Jesus Prayer
getting mechanical
25/04/06 14:44
Been
really busy leading up to Easter time - sorry for not being around
to post. Just recently I found myself praying the Jesus Prayer
quite fast and mechanically - it wasn't a prayer of my heart - I
was just 'saying' it. What helped me was to slow down, take two or
three words with each breath in and out, and focus on what I was
saying and what it meant. I wonder too, how hard it is to pray the
prayer on your own - Jesus promises: 'For where two or three are
gathered in my name, I am there among them.' Now does the gathering
have to be physically together, or can it be spiritual and from a
distance? Andrew
|
the Name
09/03/06 22:08
I came
across a very good one page guide to the Jesus Prayer at St.
Vladimir's Orthodox Theological Seminary Crestwood NY; a clear
explanation of the biblical view and power of the Name, and an
interesting story of St. Therese of Lisieux interceding for the
serial killer Pranzini illustrate the power of prayer. There's also
a beautiful comment on a scene of a girl walking in a field, on
inner and outer silence. see here.
How I learned the Jesus Prayer...
12/02/06 15:51
I think it's interesting how people
come to learn the Jesus Prayer, so I thought I'd share my
experience. I was 18 and studying at London University; I used to
visit the Catholic Chaplaincy in Gower Street. While there I came
into contact with a woman called Mary Durnan - Mary was from
Canada, had retired and was using her time to travel and to
volunteer.
She was kind to me, and one day she asked me if I ever woke up in the middle of the night praying. Strangely enough it had happened a couple of times recently, and she went on to ask me if I'd heard of the Jesus Prayer. Well I had read of it in Carlo Carretto's book Letters from the Desert
when I was at
school - I'd even hitchhiked to Morrocco wanting to get to
Carretto's Hermitage in Tamanrasset Algeria; I only got as far as
the Little Sisters of Jesus in Fez though!
Anyway, Mary said, 'Would you like your own Jesus Prayer, Andrew?', and she prayed for me right there and then - I think it was on the bus - for me to receive it. Later I was praying through Psalm 19 - I was taking one psalm a day at that time, and I came to the last verse: 'Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable to you, O Lord, my rock and my redeemer' and I thought, 'That's it! just change the words to Jesus, my Rock, my Redeemer' and I've been praying it ever since.
It was a beautiful gift and I shall be forever grateful to Mary, who I lost contact with. Do you have a Jesus Prayer story to share? Post a Comment or email me.
She was kind to me, and one day she asked me if I ever woke up in the middle of the night praying. Strangely enough it had happened a couple of times recently, and she went on to ask me if I'd heard of the Jesus Prayer. Well I had read of it in Carlo Carretto's book Letters from the Desert
when I was at
school - I'd even hitchhiked to Morrocco wanting to get to
Carretto's Hermitage in Tamanrasset Algeria; I only got as far as
the Little Sisters of Jesus in Fez though!Anyway, Mary said, 'Would you like your own Jesus Prayer, Andrew?', and she prayed for me right there and then - I think it was on the bus - for me to receive it. Later I was praying through Psalm 19 - I was taking one psalm a day at that time, and I came to the last verse: 'Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable to you, O Lord, my rock and my redeemer' and I thought, 'That's it! just change the words to Jesus, my Rock, my Redeemer' and I've been praying it ever since.
It was a beautiful gift and I shall be forever grateful to Mary, who I lost contact with. Do you have a Jesus Prayer story to share? Post a Comment or email me.
COTA 'Have mercy...'
01/01/06 22:34
The Jesus Prayer and repetition...
22/11/05 15:24
Is using the Jesus Prayer 'heaping up
empty phrases'? When Jesus' followers asked him to teach them to
pray, Jesus said: 'When you are praying, do not heap up empty
phrases as the Gentiles do; for they think that they will be heard
because of their many words.' (Matthew 6:7)
I thought it might be helpful to explore this issue and so I asked Bishop Simon Barrington-Ward, joint author of Praying the Jesus Prayer Together
for his comment
and he kindly replied:
If you look up 'vain repetion' in its context in Jesus' teaching you will see that it is associated with 'heaping up phrases' and wanting to be heard not by God, but by other people, to impress them!
