The Jesus Prayer

[Alex Tang]

Prayer is something we talk about a lot but seldom practice. Few of us
have set times of daily prayers and even fewer keep to them. Our most
intense period of prayers is when we or our loved ones are in grave
needs. After that period is over and the crisis resolved, many of us
find it difficult to lead a consistent prayer life. For many of us,
the concept of persistent prayer blows our mind. The reason is that
many of us find it difficult to pray for long periods without running
out of words or repeating ourselves. What do we pray about when we
have gone through our “prayer lists”? Many of our prayer lists are
actually “want lists” or “shopping lists” to be presented to God. Yet
the apostle Paul unapologically asks us to pray “unceasingly” or
“continually”(NIV) (1 Thess. 5:17).

One of the prayers which I find most helpful in helping me to pray
unceasingly is the Jesus Prayer. The Jesus Prayer was a common prayer
of the early church. This prayer is still a favourite prayer of the
Orthodox Catholic Church or commonly known as the Eastern Orthodox
Church. The apostolic church was a single church until 1024 when it
was split into the Roman Catholic Church and the Orthodox Catholic
Church by an event appropriately named the East-West Schism. The
Protestant movement, of which the Presbyterians are one of the
inheritors, came out of the Roman Catholic Church. In many ways, the
practices of the Orthodox Catholic Church reflect the practices of the
early church.

The Jesus Prayer in its commonest form is “Lord Jesus Christ, Son of
the Living God, have mercy on me, a sinner.” This prayer has two
essential components. The first is the acknowledgment of the supremacy
of Jesus Christ as described in the great Christological hymn of
Philippians 2:6-11. The second component is the parable of the
Publican and the Pharisee, in which the Pharisee demonstrates the
improper way to pray by exclaiming: "Thank you Lord that I am not like
the Publican", whereas the Publican prays correctly in humility,
saying "Lord have mercy on me, a sinner" (Luke 18:10-14). The Jesus
Prayer is a prayer addressed to God asking for mercy.

The Jesus Prayer is also known as the prayer of the heart. The Song of
Solomon's passage from the Old Testament “I sleep, but my heart is
awake” (Song of Solomon 5:2) declares that for persons in love, their
beloved is never far from their hearts. The analogy being that as a
lover is always conscious to his or her beloved, people can also
achieve a state of “constant prayer” where they are always conscious
of God's presence in their lives.

The prayer is repeated slowly and prayerfully. “Lord Jesus Christ, Son
of the Living God, have mercy on me, a sinner.” Repeatedly proclaiming
the divinity of Christ and asking for mercy is not vain repetition. It
is different from chanting a mantra or a self help technique. It is
“continuous” worship in invoking the name of Christ and acknowledging
our dependence upon Him. Mercy here is not just for salvation only but
also for our spiritual well being. Unlike mantras, the Jesus Prayer
may be translated into any language.

Initially you may need to find a quiet place to pray the Jesus Prayer.
To pray the Jesus prayer is to repeat “Lord Jesus Christ, Son of the
Living God, have mercy on me, a sinner” as many times as your time
period allows. Gradually, as you become more used to it, you find you
will be able to pray it while you are doing other things. The Jesus
Prayer may be prayed anywhere. There are no special postures
associated with it.

In this multi-tasking form, you can pray unceasingly while you do
other things. People who have been praying the Jesus Prayer for many
years will tell you that they are able to work, play, love and rest
while part of their minds are praying the Jesus Prayer. There is also
a story told that when a certain devout Orthodox Church lady was
coming out of anesthesia after an operation, the surgical nurses heard
her praying the Jesus Prayer before she herself became fully
conscious!

The spiritual teachers of the Orthodox Church claim that initially you
pray the Jesus Prayer but soon the Jesus Prayer prays you. The
continuous invoking the Name of God and petitioning for mercy has a
power effect on our spiritual formation. It makes us sensitive to the
leading of the Holy Spirit and empowers the “renovation of our
hearts.” The Jesus Prayer is one prayer I pray constantly and I
sincerely invite you to pray it too.

Blessings,

Alex

Kairos Spiritual Formation <www.kairos2.com>

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