1. Prayer and silence

When you pray, remain silent. “You yourself must be silent: let prayer speak,” writes an Orthodox author1. Achieving silence is the most difficult and decisive art of prayer. Silence is not only a negative state, a pause between words, a temporary cessation of speech, but also a highly positive one – a state of attentive vigilance, expectation and, above all, listening . The hesychast is one who has acquired ἡσυχία, inner silence, or silence, par excellence, the one who listens. He listens to the voice of prayer in his heart, realizing that this voice is not his own, but that of the Other speaking within him.

Let us consider four brief definitions, and we will become clearer how prayer and silence are related. Let us begin with the Concise Oxford Dictionary. It says that prayer is “…a solemn request addressed to God… a formula used in prayer.” Since only words and requests for blessings are meant here, that is, external, not internal prayer, this definition seems to be unsatisfactory.

One of the elders of the last century says much more about the inner side of the prayer act. “The main thing is to become the mind in the heart before the Lord,” writes Bishop Theophan the Recluse (1815–1894), “and it is necessary to stand before Him day and night until the end of life.”2 According to this definition, one can pray without asking for anything, or even without uttering any words. The emphasis is shifted from an action limited by a period of time to a state that continues. To pray means to stand before God in personal and direct communication; to know with one’s whole being – both intuitively and rationally, both subconsciously and consciously – that we are in God and God is in us. Personal relationships between people do not become deeper from the fact that we constantly ask and utter words. On the contrary, the better we know each other and the stronger we love, the less need there is to say how we relate to each other. Personal communication with God is built in the same way.

The first two definitions are related by one common feature: they speak more about human action than about the divine. But the initiative in prayerful communion belongs to God, not man. Here everything is based on His action. The passage we have taken from St. Gregory of Sinai († 1346) speaks of this very thing. “And what need is there to say much? Prayer is God, who acts in all”3, he exclaims, ending a very peculiar text in which, stringing epithets one upon another, he tries to explain the essence of intelligent prayer. Prayer is God : I do not create it, but I join it; it is not I who act, but God who acts in me. Not I, but Christ in me , wrote the Apostle Paul (Gal. 2:20). The words of St. John the Baptist’s words about Christ – He must increase, but I must decrease (John 3:30) – very accurately indicate the path of intelligent prayer: it is in this sense that praying means keeping silent. “Be silent, and let prayer speak within you” – or rather, let God speak. Praying in the spirit means falling silent and listening to God, who speaks in the heart without words; ceasing to do things yourself and surrendering to the action of God. According to the Byzantine way of the Liturgy, at the very beginning, when everything is ready for the celebration of the Eucharist, the deacon approaches the priest and says: “It is time for the Lord to create (it is time for the Lord to act).”4 This is the attitude we should have not only towards the Eucharist, but also towards any prayer – private or public.

The fourth definition, taken from St. Gregory of Sinai, explains how the Lord works in us. “Prayer is the manifestation of baptism,” writes the saint5. Of course, God works not only in the baptized. He cares for everyone without exception, since everyone is created in His image. The Fall darkened and muddied it, but did not erase it from memory. And in the sacrament of baptism, it rises in its original beauty and grandeur: then, as the holy fathers said, Christ and the Holy Spirit dwell in the “inner and secret sanctuary of the heart.” Most people do not remember their baptism, received in distant childhood. And although Christ, in Whom one is baptized, and the Comforter, who descends in the anointing, never cease to work in us for a moment, almost all of us – with rare exceptions – remain in complete ignorance. And now in true prayer we rediscover the grace of baptism within ourselves and manifest it. If we did not previously know about the grace that secretly lives in the heart, then in prayer we inwardly see, recognize and feel the action of the Spirit – directly and directly. According to the 14th century saints Callistus and Ignatius Xanthopoulos, “we must try in every way and with all our might to live according to the law of all the god-creating commandments of the Savior, so that through their observance we may descend again to that perfect spiritual-graceful image and reproduction, which was originally granted to us.”

“I have reached my goal at the beginning.” The meaning of prayer can be expressed in one phrase: “Become who you are.” Consciously and actively become who you are in potential and mysteriousness, for you are created in the image of God and re-created in baptism. Become yourself; or rather, return to yourself, discover the One who is already yours, listen to the One who speaks incessantly within you, possess the One who possesses you even at this moment. To everyone who wants to pray, God says: You would not seek Me if you had not already found Me.

Where to start? How, having entered your home and closed the door, to pray, not just by reading what is written in books, but – in spirit, with a living prayer of creative silence? How, having stopped speaking, to start listening? When will our prayer become God’s conversation with us, and not our attempt to say something to Him? How to move from verbal prayer to silent prayer, from self-destruction, which requires self-displacement (in the words of Bishop Theophanes), from my prayer to the prayer of Christ in me?

One of the ways within is the Invocation of the Name.

2. “Lord Jesus…”

There are, of course, other ways. True communication between people does not take place outside of freedom and immediacy, and without them, spiritual prayer is not born. No fixed and permanent rules are imposed on those who seek prayer; and no techniques, whether physical or mental, can make God speak. His grace comes as a free gift: no methods or techniques will automatically attract it. God and man meet in the kingdom of the heart in a new way every time. There are ascetics in the Orthodox Church who say little about the Jesus Prayer, or even remain silent about it at all.7 It does not have an exclusive monopoly on inner practice, but at the same time, for several centuries now, many and many Christians of the Eastern tradition have found the royal path by resorting to it. However, and not only the Eastern one.8 In the last seventy years, Orthodoxy has been learned about in the West, and nothing from its heritage has aroused such interest as the Jesus Prayer; No book has been read as much as “Frank Stories of a Traveler.” In the non-Orthodox world, this mysterious and little-known book in pre-revolutionary Russia enjoyed tremendous success, and since its appearance in the West in the 1920s, it has been translated into many languages.

What is so attractive about the Jesus Prayer and why is it so effective? Isn’t this explained by its four main properties? First, simplicity and accessibility. Second, the completeness of the content. Third, the power of the Name. And finally, fourth, the inner discipline of relentless repetition. Let’s analyze everything listed in order.

3. Simplicity and accessibility

Prayer with the invocation of the Name, on the one hand, is extremely simple and accessible to every Christian, on the other hand, it introduces us to the mysterious depths of contemplation. Anyone who intends to read it daily and for a long time, and even more so to combine it with breathing or other bodily rhythm, must definitely find an experienced spiritual mentor, an elder, although it is very difficult to do this these days. Those who do not have a personal connection with an elder can, without fear, without involving bodily rhythms, start small: ten to fifteen minutes of continuous prayer.

There is no need to learn the Jesus Prayer or prepare for it. Advice for beginners: just start. “Without taking the first step, you will not walk, and without diving into the water, you will not swim. The same is true with the invocation of the Name. Begin with love and reverence, be persistent. Think not about the fact that you are invoking the Name, but only about the fact that you are to be before Jesus. Pronounce the Name slowly, quietly and calmly”10.

It is not difficult to learn the words of the prayer. Most often it is pronounced like this: “Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me.” But there is no uniformity here: sometimes “have mercy on me” is replaced by “have mercy on us” or the prayer is shortened to: “Lord Jesus Christ, have mercy on me” or even to “Lord Jesus”; finally – very rarely – to “Jesus.” Some, on the contrary, add “me a sinner,” strengthening the penitential aspect of the prayer. Or, remembering the confession of the Apostle Peter on the road to Caesarea Philippi, they pronounce … Sons of the Living God … (Matthew 16:16). Sometimes an appeal to the Mother of God or the saints is inserted into the Jesus Prayer. But the Name “Jesus,” which is the essence of the prayer, is always present in it. We can try different combinations of words and choose the one that suits us best. Once chosen, the formula can be changed over time, but only not very often. “Just as plants do not take root if they are frequently transplanted, so too do prayer movements in the heart if the words of prayer are frequently changed,” warns St. Gregory of Sinai11.

The Jesus Prayer is recited in various circumstances. Those who wish to begin it have a choice: to pray “freely” or “according to the rule.” “Freely” means without breaking away from daily activities, once or several times in a row – when, as it seems to us, time flies in vain. How often do we perform well-known actions semi-automatically: we get dressed, wash ourselves, darn our socks and tidy up in the garden; we walk or drive a car, stand at a bus stop or in a traffic jam. We have a time when we have to sit in silence before a difficult or difficult meeting; when we cannot sleep or when we have already woken up but have not yet regained consciousness. The Jesus Prayer is beautiful and concise. When it is difficult to concentrate, when we are tense or very worried, it is simply irreplaceable.

The Jesus Prayer helps to bridge the gap between deliberate “prayerful efforts” – at church or at home – and everyday life. Pray without ceasing , warns the Apostle Paul (1 Thess. 5:17). But is this possible when there is so much to do? Bishop Theophanes gives the answer, advising: “Do the work with your hands, but be with God with your mind and heart.”12 By repeating the Jesus Prayer constantly, getting used to it and letting it take root in our consciousness, we feel the presence of God everywhere: in church and in solitude, in the kitchen, in the workshop or in the office. We become like Brother Lawrence, who was “closer to God in everyday affairs than in spiritual exercises.” “It is a great mistake,” he wrote, “to think that the time of prayer is something special. We are called to be with God both at work and during the hour of prayer.”13

The Jesus Prayer becomes more complete and effective if it is recited not only “freely” but also “according to the rule,” that is, by giving one’s full attention to prayer and stopping any external actions. The invocation of the Name is given a part of the special “time of prayer,” the time that we dedicate daily to communion with God. Usually, in addition to the Jesus Prayer, one reads the results from the prayer books, the psalms, passages from Scripture, and prays for others. Only very few feel the call to devote themselves entirely to the Jesus Prayer. Truly, one who prefers to pray “freely” and never invokes the Name “according to the rule” is doing nothing wrong and has no cause for concern. (The two paths are completely independent.)

