On the Jesus Prayer

There have been and are those who pray who have come to love one short prayer and repeated it unceasingly. St. Cassian says that in Egypt in his time the common short prayer for all was the second verse of the sixty-ninth psalm: ”O God, make speed to save me; O Lord, make haste to help me” (Ps. 69:2). Of St. Ioannicius it is written in his life that he continually repeated this short prayer: “My hope is the Father, my refuge is the Son, my shelter is the Holy Spirit.” He also attached this to each verse of the thirty psalms he had memorized and which made up his prayer rule. Another person had these words as his constant prayer: “I have sinned as a man, but do You, as a merciful God, have mercy on me.” Others, of course, have chosen other prayers for themselves. From very ancient times, a very large number have chosen the prayer: “Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me, a sinner.” We see reference to it in St. Ephraim, St. John Chrysostom, St. Isaac the Syrian, St. Hesychius, St. Barsanuphius and St. John, and St. John Climacus. Then, becoming more and more widespread, it came to fill the lips of all and was even incorporated into the Church’s rule, where it is offered in place of all domestic prayers and all church services. Among us it is therefore used preeminently among short prayers. Take pains to acquire it yourself as well.

This prayer is called the Jesus Prayer because it is addressed to the Lord Jesus, and in its composition it is verbal, like every other short prayer. It becomes mental and should be called such when it is offered not with words alone, but also with mind and heart, with awareness of its content and feeling—and especially when, through long and attentive use, it so merges with the movements of the spirit that these alone are felt within, as if there were no words. Every short prayer can rise to this degree. But the Jesus Prayer has a preeminence because it unites the soul with the Lord Jesus, and the Lord Jesus is the unique door to communion with God, toward the attainment of which prayer strives. For He Himself said: ”no one comes to the Father except through Me” (Jn. 14:6). Therefore one who has acquired it appropriates to himself the entire power of the incarnate Economy, in which our salvation consists. Hearing this, you will not be surprised why zealots for salvation have spared no labor in striving to acquire this prayer and to appropriate its power to themselves. Take them as your example.

Outwardly, the acquisition of the Jesus Prayer consists in reaching the point where it revolves of itself unceasingly on the tongue; inwardly, it consists in concentrating the attention of the mind in the heart and standing therein unceasingly before the Lord, accompanied by the corresponding warmth of the heart in varying degrees, the repelling of all other thoughts, and above all by contrite and humble prostration before the Lord and Savior. The beginning of this habit is established by repeating this prayer as frequently as possible with attention in the heart. Frequent repetition, as it becomes established, gathers the mind into unity in standing before the Lord. The establishment of such an inner order is accompanied by a warming of the heart and the banishing of thoughts—even ordinary ones, not only passionate. When the fire of clinging to the Lord begins to burn unceasingly in the heart, then together with this there will be established within a peaceful ordering of the heart, with contrite and humble mental prostration before the Lord. Thus far reaches our own labor with the help of God’s grace. Whatever may occur in the work of prayer that is yet higher than this will be the gift of grace alone. The holy fathers mention it for this one purpose only: so that someone who has reached the indicated limit should not think there is nothing more to desire, and should not imagine that he stands at the very summit of prayerful or spiritual perfection.

Thus your first task before you is frequent—as frequent as possible—repetition of the Jesus Prayer, until you acquire the habit of repeating it unceasingly. Do this as follows:

1) Set apart a portion of your prayer rule for the Jesus Prayer. Repeat this prayer several times at the beginning of your prayer-reading and several times after it. If you are zealous, also do this after each prayer that is part of such a reading, following the example of St. Ioannicius the Great, who after each verse of the psalms he read in his rule repeated his short prayer: “My hope is the Father, my refuge is the Son, my shelter is the Holy Spirit.”

2) Determine for yourself—or with the advice of your spiritual father—how many times to repeat this prayer in each case. Only at first do not assign a large number, but then, in proportion to your relish for this prayer, add a little at a time. If ever the desire comes to repeat more than the appointed number, do not refuse yourself this—not making it a permanent rule, but only for that occasion. And however many repetitions the heart may require, do not refuse.

3) Do not rush to drive one prayer after another, but pronounce them with measured deliberateness, as one usually speaks before a great personage when asking him for something. Yet do not be concerned about the words alone, but above all that the mind be in the heart and stand before the Lord as present, with full awareness of His greatness, grace, and justice.

4) If you have freedom, then during the interval between one prayer-reading and another, resolve to stand as you normally stand for prayer and to offer this prayer to the Lord several times. But if you have no such freedom, then inwardly insert this prayer everywhere, between your activities and even your conversations.

5) When offering this prayer in your rule or outside of it, standing in the prayerful posture for it—with each utterance make a prostration: ten waist-bows and then one full prostration to the ground, and so on until you are done. You have surely heard or read that the holy fathers appoint a multitude of prostrations in their rules for prayer. One of them said: prayer is insufficient when a person does not weary his body with prostrations in it. If you resolve, according to your strength, to follow this example, you will more quickly see the fruit from your labor on acquiring the Jesus Prayer.

6) For further instructions, guidance, and cautions regarding the Jesus Prayer, read in the Philokalia: Symeon the New Theologian, Gregory of Sinai, Nicephorus the Monk, Ignatius and Callistus; and all the other fathers’ teachings on inner prayer can be applied to the Jesus Prayer as well. Note: in the instructions of the fathers mentioned, you will find guidance on how to sit, how to hold the head, and how to regulate one’s breathing. These techniques, as Callistus and Ignatius have said, are not essentially necessary, but are only external aids, not suited to everyone. It is enough for you to be with your attention in the heart before the face of the Lord and to offer Him this short prayer reverently and humbly, with prostrations when you stand at your rule, and with mere mental prostration when you do this between your activities.

7) Note also: the attention should be in the heart or inside the breast, as some fathers say—specifically, slightly above the left nipple, and there one should repeat the Jesus Prayer. When from the strain the heart begins to ache, then do as the monk Nicephorus advises—that is, rise from that place and stand with attention and the prayerful word there where we ordinarily carry on our inner conversation with ourselves, below the Adam’s apple at the top of the chest. Afterwards you can descend again to above the left nipple. Do not disdain this observation, however simple and apparently unspiritual it may seem to you.

8) In the holy fathers you will encounter many cautions. All of them have been prompted by experiences of incorrect practice. In order to avoid these incorrect methods, have a counselor—a spiritual father, or a like-minded brother as a companion—and disclose to them everything that occurs during this labor of yours. On your own, always act with the greatest simplicity, in great humility and without appropriating success to yourself. Know that true success happens internally, imperceptibly, without displaying itself—just as the growth of the body occurs. Therefore, when there rings out within you: “Ah, here it is!” — know that this is the enemy’s voice, presenting to you something apparent in place of what is real. Here is the beginning of self-delusion. Silence this voice at once, otherwise it will sound like a trumpet within you, feeding self-conceit.

9) Do not set a fixed time for achieving success in this prayer. Simply resolve to labor, and keep laboring. Months and years may pass before even faint beginnings of progress appear. One of the Athonite fathers said of himself that two years of effort passed before his heart grew warm; for another it came after eight months. For each person it happens according to his strength and his zeal for this work.