Chapter 177

How to Learn the Jesus Prayer

You’ve felt the desire to learn the Jesus Prayer. God bless you! But practicing the Jesus Prayer is not unceasing prayer, only a help toward it. Unceasing prayer is a gift of grace, and so you must pray: “Lord, grant me to pray to you without ceasing!” This prayer consists not in words, but in a feeling toward God that does not depart. You must take care of this feeling and kindle it.

Surely you’ve experienced how sometimes an irresistible desire to pray to God comes upon you. Remember what was in your soul at that time, and each time you stand to pray, try to bring that feeling back to your soul and pray the Jesus Prayer with it. This rekindling will stir the Jesus Prayer, and this prayer will sustain that prayerful state. This is the whole secret of success in praying the Jesus Prayer. Power lies not in the words, but in this feeling.

For practicing the Jesus Prayer, set aside a special time apart from your morning and evening prayers. Stand before dinner twice, after dinner twice, each time praying one hundred Jesus Prayers with bows—waist bows at the small knots, full bows at the large ones. Once set, fulfill this without fail each day, making no excuses.

When you stand to pray, at once remember that the Lord is near—and sees, and hears, and desires to give you what is salvific for you.

Persistence in fulfilling this—this is the chief condition of success. Success will not show itself at once. For this you will need months and years. Therefore do not despair of success when the fruit of your labor does not appear quickly.

Do not fill your stomach with food; let a sense of emptiness remain there—and you should not indulge in sleep either. You must not permit distractions—laughter and buffoonery. Hold yourself always as if you were in the presence of a king.

If you pay close attention and do all things carefully, the work itself will teach you much.

(Letter 825. Volume 5, pp. 111–112)