For prayer “according to the rule”, as well as for “free”, there are no strict rules. The position of the body is not particularly important. In the Orthodox tradition, prayer is most often read while sitting, but it is also possible to stand, kneel, and if overcome by weakness or fatigue, then even while lying down. And, as a rule, in the dark or with closed eyes, and not in front of an icon illuminated by a lamp or candle. Elder Silouan of Athos (1866–1938), when praying, hid his watch in a closet so that the ticking would not distract him, and he pulled a thick woolen monk’s cap over his eyes and ears14.

Darkness, however, has a sleep-inducing effect! If you feel sleepy during prayer, you should get up from your knees or seat, cross yourself after your prayer, and bow, touching the floor with your right hand. You can also make a prostration – bending your knees and touching the floor with your forehead. The seat for prayer should not be relaxing, and even more so, it is good if it is without handles. In Orthodox monasteries, a low bench without a back is usually used. You can pray both standing and with your hands raised.

The Jesus Prayer is often recited while going through the rosary, usually with a hundred knots. This is done not so much to count as to concentrate and keep the rhythm. Experience shows that if your hands are busy, it is easier to calm your body and concentrate on prayer. However, being obsessed with quantitative estimates – whether they are clear or otherwise – is not encouraged at all. In “The Candid Tales of a Wanderer,” the elder strictly punished how many times a day you should repeat the Jesus Prayer: first 3 thousand, then 6 thousand, and finally 12 thousand, no more and no less. This is a completely unusual attention to quantity. Apparently, the point here is not just in the number, but in the inner state of the wanderer: the elder wanted to test his obedience and see if he is ready to fulfill everything he punishes him with without hesitation. We are better served by the advice of Bishop Theophanes: “You say that sometimes you forget to count your prayers clearly. The trouble is small. When there are fits of turning to the Lord, which is proper, with fear and hope, it is better than any number of prayers.”15

Sometimes the Jesus Prayer is recited in congregation, but more often – alone, out loud or to oneself. The Orthodox, if they recite it out loud, do so without singing. There should be nothing strained or strained about the prayer. Words should not be deliberately emphasized; internal pressure is unnecessary. Let the prayer develop its own rhythm and place accents. Over time, it will “sing” within us. Elder Parfeny of Kyiv compared the flow of the Jesus Prayer to the gentle murmur of a stream16.

From what has been said, it is quite clear that one can call upon the Name in any circumstances. The Jesus Prayer is available to everyone, everywhere and always. It is suitable for both “beginners” and experienced people; it can be recited together and alone; it is appropriate in the desert and in the city, in silence and tranquility, in incredible noise and bustle. There will always be an application.

4. Completeness

The Russian Traveler was right in asserting that theologically the Jesus Prayer “comprises all the Gospel truths” and “is a summary of the entire Gospel.”17 Its brief formula expresses two main rites of the Christian faith: the Incarnation and the Trinity. The prayer speaks primarily of the two natures of Christ the God-man: of humanity, when He is called by the human name “Jesus,” which Mary gave Him after His birth in Bethlehem, and of eternal Divinity, since He is glorified as “Lord” and “Son of God.” In addition, the Jesus Prayer implicitly points to the three Persons of the Holy Trinity. Addressing the second Hypostasis, Jesus, as the “Son of God,” implies the presence of the Father; the Holy Spirit is present, since no one can call Jesus Lord except by the Holy Spirit (1 Cor. 12:3). Thus, the Jesus Prayer is not only Christocentric, but also Trinitarian.

It is universal not only theologically, but also spiritually, since it embraces two main aspects of the Christian experience: first, worship, reverence for the glory of God and a loving appeal to God; second, repentance, awareness of one’s sinfulness and unworthiness. When reciting the Jesus Prayer, we move in a circle – now we ascend, now we descend. Saying at the beginning: “Lord, Jesus Christ, Son of God…”, we ascend to God, and concluding: “…have mercy on me, a sinner,” we turn to ourselves with repentance. “And when a person tastes the grace of the Lord,” it is said in the conversations of Macarius the Great, “he rejoices, but at the same time he grieves and fears.”18 Such is the inner dynamics of the Jesus Prayer.

The request “have mercy” connects and reconciles the two aforementioned “sides” – the vision of divine glory and the experience of human sinfulness. “Mercy” is the bridge from the Righteous God to the fallen creation. Turning to God “have mercy”, we mourn our helplessness, but also cry out to Him with hope; we confess sin, but also believe in its overcoming; we affirm that God in His glory accepts the sinner, and we ask for the ability to accept His forgiveness. The Jesus Prayer not only calls for repentance, but also generates confidence that God forgives and renews. The very name “Jesus”, which is the heart of the prayer, speaks directly about salvation: You shall call His name Jesus, for He will save His people from their sins (Matt. 1:21). In the Jesus Prayer there is sorrow for sin, but there is no hopelessness. This, in the words of the Venerable John of the Ladder († 649), is “joyful weeping.”

The theological and spiritual richness of the Jesus Prayer cannot be treated as something abstract; on the contrary, it is living and effective. This prayer is valuable because with its help the truths of faith come to life, which were perceived primarily only externally, theoretically. Our whole being opens up to them. But in order to understand its secret, we need to talk more about the power of the Name and the discipline of repetition.

5. The Power of the Name

“The name of the Son of God is great and immeasurable, and it holds up the whole world,” says Hermas in “The Shepherd.”19 Only by understanding the power and dignity of the Divine Name can one appreciate the role that the Jesus Prayer plays in Orthodox spirituality. If this prayer surpasses many others in creative power, it is precisely because it contains the Name of God.

In the Old Testament tradition, and in other ancient cultures as well, a person’s name is mysteriously connected with his soul20. In a sense, a name reflects a person’s personality in all its richness. To know it is the same as knowing the inner essence of a person, establishing a connection with him and even gaining some power over him. That is why the mysterious messenger who wrestled with Jacob at the Jabbok stream (Gen. 32:29) and the angel who answered with Mana hid their names: Why do you ask about my name, since it is wonderful (Judg. 13:18). With any profound change in life, the name is also changed. Thus, Abram becomes Abraham (Gen. 17:5), and Jacob becomes Israel (Gen. 32:28). Saul, after his conversion, complains about Paul (Acts 13:9), and the monk is given a new name during his tonsure, as a sign of the radical renewal he is undergoing.

In the Old Testament tradition, acting in the name of another, invoking a name or being called by a name, was taken very seriously. “When a name is pronounced, it comes to life and immediately rises to the soul of its owner. Everything here is filled with deep significance.”21

If all that has been said above about man is true, it applies to God in a remarkable way. The power and glory of God are revealed and act through His Name. It is numen praesens, God with us, “Emmanuel.” Calling upon it attentively and reverently, we stand before God, opening ourselves to His action and offering ourselves into His hands as an obedient instrument and a living sacrifice. The greatness of the divine Name was so keenly felt in late Judaism that the tetragrammaton* was not pronounced aloud in synagogue meetings. The name of the Most High inspired a sacred awe.22

The New Testament largely inherited the Old Testament Jewish tradition. The name of Jesus casts out demons and heals people. because it contains enormous power. If we remember this, many of the well-known passages of the New Testament find new meaning and sharpness: the request of the Lord’s Prayer “hallowed be thy name” (Matthew 6:9); Christ’s promise at the Last Supper “whatever you ask the Father in my name, he will give you” (John 16:23), the last command to the apostles: “Go therefore and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit”2; the apostle Peter’s statement that salvation is possible only “in the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth” (Acts 4:10–12); the words of the Apostle Paul: “that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow” (Phil. 2:10); a new and mysterious name, written on a white stone and awaiting us in the life of the coming age (Rev. 2:17).

The practice of the Jesus Prayer is based precisely on the biblical veneration of the Name. God is intimately connected with His Name, and therefore, invoking Him, we act secretly, and God is invisibly present and active at that moment. For modern Christians, as in apostolic times, the Name of Jesus is power. According to the words of Saints Barsanuphius and John of Gaza (6th century), “The Name of God, when invoked, kills all passions”23. “Strike your adversaries with the name of Jesus,” exhorts the Venerable John the Ladder, “for there is no stronger weapon in heaven or on earth… Let the memory of Jesus be united with your breathing: and then you will know the benefit of silence”24.

Although there is hidden power in the name, its purely mechanical repetition is fruitless. The Jesus Prayer is a magical talisman. In the inner act, as in the performance of the rites, a person, through living faith and ascetic effort, must become a co-worker with God. The Name must be invoked with concentration and soberness, putting the mind into the words of the prayer, realizing Whom we are addressing and Whose response we hear in our heart. Such prayer requires effort and is very difficult at first, which is why the ascetic fathers wrote about it as a secret martyrdom. St. Gregory of Sinai never tires of reminding those who have embarked on this path of “effort and work,” “continuous effort,” and the temptation to give up everything (“because of the inherent pain that sometimes accompanies intelligent action”). “Ache with your heart and labor with your body,” he says, “seeking the Lord in your heart.”25 The power of the Name is revealed only to the patient and faithful.

Faithfulness and perseverance are tested primarily by how attentively and for how long we repeat the prayer. When you pray, do not use vain repetitions, as the heathen do , – Christ told his disciples (Matthew 6:7). These words do not apply in any way to those who pray the Jesus prayer attentively and without deceit. Their effort will eventually bear fruit, and the prayer will become more complete and spiritual.

