On the Jesus Prayer (Part 1)

Section I. On the Jesus Prayer in General

Disciple. May all the brothers in a monastery practice the Jesus Prayer?

Elder. Not only may they, but they must. At the tonsure into monasticism, when the prayer rope—referred to at that time as the spiritual sword—is placed in the hands of the newly tonsured, he is enjoined to pray the Jesus Prayer unceasingly, day and night.[1] Consequently, the practice of the Jesus Prayer is a vow of the monk. The fulfillment of a vow is an obligation that cannot be renounced.

Old monks told me that even at the beginning of this century, in the Sarov Hermitage—and probably in other well-ordered Russian monasteries—the Jesus Prayer was taught to every person who entered the monastery. The blessed elder Seraphim, who labored in this hermitage and attained great progress in prayer, constantly advised all monks to lead an attentive life and to practice the Jesus Prayer.[2] A certain youth who had completed his theological seminary studies visited him and disclosed to the elder his intention to enter monasticism. The elder imparted to the youth most soul-saving instructions. Among them was the enjoining to learn the Jesus Prayer. Speaking of it, the elder added: “External prayer alone is not sufficient. God attends to the mind;[3] and therefore those monks who do not unite external prayer with inner prayer are not monks.” A most apt definition! Monk means one who is solitary: he who has not become solitary within himself is not yet solitary, is not yet a monk, even if he lives in the most solitary monastery. The mind of an ascetic who has not withdrawn into and enclosed himself within himself is of necessity in the midst of the din and turmoil produced by innumerable thoughts that always have free access to it; and the mind itself wanders painfully, without any need or benefit, harmfully to itself, throughout the universe. The solitude of a man within himself cannot be achieved other than by means of attentive prayer, and most especially by means of the attentive Jesus Prayer.

Disciple. The judgment of Elder Seraphim seems to me too severe.

Elder. It seems so only upon a superficial glance; it seems so to an insufficient understanding of the great spiritual treasures hidden in Christianity. The blessed Seraphim did not express his own private opinion: he expressed the opinion that belongs to the holy Fathers in general, the opinion that belongs to the Orthodox Church. Saint Hesychius of Jerusalem says: “He who has renounced all worldly things—wife, possessions, and the like—has made only the outer man a monk, and not also the inner man, which is the mind. He is a true monk who has renounced partial thoughts: he can easily make the outer man a monk too, when he wishes. The struggle of making the inner man a monk is no small one. Is there to be found in the present generation a monk who has been completely freed from partial thoughts and been deemed worthy of pure, immaterial, unceasing prayer, which is the sign of the inner monk?” The Venerable Agathon, a monk of the Egyptian Scetis, when asked which is greater—bodily struggle or inner struggle—replied:[4] “Man is like a tree; bodily struggle is like the leaves of the tree, but the inner struggle is like its fruit. But since in Scripture it is said that ‘every tree that does not produce good fruit is cut down and cast into the fire’ (Lk. 3:9), it is clear from this that all our effort must be about the fruit—that is, the guarding of the mind.[5] It is needful also that the tree be covered and adorned with leaves, which represents bodily struggle.” “O wonder!” exclaims the blessed Nikephoros of Athos, having cited the words of the Venerable Agathon in his treatise on spiritual struggle, “what a saying this Saint has pronounced against all who do not guard the mind but rely on bodily practice alone! ‘Every tree that does not produce good fruit’—that is, the guarding of the mind—but has only leaves—that is, bodily struggle—‘is cut down and cast into the fire.’ Fearsome, Father, is your saying!”[6]

