A great article! I loved the quotes from the Bible and of the Church Fathers. You've inspired me to take my prayer rope I got in Romania to work so I can contemplate Jesus during times of idleness and coping with emails containing bombshells.
Thanks for this -- it's a great summary and introduction, I think.
In the East (I'm an EO), people sometimes use different forms of the Jesus Prayer that are shorter than the full Athonite formula, like "Lord Jesus Christ, have mercy on me" or, even more simply "Lord have mercy" or "Jesus" repeated in the same way.
There are also other short prayers that people use the prayer rope (the EO rosary beads "equivalent") for, like "Most Holy Theotokos, save us". There's also the old Russian praxis of alternating "Remember me, O Lord, when you come into your Kingdom; Remember me, O Master, when you come into your Kingdom; Remember me, O Holy One, when you come into your Kingdom" on successive knots, and so on.
I'd say among lay Orthodox who use it in prayer, the Jesus Prayer is mostly used either (1) as something to do in those moments during the day when you have a free moment mentally instead of just letting your mind wander, or checking your phone reflexively or (2) as a moderate prayer routine (maybe 1-2 ropes once or twice a day). The deeper stuff about hesychia in much of the Philokalia can be hard to assimilate for a busy lay person. St. Theophan's writings (many of them contained in the useful anthology "The Art of Prayer") are geared towards lay people, albeit still lay people who were quite different from contemporary people (19th Century Russians).
Interestingly, the rosary has a following in the East as well, probably because it's a little easier for many people to relate to as a devotional practice due to the use of mental images and scenes. You can find rosaries that have Russian Orthodox crosses on them, for example, if you look around hard enough for them (although they're hardly "common", either).
I'm extremely wary of the (mainly Jesuit) idea of creating mental phantasms of "scenes" in your mind. It's one of the things that has pushed me to become interested in iconography. Our own imaginations are not to be trusted - even less so after a lifetime of television and advertising images.
Indeed. Many Orthodox teachings on prayers specifically warn against imaginings and scenes in prayer as distracting (at best) and extremely dangerous at worst. When deep in prayer one can be very vulnerable, particularly to thinking one is receiving a holy vision.
It all sort of dovetails with @Rod Dreher ’s writing about not messing with demons and summoning UFOs. Which I thought was a bit out there compared to most of his writing and far outside even my mystical-leaning Overton window.
The more I consider it, however, and recall the words of the Orthodox spiritual fathers I have known and trusted, and the snippets I have read from saints and desert fathers, and my own experiences trying to figure it all out without God… I am increasingly convinced there is something to this not using your mind’s eye and your perspective to create visions of anything. And it’s NOT at all far fetched that a novice opening themselves up to the universe could encounter things satanic rather than holy. Thank God we have the church.
This post has deeply altered how I will pray the Jesus Prayer. What a gift for an unmoored prodigal daughter trying to find her footing during great lent. What a gift the Canadian priest has for spiritual exposition! And those nuns chanting, am I in heaven or on earth? Thank you @Hilary White for this post.
Thoughtfully breathing the name of Jesus through the Jesus Prayer in union with Mary is the most beautiful combination. She who carries the Lord within Her and does not burn Herself. She who is an enclosed garden. She who hid and pondered everything in Her heart. I accede to the King of kings through His Mother, hidden in Her Immaculate Heart, to unite myself to the Sacred Heart of Jesus.
An interesting aspect of the Jesus Prayer that my friend @Johnathon Hanson recently made note of is that the fourfold structure of the Jesus Prayer matches the fourfold structure of the Sign of the Cross (Father-Son-Spirit-doxology/head-belly-shoulder-shoulder), there's also a fourfold breathing exercise associated with it (in-out-in-out), and all of this adds much more depth to the prayer, as it becomes a Trinitarian, cruciform, and meditative prayer all at once .
A great article! I loved the quotes from the Bible and of the Church Fathers. You've inspired me to take my prayer rope I got in Romania to work so I can contemplate Jesus during times of idleness and coping with emails containing bombshells.
Thanks for this -- it's a great summary and introduction, I think.