6. Gaining Integrity (Unification)

Seriously trying to pray in spirit and truth, we immediately discover that we are internally divided, deprived of unity and integrity. We try to appear before God, but restless empty thoughts flicker in our heads like mosquitoes (in the words of Bishop Theophanes the Recluse). To contemplate means to be where you are, to be here and now; and we, as a rule, are powerless to tame our own mind, which wanders arbitrarily in space and time. We now recall the past, now anticipate the future, now plan what to do. People and places wander in an endless series before our minds, and we do not have enough strength to keep ourselves where we should be – here, in the presence of God. We are unable to fully live now, in the immediate present – the only really existing moment: internal disunity is one of the tragic consequences of original sin. As life experience shows, it is precisely those who are busy with one thing at a time who struggle with this. If this useful skill is not easy to acquire in everyday life, it is even harder to find it in inner work.

How can we learn to live in the true eternal “Now”? How can we tame the weather; and be ready at the decisive moment? This is where the Jesus Prayer comes to the rescue. The patient invocation of the Name, by God’s grace, makes us whole, overcoming our fragmentation, leading us from dispersion and multiplicity to unity. “Thoughts throng in the head… like mosquitoes,” says Bishop Theophanes. “To stop this throng, we must bind the mind to one thought, or to the thought of the One”26.

The ascetic fathers, and in particular Barsanuphius and John, write about two ways of fighting thoughts. The first – for the “strong” and “perfect” – is to “contradict” them, that is, to confront them face to face, to repel their attacks in a direct battle. But this is the path of the chosen ones; it is difficult and fraught with dangers. Direct conflict, attempts to expel and eradicate thoughts by the efforts of the will, as a rule, only nourish them, and once suppressed imagination begins to work with redoubled force. Therefore, it is wiser not to fight thoughts by straining the will, but to evade them, focusing attention on something else. Instead of gathering strength to reflect thoughts, peering down, into the depths of restless imagination, it is better to look up, to the Lord Jesus, entrusting oneself to His hands and calling on His Name. Then the grace that works through him will dispel the thoughts against which we ourselves are powerless. Our spiritual strategy should be positive, not negative: instead of cleansing the mind of evil thoughts, we should fill it with good ones. “Do not contradict, because the enemies desire this and, seeing contradictions, will not cease to attack,” advise Barsanuphius and John, “but pray to the Lord for them, casting your weakness before Him, and He can not only drive them away, but also completely abolish them.”27

Thus, the Jesus Prayer distracts attention from extraneous thoughts and images that cannot be stopped by an effort of will. Interruptions during prayer are inevitable. You cannot simply turn off the screen of your internal television by turning on the light switch. It is pointless to tell yourself “don’t think”; with the same success, you can say “don’t breathe.” “The mind cannot remain empty,” wrote St. Mark the Ascetic28; thoughts swarm incessantly in it. And although we cannot disperse them, we can distract ourselves from them by “binding” the restless mind with “one thought, or the thought of the One” – the Name of Jesus. It will not be possible to completely stop the flow of thoughts, but the Jesus Prayer will help to distance oneself from them, and in the end they will become only a background that hardly attracts attention.

Evagrius of Pontus († 399) wrote: “Prayer is the renunciation of thoughts.”29 It is a renunciation, a postponement, calm but firm, and not a merciless war or angry suppression. Invoking the Name, we renounce our fantasies, both innocent and pernicious, free ourselves from them, subjugating all thoughts about Jesus. It should be noted that although it is not useful in prayer to forcibly suppress either imagination or discursive thinking, it is even more useless to nourish them. The Jesus Prayer is not like meditation on this or that episode from the life of Christ or on a Gospel parable; it has even less in common with reasoning or reflection on this or that dogma, for example, on the dogma of “consubstantiality” or the Chalcedonian formula. This distinguishes it from discursive meditation, popular in the West since the Counter-Reformation (recommended by Ignatius of Loyola, Francis de Sales, Alphonsus Liguori, and others).

When calling upon the Name, one should not deliberately imagine the Savior. The Jesus Prayer is usually recited without looking at the icons, but in the dark or with closed eyes. “The memory of good and bad things usually recalls their images and leads one into a dream,” writes St. Gregory of Sinai. “Then the one who experiences this is already a dreamer (phantasies), and not a mute (hesy-chastes)30. “And so that when creating a reasonable prayer you do not fall into beauty,” writes the Monk Neil of Sor († 1508), “do not allow in yourself any representations, any images and visions.”31 “In the action of the Jesus Prayer there should not be any image that mediates between the mind and the Lord,” writes Bishop Theophanes. “The essence of reasonable prayer is in walking before God; and walking before God is not separated from the consciousness of the conviction that God is everywhere, so He is in you, and sees everything, even the inner, sees even more than we ourselves. This consciousness of God’s eye looking inside you should also not have an image, but everything should consist in one simple conviction or feeling. ”32 Only by calling on the Name in this way – not imagining the Savior, but simply feeling His presence – will we experience the full power of the Jesus Prayer, which gathers together and gives integrity.

The Jesus Prayer requires words. However, due to its simplicity and brevity, it rises above words – to the living silence of the Eternal. With God’s help, it gradually becomes non-discursive, non-figurative, not just a statement about God or an appeal to Him, not just a representation of Christ, but a “union” with Him in an all-consuming direct encounter. Invoking the Name, we learn to feel the closeness of Christ with our spiritual senses, just as we warm ourselves by entering a hotly heated room. We know Him not in alternating images and concepts, but with a whole and open heart. Thus, the Jesus Prayer brings us to the here and now, gathers us around a single center, leads us from a multitude of thoughts to unity with Christ. “With the memory of Christ Jesus, gather your scattered mind,” says St. Philotheus of Sinai (9th century)33 – gather it from many thoughts into the simplicity of love.

Many, having learned that the invocation of the Name should become non-discursive and non-figurative, that it takes us beyond the boundaries of images and thoughts, conclude that such a prayer is beyond their power. For such people, let us remind you: this path is open not only to the chosen ones. Everyone can follow it. If you have just started to create the Jesus Prayer, do not try to immediately banish all thoughts and images. Remember that the strategy should be positive, not negative. Do not keep unnecessary things in mind, but remember the main thing. Think about Jesus, not about how to banish thoughts. With all your being, with all your zeal and faith, turn to your personal Savior. Feel His presence. Talk to Him with love. If attention slips away – and this is inevitable – do not despair: gently, without bitterness and anger, return it. And no matter how many times it slips away, return it as many times. Always strive for the center – the living and personal – Jesus Christ.

Treat the invocation of the Name as a prayer that is filled with the Beloved, and not as a prayer that needs to be freed from thoughts. The Jesus Prayer must be made with real feeling, although without artificial emotional excitement. It is immeasurably deeper than prayer “with feeling”, as it is currently understood in the West, and it must begin precisely with an impulse of love. Invoking the Name, we will inwardly imitate St. Richard of Chichester:

O merciful Savior, Friend and Brother,

Let me see You more clearly,

to love passionately

and follow You.

7. Going inside

Invoking the Name, making our prayer more holistic, allows it to go deeper inside, to become a part of ourselves – what we are, and no longer what we do, to become an ongoing state, not a one-time action. The whole person is involved in such a prayer, its words and meaning germinate in it. Pavlo Evdokimov (1901–1970) wrote about this beautifully: “In the catacomb paintings, the image of a woman praying, Oranta, who reveals the only true state of the human soul, is most often found. It is not enough to possess prayer, we must become it, let it be embodied in ourselves. It is not enough to glorify God from time to time: it is necessary that our whole life, every act and gesture, even a smile, become a hymn of worship, a sacrifice, a prayer. We must sacrifice not what we have, but ourselves”34.

The prayer that Pavel Evdokimov writes about is called “heart prayer.” In Orthodoxy, as in other traditions, three types of prayer are distinguished, which are understood more as its levels than as successive stages. These are prayer made with the mouth (oral), prayer made with the mind (rational), and prayer of the heart (or the mind gathered in the heart). The invocation of the Name, like any other prayer, is initially oral, and the words are carefully pronounced with the tongue. In order to keep the mind on the meaning of what is said, effort will be required. However, over time and with God’s help, prayer will penetrate deeper and deeper within. Then the sounds themselves will become less important, and the mind will pray more fully and more naturally. If the mouth falls silent at all, then the mind alone will silently invoke the Name. This means that God’s grace has transferred us from the first level to the second. However, praying out loud does not stop outwardly, often even very “experienced” people in prayer call on Jesus at full volume. (And who are they, these “experienced” people? Aren’t we all “newbies” in the spiritual life?)

But this is not the end of the path. Man is much more than the mind that understands: in addition to thinking and reason, he has experiences, feelings, and a desire for beauty, not to mention the depths of personal intuition. His entire composition must be included in prayer, he is called to turn into a single prayerful impulse. Like an ink stain that fell on a blotter, prayer, dispersing from the conscious and thinking center, must gradually permeate his entire composition.

Using our terminology, we can say that we are called to rise from the second level to the third, from intelligent prayer to the prayer of the mind gathered in the heart. In this context, the word “heart” should be understood within the framework of the Semitic and biblical tradition, as the center of the whole personality, and not simply as the area of ​​feelings and experiences, as is customary in modern Western culture. The heart is our mystery, “the deepest and true “I”, which is revealed only through sacrifice and death.”35 As Boris Vysheslavtsev wrote, “the heart is the center not only of consciousness, but also of the unconscious, not only of the soul, but also of the spirit, not only of the spirit, but also of the body, not only of the understanding, but also of the incomprehensible; in short, it is the absolute center.”36 In this sense, the heart is something much more than a bodily organ. The physical heart serves only as a symbol of the limitless spiritual possibilities of man as a being created in the image of God and called to become His likeness.

