My thoughts on the Jesus Prayer

 

I am amazed at the presence of Jesus Christ almost daily. As someone who has been dealing with medical issues, my life has been turned completely on its head the past few weeks as I struggle to overcome my own illness and weakness. I am not a monk, nor a member of the clergy, but I find solace in the Lord through prayer more as I practice. One of the prayers that I currently have been practicing is the Jesus Prayer. Now you can find many articles on the Jesus Prayer on the internet and you can also find books entirely dedicated to it, like The Way of the Pilgrim. Today I would like to share my thoughts and my experiences with the Jesus Prayer and hope to give you some comfort in this time as well.

The Jesus Prayer is simple. It is simply the words, “Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me a sinner.” These words contain the entirety of the gospel within a single phrase. The arrow prayer as it is. Monks on Mount Athos have been known to repeat this phrase 10,000 times a day while working or performing the services and contemplate the meaning of the words. The monks as the highest source of religious service to the Lord are connected in such a way that through the Jesus prayer they are able to grow stronger and deeper in their faith. They also are able to recall the words of scripture in this prayer, through the words of the publican In Luke 18:10-14 where he stood a far off from the altar as he prayed to the Lord. It also calls upon the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, who as Acts 4:12 says there is no other name in heaven or earth upon which a man can be saved. Not Buddha, Mohammed, Krishna, not even Vishnu.  In the Old Testament, God would not give anyone his name, because having a person’s name gave power of that person over to another. Through Jesus Christ we have the power of God living inside of us and we can call upon God to rescue us from our sin through prayer and confession. In regards to my research I came across St. Ignatius Brianchaninov who writes, “By the power of the name of Jesus the mind is freed from doubt, indecision and hesitation, the will is strengthened and correctness is given to zeal and other properties of the soul.” 

But reciting the prayer is not enough. Oh no. Many people view God today as a magic sky wizard who grants to them whatever their heart desires through their prayer. We see this in the prosperity gospel, where God wants us to be healthy, happy and having everything we want to live our best life. But that is not the case and has never been the case. We must do the will of God in accordance with the prayer we must live in total surrender to God and his wishes without thinking about ourselves and the desires of our heart. We are called to act as the stewards of the faith, the stewards of the earth. Repenting of our sins and focusing on God. The prayer states “have mercy on me.” Without sin there is no mercy. There are some in this world today that say that humans are not sinful, that everything we do is natural and that we cannot change human nature. God on the other hand clearly defines sin in both the scriptures and the natural world and even in the lives of the saints. He clearly defines the laws in which we should act.

The Jesus prayer therefore acts as a way in which we can contemplate the life in which we live, and meditate on the world. It is a practice of hesychasm, which many would consider pagan and foreign. I have been told many times, “Seraphim, why do you recite the words of the prayer over and over again?” It is not the repetition of the words that makes the prayer meaningful, it is the heart of the person. Over time the prayer breaks down the barriers between you and God and allows you to enter into his grace fully with a clean heart. St. Basil the Great writes, “But if someone claims that it is written: “whoever calls upon the name of the Lord will be saved”, and that therefore a Christian need only invoke the name of God to be saved, let him read what the Apostle has said: “How can they call upon him if they do not believe in him?” And besides this there are the words of the Lord himself: “Not everyone who says, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only he who does the will of my Father who is in heaven” (Matt. 7:21). Moreover, if someone is doing the will of the Lord and does not do it exactly in the way ordained or does not do it out of the proper motive of love for God, then all the effort he puts into the action is useless. And Jesus Christ himself has said in His gospel: “Hypocrites do these things as to be seen by men: I tell you truthfully, they have already received their reward” (Matt. 6:16). We wee then that we must either accept the words of the prayer without questioning God or render ourselves as hypocrites. I have witnessed in many protestant churches that people will pray with long winded expressions and yet they are really never saying anything. That is not to say that many people within those churches do not have wonderful prayer lives, I’m assured they do. Misguided though they are, they try their best. But only Orthodoxy can be the full aspect of prayer and the Jesus Prayer as well.

            Though none of us reading might be monks, it is always good to think of your home as a little monastery in the world. Where you can go and be away from the cares of this life and focus solely on God. To that end, I would like to leave you with a quote that I read by St. John Chrysostom, Patriarch of Constantinople. He says, “A monk when he eats, drinks, sits, officiates, travels or does an other thing must continually cry: “Lord, Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy upon me!” so that the name of the Lord Jesus, descending into the depths of the heart, should subdue the serpent ruling over the inner pastures and bring life and salvation to the soul. He should always live with the name of the Lord Jesus, so that the heart absorbs the Lord and the Lord the heart, and the two become one.” Our only goal in life is to become one with God that he might use us to further his glory. We pray and we fast and we do all things that we are asked of, but if we do not have the heart, then we will spin our wheels without really ever doing anything.

            May God have mercy on us all.

Amen.