on me" over and over.  If our minds are particularly unsettled in our meditation, we may need to repeat this phrase quickly, to drive out the distractions.  If our attention is collected and focused, we may adopt a more receptive attitude, and say the words slowly, with pauses in between the phrases.

Putting the three operations together looks like this.  First, open yourself to feel God's Presence with you.  Then feel the sphere of energy that surrounds your head.  This is your attention.  Move that sphere of energy slowly down into your heart.  From your heart, not from your head, repeat the words of the prayer, "Lord Jesus Christ, have mercy on me".  "The essence of the whole thing is to be established in the remembrance of God, and to walk in His presence."

The Jesus Prayer is not a visual meditation.  You should not make pictures of the Lord or of yourself in this practice.  Simply engage in these three operations.  When your attention wanders from them, gently bring yourself back, and reestablish each of these three operations.  If you notice, during the course of your practice of the Jesus Prayer, that you are no longer doing one of these operations, gently reestablish that part of the Prayer and then continue.

"The main thing is to stand before the Lord with the mind in the heart."  Eventually, even the words of the prayer will disappear, as we begin to venture into the realms of contemplative prayer.  This is the experience of hesychia, or inner stillness.  When the words and thoughts of the Jesus Prayer disappear of their own accord, the one who prays has entered into the stillness of the Mind of God.  This experience is one of sublime peace and tranquility.  When this occurs, do not force yourself to continue repeating the Jesus Prayer.  Let yourself dwell in stillness.

In summation, the purpose of the Jesus Prayer is to collect and order the attention, and to focus this attention on God in such a way that we are gradually drawn into the deepest awareness of the Divine Presence in all things and manners of life.

*  *  *

That’s all for this week.  I know this newsletter is a bit lengthy, but I felt it important to review the history and practice of the Jesus Prayer before we begin to use it in our meditation practice.  Over the last two thousand years, it has been a central prayer practice for much of the Christian Church.  This is such an important practice, that you need to understand where it comes from and how our forebearers have used this meditation to journey into the Divine.  

This week, I would encourage you to prepare for the practice of the Jesus Prayer by remembering that you are walking in God’s holy Presence.  As you move through the events of your week, simply remember that God is with you.  Remember that God’s holy Presence surrounds you and makes its dwelling within you.  Next week, I promise, we will go into the actual practice of the Jesus Prayer, and I will show you several variations that you can use.

Thank you once again for your faithfulness in exploring this material with me.  Let us pray for one another, that we can let go of everything that separates us from that wondrous love of God, so that we can fully enjoy that magnificent Presence.

With love,

P.S.  Several of you have expressed the desire for an online meditation class.  If there is enough interest, I will try to figure out how to hold a group class on the web.  If you have an interest, please write me at [email protected]. 

Humility as a Tool  → Letting go → Fear → Openness →  Acceptance & Growth

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