The Pharisee in the Temple was uttering vain repetition in this sense, Jesus's sense. The Tax Collector 'repeated' one sentence over and over 'God be merciful to me, a sinner' and daren't even lift up his head to God. Jesus comments, 'I tell you this man went home justified rather than the other'.
Short prayer pierces heaven and if it is repeated out of an overwhelmed heart, if it carries all the weight of an inexpressible prayer as praying in tongues can also do. It is like the short phrases that we utter and repeat when we feel more than we can ever say, be it 'Thank you, oh thank you!' or 'I'm so sorry, I'm so sorry' which convey our heart's fullest feeling which can be beyond all words.
The Jesus Prayer helps us to concentrate our thoughts beyond any words and to express our gratitude, love and longing all at once. And the name repeated itself, the name above all names, miraculously invokes the presence and love of the One named.
Jesus' teaching about prayer has so much to do with the sincere desire of the heart, and if we want to want to have a sincere love for Him, however distracted we are and however faint and feeble our longing, He will reach out and lift us up to Himself.
The Jesus prayer then becomes a way into 'hesychia', stillness in the presence of the one 'Lord Jesus Christ' who leads us to the Father, 'Son of God' and through whom in the power of the Spirit the love of God is poured out into our hearts! 'Have mercy upon us!' even if we feel or know ourselves to be unworthy - that love enfolds us utterly - 'Have mercy upon me, a sinner.'
The prayer of longing to long more fully, like the Tax Collector's or blind Bartimaeus's prayer can never be in vain! Thanks be to God for his inexpressible gift to us in Jesus Christ our Lord!
Love and Prayers +Simon
I thought it might be helpful to explore this issue and so I asked Bishop Simon Barrington-Ward, joint author of Praying the Jesus Prayer Together
for his comment
and he kindly replied:If you look up 'vain repetion' in its context in Jesus' teaching you will see that it is associated with 'heaping up phrases' and wanting to be heard not by God, but by other people, to impress them!
The Pharisee in the Temple was uttering vain repetition in this sense, Jesus's sense. The Tax Collector 'repeated' one sentence over and over 'God be merciful to me, a sinner' and daren't even lift up his head to God. Jesus comments, 'I tell you this man went home justified rather than the other'.
Short prayer pierces heaven and if it is repeated out of an overwhelmed heart, if it carries all the weight of an inexpressible prayer as praying in tongues can also do. It is like the short phrases that we utter and repeat when we feel more than we can ever say, be it 'Thank you, oh thank you!' or 'I'm so sorry, I'm so sorry' which convey our heart's fullest feeling which can be beyond all words.
The Jesus Prayer helps us to concentrate our thoughts beyond any words and to express our gratitude, love and longing all at once. And the name repeated itself, the name above all names, miraculously invokes the presence and love of the One named.
Jesus' teaching about prayer has so much to do with the sincere desire of the heart, and if we want to want to have a sincere love for Him, however distracted we are and however faint and feeble our longing, He will reach out and lift us up to Himself.
The Jesus prayer then becomes a way into 'hesychia', stillness in the presence of the one 'Lord Jesus Christ' who leads us to the Father, 'Son of God' and through whom in the power of the Spirit the love of God is poured out into our hearts! 'Have mercy upon us!' even if we feel or know ourselves to be unworthy - that love enfolds us utterly - 'Have mercy upon me, a sinner.'
The prayer of longing to long more fully, like the Tax Collector's or blind Bartimaeus's prayer can never be in vain! Thanks be to God for his inexpressible gift to us in Jesus Christ our Lord!
Love and Prayers +Simon