The guarding of the mind, the keeping of the mind, watchfulness, attentiveness, the mental work, mental prayer—these are various names for one and the same inner struggle in its various manifestations. The inner struggle passes, in its own time, into the spiritual. The spiritual struggle is the same inner struggle, but already overshadowed by Divine grace. This inner or spiritual struggle the Fathers define as follows: “Attentiveness is the heart’s unceasing silence, always and without interruption calling upon Christ Jesus, the Son of God and God, breathing in Him, bravely marshaling forces against enemies together with Him, confessing to Him who alone has authority to forgive sins.” To put it more simply—inner practice, mental practice, mental prayer, watchfulness, the guarding and keeping of the mind, attentiveness—all these are one and the same:[7] devout, careful practice of the Jesus Prayer. The blessed Nikephoros of Athos compared these names to a piece cut from a loaf, which, depending on the way it looks, can be called a chunk, a slice, or a morsel. The Divine Scripture of the Old Testament ordains:[8] “Guard your heart with all vigilance, for from it flow the springs of life” (Prov. 4:23). “Take heed to yourself, lest there be a word hidden in your heart of iniquity” (Deut. 15:9). Vigilance over the heart and its cleansing is commanded especially by the New Testament.[9] To this all the commandments of the Lord are directed. “First cleanse”, says the Lord, “the inside of the cup and the dish, so that the outside may also be clean” (Mt. 23:26). By the vessels of fragile glass and low-value clay the Lord here named human beings. “What comes out of a man is what defiles a man: for from within, from the heart of a man, come evil thoughts, adultery, fornication, murder, theft, covetousness, wickedness, deceit, licentiousness, an evil eye, slander, pride, foolishness. All these evil things come from within and defile a man” (Mk. 7:20–23). Saint Barsanuphius the Great says:[10] “If inner practice with God—that is, practice overshadowed by Divine grace—does not help a man, then he labors in vain at the outer—that is, at bodily struggle.” Saint Isaac the Syrian: “He who does not have inner practice is deprived of spiritual gifts.” In another homily this great teacher of Christian asceticism likens bodily struggles, without the struggle to purify the mind, to a barren womb and dried-up breasts:[11] “They,” said the Saint, “are unable to draw near to the understanding of God” (Homily 58). Saint Hesychius of Jerusalem: “He who does not have prayer pure from thoughts has no weapon for the battle—I speak of prayer that acts ceaselessly in the inmost being of the soul, prayer in which the adversary who wars in secret is struck and scorched by the invocation of Christ.” “It is impossible to cleanse the heart and to drive from it the hostile spirits without the frequent invocation of Jesus Christ.” “As it is impossible to live earthly life without food and drink, so it is impossible without the guarding of the mind and purity of heart—in which watchfulness consists and which is called watchfulness—for the soul to achieve anything spiritual, or to be freed from mental sin, even though a man constrain himself by the fear of eternal torment not to sin.” “If you truly wish to put to shame the thoughts that assail you, to have peace of soul, to be able to exercise watchfulness in the heart with freedom, let the Jesus Prayer be united with your breathing—and after a few days you will see this accomplished.” “Navigation without water is impossible; and the guarding of the mind cannot subsist without watchfulness joined with humility and uninterrupted prayer of Jesus.” “If you have the desire before the Lord not merely to appear a monk and a good and meek man constantly united with God—if you have the desire to be truly such a monk—practice with all your might the virtue of attentiveness, which consists in the guarding and keeping of the mind, in the practice of the silence of the heart, in the blessed state of the soul free from imagining, which is found in few.” “Truly and essentially a monk is he who exercises watchfulness: and he truly exercises watchfulness who in his heart is a monk—that is, a solitary.” The foundation for the teaching of the holy Fathers, as the cornerstone to a building, is the teaching of the Lord Himself.[12] “True worshippers”, the Lord proclaimed, “will worship the Father in spirit and in truth, for the Father seeks such to worship Him. God is Spirit: and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and in truth”[13][13] (Jn. 4:23–24[12]).[13][14][13]

I remember: certain devout lay people of my youth, even from among the gentry, living very simple lives, practiced the Jesus Prayer. This precious custom has now, amid the general weakening of Christianity and monasticism, almost entirely disappeared. Praying in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ requires a watchful, strictly moral life—a pilgrim’s life; it requires the abandonment of attachments, but we have come to need distraction, wide circles of acquaintance, the gratification of our numerous whims, benefactors and benefactresses. “Jesus withdrew from them, for there was a crowd in that place” (Jn. 5:13).

Disciple. Will not the conclusion of what has been said be that without the practice of the Jesus Prayer one cannot receive salvation?