In the East (I'm an EO), people sometimes use different forms of the Jesus Prayer that are shorter than the full Athonite formula, like "Lord Jesus Christ, have mercy on me" or, even more simply "Lord have mercy" or "Jesus" repeated in the same way.
There are also other short prayers that people use the prayer rope (the EO rosary beads "equivalent") for, like "Most Holy Theotokos, save us". There's also the old Russian praxis of alternating "Remember me, O Lord, when you come into your Kingdom; Remember me, O Master, when you come into your Kingdom; Remember me, O Holy One, when you come into your Kingdom" on successive knots, and so on.
I'd say among lay Orthodox who use it in prayer, the Jesus Prayer is mostly used either (1) as something to do in those moments during the day when you have a free moment mentally instead of just letting your mind wander, or checking your phone reflexively or (2) as a moderate prayer routine (maybe 1-2 ropes once or twice a day). The deeper stuff about hesychia in much of the Philokalia can be hard to assimilate for a busy lay person. St. Theophan's writings (many of them contained in the useful anthology "The Art of Prayer") are geared towards lay people, albeit still lay people who were quite different from contemporary people (19th Century Russians).
Interestingly, the rosary has a following in the East as well, probably because it's a little easier for many people to relate to as a devotional practice due to the use of mental images and scenes. You can find rosaries that have Russian Orthodox crosses on them, for example, if you look around hard enough for them (although they're hardly "common", either).
I'm extremely wary of the (mainly Jesuit) idea of creating mental phantasms of "scenes" in your mind. It's one of the things that has pushed me to become interested in iconography. Our own imaginations are not to be trusted - even less so after a lifetime of television and advertising images.
Indeed. Many Orthodox teachings on prayers specifically warn against imaginings and scenes in prayer as distracting (at best) and extremely dangerous at worst. When deep in prayer one can be very vulnerable, particularly to thinking one is receiving a holy vision.
It all sort of dovetails with @Rod Dreher ’s writing about not messing with demons and summoning UFOs. Which I thought was a bit out there compared to most of his writing and far outside even my mystical-leaning Overton window.
The more I consider it, however, and recall the words of the Orthodox spiritual fathers I have known and trusted, and the snippets I have read from saints and desert fathers, and my own experiences trying to figure it all out without God… I am increasingly convinced there is something to this not using your mind’s eye and your perspective to create visions of anything. And it’s NOT at all far fetched that a novice opening themselves up to the universe could encounter things satanic rather than holy. Thank God we have the church.
This post has deeply altered how I will pray the Jesus Prayer. What a gift for an unmoored prodigal daughter trying to find her footing during great lent. What a gift the Canadian priest has for spiritual exposition! And those nuns chanting, am I in heaven or on earth? Thank you @Hilary White for this post.
Thank you for sharing this!
Great overview
Thoughtfully breathing the name of Jesus through the Jesus Prayer in union with Mary is the most beautiful combination. She who carries the Lord within Her and does not burn Herself. She who is an enclosed garden. She who hid and pondered everything in Her heart. I accede to the King of kings through His Mother, hidden in Her Immaculate Heart, to unite myself to the Sacred Heart of Jesus.
Most Holy Theotokos save us! ⛪☦️🕯️♥️🔥
You have a solid balance of Patristic references if this work sister, well done. Pray on.....
There is a warning. No lone rangers! ⚠️
To take on the discipline of the Jesus Prayer without participating in the Life of the Church can be extremely dangerous....
Call upon the Holy Name of Jesus,
"mind in heart", 📿🕯️♥️ 🕊️ ☦️ 🌐 ceaselessly.
Saint Theophan the Recluse, pray for us! ⛪
An interesting aspect of the Jesus Prayer that my friend @Johnathon Hanson recently made note of is that the fourfold structure of the Jesus Prayer matches the fourfold structure of the Sign of the Cross (Father-Son-Spirit-doxology/head-belly-shoulder-shoulder), there's also a fourfold breathing exercise associated with it (in-out-in-out), and all of this adds much more depth to the prayer, as it becomes a Trinitarian, cruciform, and meditative prayer all at once .