Having reached the “absolute center,” or in other words, from the mind to the heart, we complete the journey inward and find true prayer. More precisely, the point is not to go out of mind, but to go down with it into the heart. The main thing here is not just “heart prayer,” but “mind prayer in the heart,” since all levels of intelligence, including the mind, are given by God and must serve Him; they cannot be neglected. When “mind and heart become one,” then our fallen and divided nature is restored, its original integrity is revived. Heart prayer returns to paradise, cancels the fall and restores the status ante peccatum (state before the fall). In this way, it reveals the eschatological reality, becomes a pledge and a foretaste of the life of the Coming Age, which in this century will never be fully revealed.

By experiencing, even if partially and imperfectly, “heart prayer,” we gradually make the transition mentioned above – from prayer that requires effort to “self-motivated,” from the one that we create to the one that “creates itself,” or rather, to the one that creates. After all, the heart plays a dual role in spiritual life: it is both the center of personality and the place where a person meets God. In it we know ourselves, who we really are, but in it we also come out of ourselves, entering the temple of the Holy Trinity, where the image meets the Prototype face to face. In the “inner sanctuary” of the heart we acquire the roots of our being and cross the boundary that separates the created from the Uncreated. “There is a certain boundless depth in the heart,” it is said in one of the spiritual conversations of Macarius the Great, “…there is God, there are Angels, there is life and the kingdom, there is light and the Apostles, there are treasures of grace, there is everything”37.

In heartfelt prayer, “my” action, “my” prayer, is clearly combined with the incessant action of the Other in me. If earlier we prayed to Jesus, now Jesus himself prays in us. In “The Candid Stories of a Wanderer” there is a striking passage that speaks of the birth of “self-moving” prayer: “One day, early in the morning, prayer seemed to wake me up.”38 If the wanderer had once “created the Jesus prayer,” now he discovers that prayer “creates itself” even in his sleep, because he has become one with the prayer of God within him. It is noteworthy that even then the wanderer did not consider himself to be the fullness of heartfelt prayer.

It may seem to the reader of “The Candid Tales of a Wanderer” that the hero of the book easily, almost mechanically, passed from oral prayer to heartfelt prayer. It seemed that only a few weeks had passed since he began his feat, and his prayer became self-propelled. Let us emphasize, however, that the traveler’s experience is a rare exception, although it is not unique. 39 Most often, if such a thing happens, it is after long, ascetic efforts, sometimes lasting a lifetime. Sometimes, having just begun to compose the Jesus Prayer, they frivolously believe that it came from the lips into the heart. Or they imagine that they are praying silently, without words, when in reality they are not praying at all, but have simply fallen into a slumber of indifference and are sleeping in reality. Warning against such things, the teachers of the hesychast tradition strongly recommend that those who are taking their first steps in the Jesus Prayer to force themselves constantly. They constantly emphasize how important it is to focus all attention on the words, without being distracted by the thought of prayerful inspiration. For example, let us cite the words of the famous spiritual mentor from Mount Athos, Elder Joseph of the New Skete († 1959):

The work of intelligent prayer consists in forcing yourself to repeat it continuously with your mouth… Listen only to the words “Lord Jesus Christ, have mercy on me”… Simply say them out loud and do not interrupt… Until you become accustomed to praying, work on your language40.

It is truly amazing how much the spoken word is valued. St. John the Ladder wrote: “Try to bring your mind to prayer, or rather, to put it into the words of prayer.”41 This does not mean, however, that words are important in their own right; Jesus Himself, whom we call upon, must remain in our thoughts.

Heart prayer always comes as a gift from God, who gives it to whomever He wills. It cannot be acquired by any method. St. Isaac the Syrian (7th century) emphasizes that this gift is a great rarity, and “only one in a thousand” is granted pure prayer. “And he who has attained that mystery which is already behind this prayer,” he adds, “hardly, by God’s grace, remains from generation to generation.”42 One in a thousand, one in a whole generation: these sobering warnings should not confuse us. The inner kingdom is open to everyone, everyone can walk their part of the path. In our time, few people even partially descend into the depths of the secrets of the heart, but very many – in their sometimes small measure and occasionally, but quite realistically – join in the prayer of the spirit.

8. On the participation of breathing

The time has come to address the question of the body’s participation in prayer – that aspect of the teaching of the Byzantine Hesychasts that is very often misunderstood.

The heart, as mentioned, is our secret essence, the point where matter and spirit converge, the center of the physical, mental and spiritual composition. It lives in two dimensions – visible and invisible – and therefore both the body and the soul are involved in heartfelt prayer: without the participation of the body, it is incomplete. According to biblical teaching, a person is a psychosomatic whole; but not just a soul imprisoned in the body, as in a prison, and striving to escape from it, but an indissoluble unity of both. The body is not at all an obstacle that needs to be removed, nor a piece of matter that can be ignored; its role in the life of the spirit is positive, and prayer needs the forces hidden in it.

The above is true of prayer in general, but it is even more true of Jesus’ prayer, since it is addressed to the Incarnate God – the Word who became flesh. Christ, having become flesh, took on not only human consciousness and will, but also a body, making the flesh an inexhaustible source of sanctification. How then does this flesh, which the God-man made spirit-bearing, participate in the invocation of the Name and the prayer of the mind, gathered in the heart?

In order to answer this question, let us turn to the “bodily method” developed by the hesychast tradition. The ascetics knew from experience that the mental state nevertheless affects the physical level; depending on the internal disposition, a person can be cold or feel hot, his heart can beat more often or less often, etc. But vice versa, a change in the physical state always affects the psyche. Therefore, having learned to control and direct bodily functions in a certain way, one can achieve greater concentration in prayer. This reasoning is the basis of the hesychast “method”. Let us now consider its three main components.

(1) Body position. St. Gregory of Sinai advises praying while sitting on a low bench, about 8 inches (20 cm) high, with the head bowed, the shoulders bent, and the gaze directed toward the heart. He does not conceal the fact that this posture will later seem extremely uncomfortable. Some ascetics recommend an even more tense posture—with the head bowed to the knees—following the example of the prophet Elijah on Mount Carmel.43

(2) Breath control. Breathing slows down and its rhythm begins to coincide with the rhythm of the prayer. Often the first part of the prayer, “Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God,” is said while inhaling, and the second part, “Have mercy on me, a sinner,” while exhaling. But sometimes it is done differently. It is also possible to pray in time with the heartbeat.

(3) Mastering the inner. The hesychast draws all his attention to the region of the heart. There is a similar practice in yoga, where beginners are taught to concentrate on one or another part of the body. After the air is inhaled through the nostrils and passes into the lungs, the hesychast “descends” with his mind inward, “seeking” the place of the heart. For fear of being misunderstood, none of the ascetics writes in detail about this matter. There are so many subtleties in it that it can only be mastered under the personal guidance of an experienced mentor. The one who, having neither experience nor a mentor, tries to find the place of the heart, risks, against his will, lowering his mind to the region below the heart, to the belly. This has a destructive effect on prayer, since the region of the womb is associated with carnal thoughts and movements that defile the mind and heart44.

For obvious reasons, one must be extremely careful when interfering with the body’s natural rhythms – whether breathing or heartbeat. Abuse of the method threatens to disrupt health and psyche, and that is why it is so important to have a reliable mentor. If there is no elder, then it is best for beginners to limit themselves to simply repeating the Jesus Prayer and not think about breathing or heart rhythm. Then it turns out that most of the time the prayer adjusts to breathing by itself – without conscious effort on our part. If this does not happen, one should not be afraid; one should work calmly and attentively, calling on the Name.

The bodily method, whatever it may be, will remain only a means, an aid to some, not obligatory for all. The Jesus Prayer does not become defective when it is performed without resorting to any method at all. St. Gregory Palamas (1296-1359), although he considered the use of the method described above to be theologically justified, treated it as something secondary and suitable mainly for beginners.45 Like all hesychast ascetics, he placed the main emphasis not on control of breathing, but on an internal and secret appeal to the Lord Jesus.

Orthodox authors of the last hundred and fifty years have tried not to focus on the bodily side of rational action. Here is typical advice given by Bishop Ignatius (Bryanchaninov) (1807–1867):

We advise our beloved brothers not to seek to discover this mechanism within themselves unless it is revealed of itself. Many who have tried to learn it by experience have damaged their lungs and have achieved nothing. The essence of the matter is that the mind should unite with the heart during prayer, and this is accomplished by the grace of God in its own time, which is determined by God. The mechanism mentioned is successfully replaced by the slow recitation of prayer, a short rest after each prayer, quiet and slow breathing, and the concentration of the mind on the words of prayer. With the help of these aids we can easily achieve attention to a certain extent46.

Regarding whether to pray quickly or slowly, Bishop Ignatius writes:

It takes 30 minutes, or about half an hour, to recite one hundred prayers slowly and attentively ; some ascetics need even longer. Do not recite the prayers in a hurry, one immediately after the other; take a short rest after each prayer, and thus help the mind to concentrate. Continuous recitation of prayers scatters the mind. Translate your breathing with caution; breathe quietly and slowly: this mechanism protects against inattention47.