Elder. The Fathers do not say this. On the contrary, the Venerable Nil Sorsky, citing the hieromartyr Peter of Damaskos, affirms that many, without having attained dispassion, were deemed worthy to receive the remission of sins and salvation.[15] Saint Hesychius, having said that without watchfulness it is impossible to avoid sin “in thoughts,” also called blessed those who refrain from sin “in deed.” He named them those who take the Kingdom of Heaven by force. Attainment of dispassion, sanctification—or, what is the same thing, Christian perfection—is impossible without the acquisition of mental prayer:[16] in this all the Fathers are agreed. The goal of monastic life consists not only in the attainment of salvation, but preeminently in the attainment of Christian perfection. This goal was set forth by the Lord: “If you wish to be perfect”, said the Lord, “go, sell your possessions and give to the poor,… and come, follow me, taking up your cross” (Mt. 19:21; Mk. 10:21). The Fathers, comparing the struggle of prayer in the name of the Lord Jesus with the other monastic struggles, say the following: “Although there are other paths and forms of life—or, if you will, good deeds—guiding toward salvation and bestowing it upon those who engage in them; although there are struggles and practices that introduce into the state of a servant and a hired laborer (as the Saviour Himself said: ‘In my Father’s house there are many dwelling places’ (Jn. 14:2))—nevertheless the path of mental prayer is the royal, chosen path.[17] It is as much more exalted and refined than all other struggles as the soul is more excellent than the body: it raises one from dust and ashes into the adoption of God.”

Disciple. Can the direction of contemporary monasticism—in which the practice of the Jesus Prayer is encountered very rarely—serve as an excuse and justification for me if I do not engage in it?

Elder. A debt remains a debt, and an obligation remains an obligation, even if the number of those who fail to fulfill it should grow still larger. The vow is pronounced by all. Neither the multitude of those who violate the vow, nor the custom of violation, confers any legitimacy upon the violation. Small is the flock to which the Heavenly Father has been pleased to grant the Kingdom (Lk. 12:32). Always the narrow way has few travelers, and the broad way many (Mt. 7:13–14). In the last times the narrow way will be abandoned by almost all, and almost all will walk the broad way. From this it does not follow that the broad way will lose its property of leading to destruction, or that the narrow way will become superfluous, unnecessary for salvation. He who desires to be saved must hold fast to the narrow way, positively enjoined by the Saviour.

Disciple. Why do you call the practice of the Jesus Prayer the narrow way?

Elder. How is it not a narrow way? A narrow way in the exact sense of the word! He who desires to practice the Jesus Prayer successfully must fence himself in, both outwardly and inwardly, with the most prudent and most cautious conduct: our fallen nature is ready at any moment to betray us, to surrender us; the fallen spirits assail the practice of the Jesus Prayer with particular fury and cunning. Not infrequently from an apparently trivial carelessness, from a negligence and presumption that went unnoticed, there arises a weighty consequence having influence upon the life and eternal destiny of the ascetic—“if the Lord had not helped me, my soul would almost have dwelt in hell… My foot slipped; Your mercy, O Lord, held me up” (Ps. 93:17–18).

The foundation for the practice of the Jesus Prayer is prudent and cautious conduct. First of all, one must remove from oneself effeminacy and fleshly pleasures in all their forms. One must be satisfied constantly with moderate food and sleep proportioned to one’s strength and health, so that food and sleep provide the body the necessary sustenance without producing improper movements that arise from excess, and without producing the exhaustion that arises from insufficiency. Clothing, dwelling, and all material appurtenances in general must be modest—in imitation of Christ, in imitation of His Apostles, following their spirit, in communion with their spirit. The holy Apostles and their true disciples brought no sacrifice to vanity and futility according to the customs of the world; they entered into no communion with the spirit of the world in anything. The right, gracious action of the Jesus Prayer can sprout only from the Spirit of Christ; it sprouts and grows exclusively on that soil alone. The sight, hearing, and other senses must be strictly guarded, so that through them, as through gates, the adversaries do not break into the soul. The mouth and tongue must be bridled, as though shackled in silence; idle talk, many words, and especially mockery, gossip, and slander are the most vicious enemies of prayer. One must decline to receive brothers in one’s cell and to visit theirs: one must abide patiently in one’s own cell, as in a tomb, with one’s corpse—with one’s soul torn apart and slain by sin—entreating the Lord Jesus for mercy. From the grave—the cell—prayer ascends to heaven: in the grave to which the body is consigned at death, and in the hellish grave into which the soul of the sinner is cast down, there is no longer any place for prayer. In the monastery one must remain a stranger, not entering into the affairs of the monastery by one’s own volition, forming no close acquaintance with anyone, guarding oneself during monastic labors with silence, visiting the church of God without fail, visiting the cell of one’s spiritual father in cases of need, deliberating over every departure from one’s own cell, going out from it only when directed by genuine necessity. Curiosity and vain desire for knowledge must be decisively abandoned; all curiosity and all inquiry must be turned to the investigation and study of the path of prayer. This path demands the most careful investigation and study: it is not only a “narrow way”, but a way that “leads to life” (Mt. 7:14[18]); it is a science of sciences and an art of arts. So the Fathers call it.

