The Jesus Prayer

Date: 24 August 2005 10:27:18

Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me, a sinner.

This is one of the most well-known prayers in Orthodoxy. I have read a bit about it, and I was reminded once more of it while reading the section on it in Fr Hopko's The Orthodox Faith : Spirituality booklet.

That page is well worth the read. It details the words of the prayer, as well as the various ways the prayer is used in Orthodoxy: silent meditative prayer under the guidance of a spiritual adviser; repetition of the prayer constantly in all situations; and the use of the prayer in moments of temptation. There appears to be so much in such a short prayer!

Bishop Ignatius Brianchaninov in The Arena spends three chapters on this prayer, and it makes appearances throughout other chapters; Bishop Kallistos Ware writes about it in The Orthodox Way in several chapters, and gives this wonderful explanation of its Trinitarian form:

This is, in outward form, a prayer to the second person of the Trinity, the Lord Jesus Christ. But the other two persons are also present, though they are not named. For, by speaking of Jesus as "Son of God", we point towards his Father; and the Spirit is also embraced in our prayer, since "no one can say 'Lord Jesus', except in the Holy Spirit" (1 Cor. 12:3). The Jesus Prayer is not only Christ-centred but Trinitarian.

Bishop Kallistos Ware, The Orthodox Church, 1995, p. 38, SVS Press, Crestwood

And there are many, many other references to it in other Orthodox writings: The Way of a Pilgrim, a book I want to buy soon and which has been heartily recommended to me, has much to say on the Jesus Prayer.

The more rain falls on the earth, the softer it makes it; similarly, Christ's holy name gladdens the earth of our heart the more we call upon it.

St. Hesychius the Priest, Philokalia, Volume 1