For beginners, this rhythm sometimes seems too slow, and they pray a little faster – spending twenty minutes for every hundred prayers. Some teachers of the Greek tradition recommend an even faster rhythm, claiming that it is easier to keep the mind focused.

The method developed by the Byzantine hesychasts is surprisingly similar to the practice found in yoga and Sufism.48 Is this a simple coincidence, and did these traditions develop independently of each other? If Sufism and hesychasm are directly related, and sometimes the two traditions are so close that a simple coincidence seems incredible, then who borrowed from whom? All these questions open up exciting prospects for scientific exploration, although the too fragmentary material will not allow us to answer them unequivocally. Be that as it may, we should not forget that in addition to similarities, there are also differences. The paintings can be strikingly different from each other, but within their frameworks one can always find similar features. The main thing is the painting itself. In the practice of the Jesus Prayer, bodily exercises are the frame, and the painting is the inner conversion to Christ. The “frame” of the Jesus Prayer may well be similar to the “frames” of non-Christian traditions, but this should not be confusing, because the painting itself is unique. The Jesus Prayer is Christian in content, in essence; the main thing in it is not repetition, not posture, and not breathing, but who we are addressing. And its words are addressed directly to Jesus Christ, the incarnate Savior, the Son of God and the Son of Mary.

The fact that the Jesus Prayer sometimes involves the body in a certain way should not obscure its essence. It is not simply a technique that helps one to concentrate or relax, and it is by no means a “Christian yoga,” a kind of “transcendental meditation,” or a “Christian mantra,” as some call it. On the contrary, its whole essence is an appeal to the Other, to God who became man, Jesus Christ, the personal Savior and Redeemer, and it cannot be reduced to a simple method. The Jesus Prayer lives in a certain context, and if it is removed from there, it loses all meaning.

The first thing that sets the context for the Jesus Prayer is faith. One cannot call upon the Name without believing in Jesus Christ as the Son of God and Savior; it is senseless to affirm a verbal formula without having a living faith in Jesus as Lord and without realizing who He is and what He has done for us personally. And no matter how weak this faith may be, no matter how many doubts may undermine it, no matter how much one may want to say with the father of the possessed child: Lord, I believe; help my unbelief (Mark 9:24), one desire to believe, one spark of love for Jesus, is enough.

The second thing that sets the context for the Jesus Prayer is churchliness. We invoke the Name not individually, relying solely on our inner strength, but as members of the body of the Church. Whoever we turn to: St. Barsanuphius, St. Gregory of Sinai or Bishop Theophanes – they all recommended the Jesus Prayer only to baptized Christians who regularly participate in the rites of the Church, confession and communion. There is not a hint in the books of these authors that the invocation of the Name replaces the sacraments. On the contrary, they insisted that the one who wants to perform the Jesus Prayer must be a real member of the Church, partaking of the Holy Mysteries.

And yet, in our days, when people are consumed by curiosity and the Church is so divided, the Jesus Prayer is resorted to by many who not only do not belong to any of the Churches, but who do not have any expressed faith in the Lord Jesus, or have never thought about it at all. Is it right to forbid them to pray? Of course not, if only they sincerely seek the Source of Life, for Jesus condemned only hypocrites. And yet, with all humility and full awareness of our own inferiority, we are obliged to admit that these people have found themselves in an abnormal situation, and it is our duty to warn them of this.

9. The End of the Road

At the end of the path, the Jesus Prayer merges with the prayer that Jesus, as High Priest, brings to us; our life becomes one with His life, and our breath is one with His Divine breath that sustains the Universe. However, any Christian prayer leads to the same thing. The Final Goal is most accurately expressed by the patristic term theosis, “deification.” According to Archpriest Sergei Bulgakov, “The name of Jesus, the content of a person’s heart, communicates to him the power of deification, granted to us by the Redeemer.”49 “The Word became man, that we might be deified,” wrote Athanasius the Great.50 He who was God by nature took upon Himself human nature so that we might share in the glory of His Divinity, and become partakers of the divine nature (2 Pet. 1:4). Addressed to the Incarnate Logos, the Jesus Prayer accomplishes in us the mystery of deification, which makes man a true likeness of God.

The Jesus Prayer unites with Christ and brings into interrelation (perichoresis) the Faces of the Holy Trinity. The deeper the prayer goes, the more fully we join the endless cycle of love between the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. St. Isaac the Syrian wrote beautifully about this:

“Love is a kingdom; the Lord mysteriously promised it to the Apostles, who would taste it in His kingdom. For what else does it mean, ‘That ye may eat and drink at My table in My kingdom’ (Luke 22:30), if not love? …And when we attain love, then we have attained God, and our path is perfect, and we have come to the island of the world beyond, where the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit are. To Him be glory and dominion! ”51

The mystery of deification in the hesychast tradition is most often revealed in a vision of light. It would be wrong to think that the light that the saints contemplated in prayer is a symbolic light of the mind, or a physical, created, sensibly perceived light. It is none other than the Divine and uncreated Light with which Christ shone when transformed on Mount Tabor, and which will illuminate the whole world at His second coming on the Last Day. Let us cite a characteristic passage about the Divine Light from the writings of St. Gregory Palamas, where he speaks of what the Apostle Paul experienced when he was caught up to the third heaven (2 Cor. 12:2–4):

…That sweet spectacle which captivated the mind, forced it to leave everything and turned it completely towards itself, the saint sees as a light that sends revelation, but not the revelation of bodies that are sensibly perceived, and is not limited either up or down or in width; he does not see at all the limits of the visible and illuminating light to him, but if there were a sun infinitely brighter and greater than everything in the world, and he himself stood in the middle, completely becoming sight – this is what it is like52.

By calling upon the Name, we can approach such contemplation.

Thanks to the Jesus Prayer, the radiance of the Transfiguration penetrates every corner of our lives. By repeating it incessantly, the anonymous hero of “The Candid Tales of a Wanderer” undergoes a twofold transformation. First, the material world appears before him in a different light, and he notices the mysterious presence of God everywhere. Here is how he writes:

“When… I began to pray with my heart, everything around me appeared to me in a wonderful form: trees, grass, birds, earth, air, light, everything seemed to tell me that they exist for man, testify to God’s love for man, and everything prays, everything sings the glory of God. And I understood from this what is called in the Dobrotolyubia “leading the creatures to the word (the language of creation. – Note of the translator)”… Sometimes I felt a fiery love for Jesus Christ and for all of God’s creation”53.

According to Father Sergiy Bulgakov, “the light of the name of Jesus, through the heart, illuminates the entire Universe”54.

Secondly, the Jesus Prayer transforms the traveler’s attitude towards other people:

“During the day, if I happened to meet anyone, everyone without exception seemed to me as kind as my own family, although I did not engage with them. My thoughts completely quieted down on their own, and I thought of nothing except prayer, to which my mind began to incline, and my heart began to feel warmth and some kind of pleasure. …If someone offends me, I will only remember how I enjoy the Jesus Prayer; immediately the offense and anger will pass, and I will forget everything”55.

As you did it to one of the least of these brothers of mine, you did it to me (Matthew 25:40). The Jesus Prayer helps us see Christ in everyone and everyone in Christ.

In this sense, the invocation of the Name advises rather than calls for repentance, affirms the world rather than denies it. At first glance, the Jesus Prayer, which is performed with closed eyes in solitude and in the dark, repeating “…have mercy on me,” may seem like a gloomy and sad activity. There is a temptation to think that a person withdraws into himself, avoids reality and responsibility for what is happening around him, in society. But this is a profound mistake. He who has seriously embarked on the Path of the Name does not become sad and depressed, but joins the source of freedom and healing. St. Hesychius of Jerusalem wrote about the warmth and joy that are born from the Jesus Prayer:

“From this frequency is born… a continuity of sobriety… followed by the unceasing Jesus Prayer, the sweet dreamless silence of the mind, and the wonderful state that comes from union with Jesus.

Just as rain, the more it falls on the earth, the more it softens it, so the holy name of Christ, pronounced by us without thinking, the more often we call upon Him, the more it softens the earth of our heart, filling it with joy and gladness.

The sun, passing over the earth, makes day; and the holy and venerable name of the Lord Jesus, shining unceasingly in the mind, gives rise to a multitude of sun-like thoughts.”56

Moreover, by making the Jesus Prayer, we actually draw closer to people, discovering the value of everyone and everything in God, and not at all turning away from them, renouncing God’s creation. “Gather a peaceful spirit, and thousands around will be saved,” said St. Seraphim of Sarov (1759–1833). Those short periods of time during the day when we wait for Christ, calling on His Name, change and deepen our lives so that we become able to help people – effectively and creatively – as we could not before. By making the prayer “freely”, and not according to a rule, we, using the expression of Nadiya Gorodetskaya (1901–1985), “put a divine seal on the world”:

We can stamp the Name on people, books, flowers, everything we encounter on our way, see or think about. In the name of Jesus, this mysterious key, we sacrifice everyone and everything in the world, seal the world with a divine seal. Is not this the priesthood of all believers? In union with the High Priest we implore the Spirit: turn my prayer into a sacrament.57

“We can put the seal of the Name on people…” Saying this, Nadiya Gorodetskaya offers an answer to a question that often arises: is it possible to insert requests for others into the Jesus Prayer? Strictly speaking, the Jesus Prayer is not connected with intercession for others. Whoever prays in it simply “before God”, outside of thoughts and images, and should not mention anyone by name. He is completely turned to Jesus. But, of course, turning to Jesus does not mean turning away from his neighbor. The heart of Jesus embraces everyone we love. Moreover, He loves them infinitely more strongly than we do, and therefore in the Jesus Prayer we find everyone in Him. By calling on the Name, we more fully join the love of Christ, which pours out over the whole world. And yet, following the hesychast tradition of a reasonable act, by calling on the Name of Christ, one should not mention anyone before His face or think of anyone separately.