The path of true prayer becomes incomparably narrower when the ascetic enters upon it through the activity of the inner man. But when he enters into these narrows and feels the rightness, the salutary quality, and the necessity of such a position; when labor in the inner chamber becomes desirable to him—then the narrowness in external life also becomes desirable, as the dwelling place and guardian of inner activity. He who has entered in mind upon the struggle of prayer must renounce and constantly continue to renounce both all the thoughts and feelings of fallen nature and all the thoughts and feelings brought by fallen spirits, however seemingly reasonable those thoughts and feelings on both sides may appear: he must walk constantly along the narrow path of most attentive prayer, turning neither to the left nor to the right. By turning to the left I mean the abandonment of prayer by the mind in order to converse with vain and sinful thoughts; by turning to the right I mean the abandonment of prayer by the mind in order to converse with thoughts that appear to be good. Four kinds of thoughts and feelings act upon the one who prays: some sprout from the grace of God planted in every Orthodox Christian at holy baptism; others are offered by the guardian angel; others arise from fallen nature; and others still are brought by fallen spirits. The first two kinds of thoughts—more precisely, remembrances and feelings—assist prayer, enliven it, strengthen attentiveness and the feeling of repentance, produce compunction, weeping of the heart, and tears, lay bare before the gaze of the one praying the expanse of his sinfulness and the depth of the human fall, announce the death that is unavoidable for all and the unknown hour of it, announce the impartial and dread judgment of God, the eternal torment that exceeds in its ferocity all human comprehension. In the thoughts and feelings of fallen nature, good is mixed with evil; while in the demonic, evil is often concealed under the guise of good, though sometimes acting openly as evil. The latter two kinds of thoughts and feelings act in concert on account of the bond and communion of fallen spirits with fallen human nature, and the first fruit of their combined action is pride, and—in prayer—distraction. Demons, bringing seemingly spiritual and lofty reasonings, draw one away from prayer by means of them, produce vainglorious joy, delight, and self-satisfaction, as if from the discovery of the most mysterious Christian teaching. In the wake of the demonic theology and philosophy, vain and passionate thoughts and imaginings break into the soul, pillage and destroy prayer, and ruin the good ordering of the soul. By their fruits are truly good thoughts and feelings distinguished from seemingly good ones.

O how justly the Fathers call the practice of the Jesus Prayer both the narrow way and self-denial and renunciation of the world![19] These qualities belong to every attentive and reverent prayer, but preeminently to the Jesus Prayer, which is free from the variety of form and the abundance of thought that belong to psalmody and other prayer forms.[20]

Disciple. Of what words does the Jesus Prayer consist?

Elder. It consists of the following words: “Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me, a sinner.” Some Fathers divide the prayer, for beginners, into two halves, and direct that from morning, approximately until midday, one say: “Lord Jesus Christ, have mercy on me,” and after midday:[21] “Son of God, have mercy on me.” This is an ancient tradition. But it is better to accustom oneself, if possible, to pronouncing the whole prayer. The division was permitted out of condescension for the weakness of the weak and the newly-begun.

Disciple. Is the Jesus Prayer mentioned in Holy Scripture?

Elder. It is spoken of in the holy Gospel. Do not suppose that it is a human institution: it is a Divine institution. The Jesus Prayer—the most sacred prayer—was established and enjoined by our Lord Jesus Christ Himself. After the Last Supper, at which the greatest of the Christian mysteries was performed—the holy Eucharist—the Lord, in His farewell discourse to His disciples, before going out to the dread sufferings and the death on the Cross for the redemption of perished humanity, imparted the most exalted teaching and the most important final commandments. Among these commandments He granted the permission and injunction to pray in His name.[22] “Truly, truly I say to you”, He said to the Apostles, “whatever you ask the Father in my name, He will give you” (Jn. 16:23). “Whatever you ask in my name, I will do it, so that the Father may be glorified in the Son. If you ask me anything in my name, I will do it” (Jn. 14:13–14). “Until now you have asked nothing in my name; ask, and you will receive, that your joy may be full” (Jn. 16:24). The greatness of the name of the Lord Jesus Christ was foretold by the prophets. Pointing to the redemption of human beings that was to be accomplished by the God-man, Isaiah cries out: “Behold, God is my salvation, my Saviour!… Draw water with joy from the wells of salvation! And you shall say in that day: give praise to the Lord, call upon His name;… make mention that His name is exalted; sing praise to the name of the Lord, for He has done glorious things” (Is. 12:2–5). “The way of the Lord is a righteous judgment; we hoped in Your name and the remembrance of You, which our soul desires” (Is. 26:8). In agreement with Isaiah, David foretells: “We will rejoice in Your salvation, and in the name of the Lord our God we will be magnified… we will call upon the name of the Lord our God” (Ps. 19:6, 8). “Blessed are the people who know the festal shout”—who have made mental prayer their own—“O Lord, they walk in the light of Your face, and in Your name they rejoice all the day, and in Your righteousness they are exalted” (Ps. 88:16–17).