All this, however, does not mean that in the practice of the Jesus Prayer there is no place for intercession for others. No matter how we pray, “according to the rule” or “freely,” we are sometimes drawn to “direct” the Name to specific people, invoking the Name upon them and saying at the end “…have mercy on John.” Even if the writings of the Hesychasts do not directly say this, there is no doubt that doing so is more fruitful. The path of the Name is wide and generous and is not limited by strict and unchanging rules.

“Prayer is action; to pray means to be extremely active.”58 These words apply first of all to the Jesus Prayer. Although it is mentioned in a special way at the time of monastic vows, as a prayer for monks,59 it is also suitable for lay people living in marriage. Everyone who correctly invokes the Name penetrates more deeply into what is entrusted to him, acts more effectively, without rejecting others from himself, but on the contrary, drawing closer to them, empathizing with their fears and anxieties in a way that he could not empathize with before. The Jesus Prayer transforms us into “people for others,” living weapons of God’s peace, an effective source of reconciliation.

“CHURCH AND TIME”, No. 1 (8), 1999

Jesus Prayer

Let us talk about interior prayer, about seeking God in the secret kingdom of the heart, in the very kingdom that Christ spoke of, the Kingdom of God is within you (Luke 17:21). And I would like to talk to you about a special form of interior prayer, the Jesus Prayer or the invocation of the sacred name. To begin with, let me, as on an icon, present to you the decisive moment of the Old Testament – ​​Moses before the burning bush (Ex. 3). Moses stands before a thorn bush in the desert that burns but does not burn up, and God says two things to him, and He says these same two things to you and me, and to everyone who tries to comprehend the mystery of living prayer. First of all, God says to Moses, take off your shoes (Ex. 3:5). According to the interpretation of the Greek fathers, for example, St. Gregory of Nyssa, shoes made from the skin of dead animals mean deadness in everything – in repetition, in boredom, in inattention. Take off your shoes , symbolically means, free yourself from everything inanimate, from enslavement to everything everyday and mechanical that repeats. Shake off the deadness of boredom, wake up, come to yourself, open your spiritual vision, open the doors of your perception, look and see, listen. The term used in Orthodox ascetic and mystical theology for wakefulness is denoted in Greek by the word “nipsis”, which means sobriety, observation, attentiveness. This experience of nipsis is reflected in the practice of the Fathers of the Church, who called on us to wake up. “Coming to our senses” – that was a big problem for me from childhood. I always fell asleep so easily! Once I even fell asleep during my own lecture. I was foolish enough to sit through the lecture, and as it went on I became more and more sleepy, and as I drifted off to sleep I heard a voice say the word “go to sleep,” and suddenly I realized that it was my own words. In fact, I had no idea what I was talking about at that moment.

The problem is not that we are originally sinful, although almost all of us sin at least sometimes. The problem is rather that we are sad, and therefore our consciousness is fragmented and scattered. We use only the smallest part of our spiritual resources, we live life at 5% of our potential, we move in a low gear. We are never truly where we are now, we cannot gather ourselves – here and now. We cannot truly experience the rite of the present moment.

But let us return to Moses. What happens next? After we symbolically take off our shoes, God then tells Moses, the place where you stand is holy ground (Ex. 3:5). What do we feel when we take off our shoes and go barefoot? We suddenly become sensitive in a good sense, vulnerable in a positive way, the earth under our feet comes alive, we feel the crumbs of dust under our feet, we feel the texture of the grass. And the same thing happens in a spiritual sense. Taking off our shoes, freeing ourselves from internal deadness, we begin to understand that God is very close, the world around us is holy. We re-experience a sense of awe and wonder before every thing. Every thing, every person reveals to us the mystery of the Divine presence, presents itself as a way of union with God.

So let us apply the story of Exodus to our prayer. To pray in Spirit and truth is to stand like Moses before the burning bush, to take off our shoes, to cast off our deadness, to wake up, to experience all things as if in newness and freshness, to realize that we are standing on holy ground, to know that God is directly before us and present with us.

Some of you may ask, how, how can one find this living prayer, this living sense of immediate holiness? Not just a prayer with words, but an inner prayer, a prayer from the depths of oneself, a prayer of the heart. I am reminded of the story that is told of the great Victorian character Thomas Carlyle. On returning from church on Sunday morning, as he was about to eat breakfast, he said to his mother in a bad mood, “I cannot understand why we preach such long sermons. If I were a minister, I would go up to the pulpit and say only this—good people, you know what you ought to do, so go and do it!” “Thomas,” his mother replied, “will you tell them how?” So how are we to find living prayer? Many Orthodox will answer that one should resort to the Jesus Prayer, a short invocation of God’s name: “Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me.” There are many variations of the prayer, for example, you can say “have mercy on me, a sinner” or “have mercy on us,” mentioning others in the prayer. Perhaps you remember the story that Fyodor Dostoevsky tells in The Brothers Karamazov. This is the story of the old woman and the onion, my favorite instructive story for all occasions. The writer did not make this story up, he heard it being told in the village. There was an old woman, and she died. To her surprise, she woke up in a lake of fire. Looking out, she noticed her guardian angel walking along the shore. She called out to him: “Some mistake has happened. I am a respected elderly woman and I should not be in this lake of fire.” “Oh,” the guardian angel replied, “do you remember a single time when you helped someone?” The old woman thought for a moment and said, “Yes. Once I was in the garden, and a beggar woman was passing by. I gave her an onion.” “Excellent,” said the angel, “I have this very onion with me right now.” He took an onion from his robes and said to the old woman, “Let’s see what an onion can do. Here, grab it and pull.” Well, maybe it wasn’t an onion, but a shallot. And he began to pull it carefully, but she wasn’t alone. The others in the lake, when they saw that she was being pulled, began to grab her so that they could be pulled out with her. The old woman didn’t like this at all, and she began to push them away with her feet: “Let go, untie yourself. They’re pulling me, not you, my onion, not yours.” Only she said this when the onion broke. The old woman fell into the lake and is burning to this day. This is Dostoevsky’s story, but I will add to it. What a pity that the old woman did not say, this is our onion, but by saying, this is my onion, she denied herself the basics of humanity. To be truly human, you need to be in relationships with other people, love them and cooperate with them. Therefore, if you want to learn a lesson from the story of the old woman and the onion, you can say in the Jesus Prayer: “Have mercy on us.”

The invocation of the sacred name in the Jesus Prayer is a way in prayer to take off one’s shoes, to wake up, to realize that we are standing on sacred ground, to be gathered in the presence of God here and now at this moment. This is just one way to be in prayer, but not the only way. Prayer is a deeply personal conversation between individuals, a dialogue between one specific subject – me – and another Subject – God of the Holy Trinity. Individuals vary infinitely, and each of us is unique, unrepeatable, and in each one one can find such a richness that cannot be found in anyone else. This is why Revelation says that in the next century, to each one of the redeemed will be given a white stone, and on the stone a new name written that no one knows except the one who receives it (Rev. 2:17). Each human personality is hidden in a unique mystery. You know, when I was a child, I had a dream in which it was revealed to me what my name was on the white stone. But I won’t tell you.

In Martin Buber’s “Hasidic Traditions” there is a saying of Rabbi Zussia, who said, “In the next century, at the Last Judgment, they will not ask me: “Zusia, why were you not Moses, or why were you not Elijah? I will be asked this: Why were you not Zusia?” And each of us at the Last Judgment will be asked about this: why did we not become the unique individuals that God intended us to be? And since individuals are infinitely different, and prayer is deeply personal, therefore the ways of prayer are also different. There is no single form of inner prayer that suits everyone everywhere and always without exception. Each person is under the guidance of the Holy Spirit, under the guidance of his spiritual father or spiritual mother, his abba or ami – and it must be said that spiritual guidance is extremely important in Orthodoxy. So, everyone must find their own way of praying. Always give room to freedom in prayer, as St. Barsanuphius of Gaza, writing in the 6th century, said, “I do not want to be under the law, but under grace.” We should not assume that the Jesus Prayer is the only way or the best way to pray. We can simply say that it has helped many, it has helped me, and it can help you.

The center and core of the Jesus Prayer is the sacred name of Jesus. The name given to the Son of God at His human birth in Bethlehem by His Mother the Virgin Mary and His adoptive father Joseph. This name contains the dual essence of Christ: that He is fully and truly God and fully and truly man. The name Jesus specifically means Savior, according to the word of the angel addressed to Joseph (Matt. 1:21): and you shall call His name Jesus, for He will save His people from their sins. Denoting “Salvation”, the name Jesus speaks not only of the incarnation of our Lord, but also of His death and Resurrection. In the Old Testament, the Divine name is recognized as a source of grace and power. And the same happens with the name Jesus in the New Testament. By the sacred name, demons are cast out, miracles are performed. According to the 2nd century Christian text “The Shepherd of Hermas”, “the name of the Son of God is great and boundless, and contains the whole world.” For the Orthodox, the Jesus Prayer, which contains this great and boundless sacred name, finds the grace and power of Jesus the Savior Himself transmitted to us. It has a sacred value, this prayer is an outward visible symbol of an inward spiritual grace.