Disciple. In what does the power of the Jesus Prayer consist?

Elder. In the Divine name of the God-man, our Lord and God Jesus Christ. The Apostles, as we see from the book of their Acts and from the Gospel, performed great miracles in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ: they healed diseases incurable by human means, raised the dead, commanded demons, and cast them out of the people possessed by them. Once, soon after the Lord’s ascension to heaven, when all twelve Apostles were still in Jerusalem, two of them—Peter and John—went to the Jerusalem temple for prayer. To the gates of the temple called Beautiful, a man lame from birth was brought daily and placed on the pavement: the lame man could neither walk nor stand. Cast down at the gates, the sufferer asked alms from those who entered the temple, by which he evidently sustained himself. When the Apostles drew near to the Beautiful Gate, the lame man turned his eyes upon them, expecting to receive a gift. Then Saint Peter said to him: “Silver and gold have I none, but what I do have I give you: in the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, rise and walk” (Acts 3:6). The cripple was healed instantly, entered the temple with the Apostles, and loudly glorified God. The people, struck with amazement, ran together to the Apostles. “Men of Israel!” said Saint Peter to the gathered people, “why do you marvel at this? Or why do you stare at us, as if by our own power or godliness we made him walk? The God of Abraham and of Isaac and of Jacob, the God of our fathers, glorified His servant Jesus… and by faith in His name, this man whom you see and know has been made strong through His name” (Acts 3:12–13, 16). News of the miracle soon reached the Sanhedrin, which was hostile to the Lord Jesus.[23] The Sanhedrin was stirred by the news; it seized the Apostles, placed them under guard, and the next day summoned them to trial before its full assembly. The healed lame man was also summoned. When the Apostles stood in the midst of the assembly of murderers of God—who had recently branded themselves with the execution of the God-man, in whose name and by whose name the most striking miracle had now been performed before a multitude of eyewitness-witnesses—the Apostles were asked: “By what power or in what name have you done this?” — Peter, filled with the Holy Spirit, replied with the words of the Holy Spirit, which concluded with the following: “Let it be known to all of you and to all the people of Israel that by the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, whom you crucified, whom God raised from the dead—by Him this man stands before you well… For there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved” (Acts 4:7, 10, 12). The mouths of the enemies of God were sealed in silence before the invincible force of the words of heavenly truth; the numerous assembly of the wise and the powerful found nothing to say and nothing with which to reply to the testimony of the Holy Spirit, proclaimed by two unlettered fishermen and sealed with the heavenly seal—the miracle of God. The Sanhedrin resorts to its authority, to violence. Despite the evident miracle, despite the testimony given to the truth by God Himself, the Sanhedrin sternly forbids the Apostles to teach about the name of Jesus—even to pronounce this name. But the Apostles answered boldly: “Whether it is right in the sight of God to listen to you rather than to God, you judge; for we cannot but speak of what we have seen and heard” (Acts 4:19–20). The Sanhedrin again finds no answer, again resorts exclusively to its authority, and repeats the stern prohibition. It released the Apostles and did nothing to them, though it desired to pour out its frenzied malice upon them: the all-public miracle bound both its disposition and its action. Peter and John, returning to their own, transmitted to them the threats and prohibition of the supreme tribunal. Then the twelve Apostles and all members of the newborn Jerusalem Church poured out in one accord a fervent prayer to God: prayer they set against the force and hatred of the rulers of the world—human beings and demons. This prayer concluded with the following petition: “Lord, look upon their threats and grant to Your servants to speak Your word with all boldness, while You stretch out Your hand to heal, and signs and wonders are performed through the name of Your holy servant Jesus” (Acts 4:29–30).

Disciple. Some maintain that the practice of the Jesus Prayer always or almost always leads to spiritual delusion, and very strongly forbid engaging in this prayer.