There are two ways in which the Jesus Prayer can be used. First, “free” use during any current moment of the day that we would otherwise waste. The prayer can be said one or more times in a row while we are busy with our usual affairs. And there is also a “regular” way of using it, when we add the Jesus Prayer to our prayer rule in conditions of external silence, when we try to focus only on prayer and are not busy with anything else. It is quite permissible to use the Jesus Prayer only in the first way, but not to add it to our regular prayers. The goal of the free use of the Jesus Prayer can be summarized in the words, “to gain Christ everywhere,” and the goal of the regular use of the prayer is in the words, “to gain silence.”

First, a little about the free use of prayer. You can say the Jesus Prayer when you fall asleep, when you wake up, while you are getting dressed, when you are making your bed and washing yourself, while you are walking from one place to another. I don’t drive, so I can say the Jesus Prayer while I am waiting for the bus, and believe me, the public transport system in Oxford provides many opportunities for prayer. If you are driving, you can say the Jesus Prayer in traffic, and when the red light in front of you flashes, you can say to yourself: great, a good opportunity for prayer. The Jesus Prayer is also very useful for me personally in official meetings. It is also useful when you are giving advice to people. Often, when you are talking to someone, you get the feeling that the other person cannot understand you at all, and you cannot explain it to them properly. And then I find it helpful to say the Jesus Prayer once or three times in secret in my heart, and it often transforms the course of the conversation, raises it to a new creative level of significance. The Jesus Prayer is useful in moments of temptation, when you feel anger rising within you. It helps in periods of extreme physical and moral pain. In this free way of using the Jesus Prayer, its main value is that on the one hand it has power, and on the other hand it is simple and direct, flexible and resilient. You don’t need to prepare yourself to say the prayer, you just have to start… And it is a prayer for any occasion, which can be used in conditions of extreme tension, when something distracts, when other more complex forms of prayer are impossible. So I find the Jesus Prayer especially suitable for our troubled age. And in fact, the Jesus Prayer is used today by perhaps more people than ever before – both Orthodox and other Christians. The explanation for this free use of the Jesus Prayer is that it unites our time of prayer and work. It turns our work into prayer and makes the ordinary sacred, bringing Christ into everything we do, helping us to find Christ everywhere. There is a poem by George Herbert, “The Elixir,” which is often used as a chant.

Teach me, my God and King,

To see You in everything,

And in everything I do, –

To create it as if it were for You.

The Jesus Prayer allows us to achieve just that. As Father Alexander Schmemann says in his wonderful book “For the Life of the World” – a book that I recommend to everyone who comes to me to learn about the Orthodox faith – a Christian sees Christ everywhere he looks and rejoices in Him. This is the effect that can be had from reciting the Jesus Prayer freely – seeing Christ everywhere. There is a saying that was common among early Christians and is attributed to Christ, but it is not found in the Gospels, “Lift a stone – and there you will find Me, split a piece of wood – and I will be there.” This is the goal of freely using the Jesus Prayer: to find Christ everywhere. And the effect, if we say the Jesus Prayer often, is that even when we are completely immersed in some absorbing activity, even when we are not saying it out loud, somewhere deep within us the prayer continues. Deep within us, the understanding of God’s presence continues to live. Gregory of Nyssa uses the concept of “a sense of presence” in this context, and this is the effect achieved by frequently reciting the Jesus Prayer. This sense of presence will persist even when our consciousness is already fully occupied with some complex task. In this way, we become executors of the requirement of St. Paul (1 Thess. 5:17), pray without ceasing. I do not think that the apostle called on us to say prayers all the time, rather he is talking about maintaining an endless sense of the Divine presence deep within ourselves.

Now let’s talk about the regular way of using the Jesus Prayer, when we say a prayer and do nothing else. Usually, if we talk about external conditions, the Jesus Prayer is said in solitude, although there are exceptions. In the monastery of St. John the Baptist in Britain, founded by the Russian father Sophrony, a disciple of St. Silouan of Athos, every day, except weekends, the Divine Service is replaced by a joint reading of the Jesus Prayer. The monks gather for two hours in the morning and two hours in the evening, and the eldest of those present says the Jesus Prayer a hundred times, and then one of the monks continues, and so on in turn. They do not say the prayer together, but say it out loud one by one, and the rest mentally in the depths of their hearts. But this is an exception, as a rule, after all, the Jesus Prayer is said in solitude and for themselves. It is recited while sitting, and the ancient Byzantine rule says that one should sit on a low bench, about 25 centimeters high. However, I recommend that people simply sit on a chair with a straight back. People usually pray with their eyes closed, but if you are tempted to fall asleep, you can stand up and make a prostration after each prayer, and if you do this twenty times, sleep will be removed as if by a hand. Usually the prayer is simply recited, and not recited singly, although in the Greek and Slavic forms there is a certain rhythm and music of the Jesus Prayer that is less noticeable in the English text. The pace at which the prayer can be recited varies significantly. It is recited faster in Greek, slower in Russian. It is not necessary to recite the prayer out loud, you can simply recite it to yourself, and there is also a method that allows you to connect its rhythm with breathing. Rosaries are often used during recitation. At first, I recommend that people pray for 10-15 minutes, which is quite enough. But with experience, you can pray for longer.

The inner purpose of what I call a regular way of praying is to create silence in the sense of peace of heart. According to Søren Kierkegaard, “if I were a doctor and my advice was needed, I would say: create silence.” It is obvious that the modern world is in dire need of such a doctor. The great Catholic spiritual director Baron Friedrich von Hugel said that “a man is what he does with his silence.” Silence, therefore, is the most important component of the human personality, without silence we are not even truly human. How much silence is in your or my life? Or the same question can be put differently: how human are you or I? The Jesus Prayer is a way to find true silence, inner peace. But what do we mean by silence? Can it be defined only by external signs, as the absence of sound, as if a pause between words? Can silence be defined only as a way of denying something? Is it more about an inner state and a definition based not on negation but on affirmation? I will tell you that silence is not the absence of something, but presence, not vacuum and emptiness, but fullness.

Does silence in the true spiritual sense not mean awareness of the presence of the Other? According to Georges Bernanos, “silence is presence, and at its core is God.” In Psalm 45 we read, “Be still and know that I am God” (Ps. 45:11). This verse does not simply call us to “stop,” but immediately speaks of the presence of God—“know that God is.” Silence, silence is awareness of God. True silence in prayer, therefore, understood in this affirmative key, does not mean isolation, but relationship. It means receptivity, openness, encounter, loss and at the same time gaining oneself in the Other through love. Silence in prayer means “being with someone” in an attentive, tense state. Silence is like the creation of listening. As an image of what silence means, I would suggest a figure that you can see in Byzantine churches, an image of the Virgin Mary with her hands raised in prayer, Platiter, “The Wider of Heaven,” or Oranta, “The Praying One.” For me, this ancient gesture of raised hands in prayer means precisely silence as waiting in God.

When I was about ten years old, I heard a sermon on prayer in the Anglican church that my family attended, and I remember it very well. If you ever have to preach, be careful what you say, because children can listen, and they are very attentive listeners. At that time, the preacher told a story that is associated with the Cure d’Ar. Once there lived an old man in a village who went to church every day and stayed there for a long time. His friends asked him what he was doing there for so long. The old man replied that he was praying. “Do you pray?” they asked, “I suppose you have a lot to ask of God.” He answered them warmly that he did not ask God for anything. “Then what do you do?” they asked him. And he replied, “I just sit and look at God, and He sits and looks at me.” To a ten-year-old boy, that seemed like a wonderful definition of prayer, and I still think so. That’s what the Jesus Prayer allows us to achieve. It is a prayer of listening, of simple contemplation, a prayer of observation.

Here is the problem: if we try to be silent in prayer, if we simply stand or sit in silence, we become victims of abstract thoughts, we cannot turn off the internal television simply by the force of our own will. Thoughts continue to overcome us, even not necessarily bad thoughts, but thoughts that have nothing to do with prayer. As Bishop Theophan the Recluse said, “take refuge in your heart and sit there alone with the Lord, driving away all thoughts like flies and mosquitoes.” Another Christian said that thoughts are like monkeys jumping from branch to branch. What can we do with this endless stream of thoughts, images, when we would like to simply stand still before God? We cannot stop this stream by simply telling ourselves to stop thinking. We can just as successfully tell ourselves to stop breathing – this cannot be done by a simple effort of will. What we can do, in fact, is to give our active mind a very simple task, which is the repeated invocation of the sacred name. “Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me, a sinner.” The Jesus Prayer is a verbal prayer, but because we use simple words that are often repeated, it leads us through words into silence. We speak, but at the same time we listen. Someone may object to this form of prayer, to the frequent repetition of a short formula of invocation. Did not our Lord in the Sermon on the Mount warn us against empty repetitions? To this I would reply that the Jesus Prayer is indeed a repetition, but if it is uttered with deep faith and ardent love for the Savior, then it is not an empty repetition, but a repetition full of meaning.

Sometimes people raise other objections: what about our public position, how should we respond to the concerns about the suffering of the world? Don’t we turn away from our problems when we pray alone with our eyes closed, constantly repeating: have mercy on me? Isn’t that selfish, inward-looking, isn’t it a renunciation of the world? My answer lies in two quotes. First, here are the words of the great 19th-century Russian saint Seraphim of Sarov: “Acquire a peaceful spirit, and thousands around you will be saved.” And here are the words of UN Secretary-General Dag Hammarskjöld, formulated in his stunning book “Road Signs,” where he writes: “Understand through peace, act with peace, lead the conquest in peace.”

Pull the world, and thousands around will be saved. The purpose of the Jesus Prayer is precisely to gain peace. But this is not a selfish purpose, because it makes us, by the mercy and grace of God, an instrument of gaining peace for others, although we pray in solitude, according to the words of our Lord, with the door shut in secret (Matt. 6:6). Let us devote perhaps about 10-15 minutes a day to prayer, but all the other minutes and hours of the day we are available to people, open to their experiences. We must love truly and be like Christ – and without this prayer this state is not easy to achieve.

Understand through silence, act with silence – this is an accurate description of the purpose of the Jesus Prayer. It helps us to understand in silence, so that we can then act with silence. Saint Ignatius of Antioch used a memorable phrase: “Jesus Christ, who is the Word that comes from silence.” Because Christ’s words came from silence, they were words of fire and healing. Because Christ’s actions came from silence, they were actions of power and transformation. How often our words and actions are superfluous and ineffective, because they do not have silence as their basis. But if they had their source in prayer! Living in prayer, for example, in the Jesus Prayer, they would produce such fruit that we cannot even imagine. Act from silence! The Jesus Prayer is a prayer of contemplation, but also a prayer that allows us to combine contemplation and action. It makes our contemplation effective, and our actions contemplative. Thank you.

Question:  What does “have mercy” mean in this prayer? What kind of mercy is this?

Metropolitan Callistus:  In Greek, mercy is “eleos,” which is very similar to another word, “eleon,” which means olive oil. I think that etymologically these words have nothing in common, but the Greek fathers loved to play with words. They were thinking about the mercy of God, which means the love of God that pours out for healing, forgiveness, and restoration. This is how I understand the word “eleos” in the Jesus Prayer. Some might say that constantly repeating “have mercy” is a rather unattractive activity. For me, this prayer is not boring at all, it is full of light, because the phrase “have mercy on me” does not speak so much about our sin and the loss of God, but rather about reconciliation with God, it speaks of overcoming sin through Divine love.

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Notes

Tito Koliander. The Narrow Path. Moscow: Danilovsky Blagovesnyk, 1995. P. 31.

Quoted from: On the Jesus Prayer. Collection compiled by Abbot Khariton. Sortavala, 1936. P. 31.

St. Gregory of Sinai. Chapters, 113. Charity. Vol. 5. TSL, 1993 (reprint). P.205.

Quote from: “It is time for the Lord to act: they have broken your covenant” (Ps. 119:126). Some commentators interpret this passage as “a time to offer (a sacrifice) to the Lord,” but our interpretation is richer in meaning and has many supporters. The Greek original has the word kairoz: “…it is time for the Lord to act.” By kairoz is meant a decisive moment: the praying person uses this moment to begin praying.

St. Gregory of Sinai. Chapters, 113. Charity. Vol. 5. TSL, 1993 (reprint). P.205.

Callistus and Ignatius Xanthopoulos. Instruction to the Silent in a Hundred Chapters 4. Benevolence. Vol. 5. TSL, 1993 (reprint). P. 307.

Nothing is said about the Jesus Prayer, for example, neither in the authentic texts of St. Symeon the New Theologian, nor in the voluminous anthology of spiritual writings of Evergetinos (both 11th century).

The fervent veneration of the holy name of Jesus existed, of course, in the Middle Ages in the West, including in England. And although the Byzantine tradition of the Jesus Prayer has its own peculiarities, there are obvious parallels between it and medieval practice. See Kallistos Ware. The Great Name of Jesus in East and West: Hesychasts and Richard Rolle / Sobornost 4:2, 1982. P. 163–184.

Those familiar with Salinger’s novels probably remember how Franny was affected by the “small-format book in a green cloth binding with polka dots.”

A Monk of the Eastern Church. In memory of the Name of Jesus / Fellowship of St Alban and St Sergius, London, 1950. P. 5–6.

St. Gregory of Sinai. On Silent Prayer, 2, Charity. Vol. 5. TSL, 1993 (reprint). P. 228.

St. Theophan the Recluse. Collection of letters. Published by the Holy Assumption Pskov-Pechersk Monastery and the Pilgrim Publishing House, 1994. Letter 739. Vol. IV. P. 230.

Brother Lawrence of the Resurrection (1611-1691). Practice of the Presence of God ed. D. Attwater. Paraclete Books. London, 1962. P. 13, 16.

Archimandrite Sophrony (Sakharov). Elder Silouan. M., 1991. P. 172.

St. Theophanes the Recluse.. Collection of Letters. P. 902. T. V. Z. 176.

St. Theophanes the Recluse.. Collection of Letters. P. 979. T. VI. P. 105.

Candid Stories of a Traveler. Moscow, 1992. P. 30.

St. Macarius the Great. Spiritual Conversations 14:2. TSL, 1994 (reprint). P.105.

“Shepherd” Hermas. Similarities 9:14. Writings of the Apostolic Men. Riga, 1994. P. 272.

See Pedersen J. Israel. Vol. I. London-Copenhagen, 1926. P. 245-259; cf. Barr J. The Symbolism of Name in Old Testament / Bulletin of John Rylands Library, 52, 1, 1969. P. 11–29.

Pedersen. Op. cit. P. 256.

On the veneration of the name among medieval Jewish Kabbalists – see Greshom G. Scholem. Major Trends in Jewish Mysticism 3rd ed. London, 1955. P. 132-133 and compare. with the interpretation of this theme in Charles Williams’ famous novel All Hallow’s Eve. London, 1945.

St. Barsanuphius and John. Questions and Answers. A Guide to Spiritual Life in Answers to Students’ Questions. Answers 421. Published by the Moscow Courtyard of the Holy Assumption Pskov-Pechersk Monastery. M., 1995. P. 282.

Lecturer Ivan Listvychnik. Listvytsia 21:7, 27:16. Published by the Moscow Courtyard of the Holy Assumption Pskov-Pechersk Monastery. M., 1994. P. 142.

St. Gregory of Sinai. Instruction to the Silent, 1. Charity. Vol. 5.

St. Theophanes the Recluse. Collection of Letters. P. 957. T.VI.

St. Barsanuphius and John. Questions and Answers. Answer 91.

St. Mark. The Ascetic.. Epistle to the Monk Nicholas, 5. Charity. Vol. 1.

Abba Evagrius of Pontus. On Prayer, 71. Moscow: Martis, 1994. P. 84.

St. Gregory of Sinai. Instruction to the Silent, 7. Charity. Vol. 5.

Lecturer. Nil Sorsky. Statute on the Scythian Life, 2. On the Basic Methods of Counteracting Intrusive Thoughts. TSL, 1991. P. 25.

St. Theophanes the Recluse. Collection of Letters. P. 704. Vol. IV.

St. Philotheus of Sinai. 40 chapters on sobriety, 27. Charity. Vol. 3.

Sacrement de 1’amour. Le mystfere conjugal a la lumiere de la tradition orthodox. Paris, 1961. P. 83.

Kehoe Richard. The Scriptures as the Word of God / The Eastern Churches Quarterly, VIII (1947), supplement to “On Tradition and Scripture”. P. 78.

Vysheslavtsev B. The Heart in Christian and Indian Mysticism. Paris: YMCA-Press, 1929. P. 25.

Macarius the Great. Conversations. 15 and 43:7.

Candid Stories of a Traveler. Moscow: Soviet Russia, 1992. P. 19.

Elder Silouan of Athos composed the Jesus Prayer for only three weeks before it entered his heart and became self-moving. His biographer, Archimandrite Sophrony, rightly notes that the elder had a “great and rare gift”; only later did Father Silouan appreciate how unusual his experience was (“Elder Silouan.” p. 25). For further discussion of this issue, see Kallistos Ware. Washing Without Preparation: The Ideal Guide in Great Britain / Great Britain Review, II (1969). P. 259-261.

Ekphrasis monastikis empeirias. Monastery of Philotheou, Holy Mountain 1979. 25–28.

St. John the Ladder. Ladder 28:17.

Lecture. Isaac, Sirin. Word 16. On pure prayer. M: Rule of Faith, 1993 (reprint). P. 62.

“Elijah went up to the top of Carmel and bowed down to the ground and put his face between his knees” (1 Kings 18:42). The hesychast prayer practice in this position is mentioned, for example, in the 12th-century manuscript “The Ladder” – see The Study of Spirituality ed. Cheslyn Jones, Geoffrey Wainwright and Edward Yarnold. London, 1986, plate 3, after p. 194.

For a bibliography on breath control, see Kallistos Ware. The Jesus Prayer in St. Gregory of Sinai ^Eastern Churches Review, IV. 1972. P. 14, note 55. For the physical centers and their participation in spiritual work, see Father Anthony Bloom (now Metropolitan of Sourozh). Asceticism (Somatopsychic Technique) / The Guild of Pastoral Psychology, Guild Lecture 95: London, 1957.

St. Gregory Palamas. Triads in Defense of Sacred Speech, I, II, 7. Moscow: Kanon, 1996. P. 47.

En. Ignatius (Bryanchaninov). The introduction of modern monasticism. Ch. 26. On the oral, intellectual and heartfelt Jesus prayer. TSL, 1991 (reprint). P. 114.

En. Ignatius (Bryanchaninov). The introduction of modern monasticism. Chapter 24. On the exercise of the Jesus Prayer.

See Gardet Louis. Un problema de mystique compare la mention du nom divin (dhkir) dans la mystique musulmane / Revue Thomiste, LII (1952). p. 642-679, III (1953). P. 197-216.

Archpriest Sergiy Bulgakov. Orthodoxy. Moscow: Terra. 1991. P. 313.

St. Athanasius the Great. A Word on the Incarnation of God the Word and His Coming to Us in the Flesh, 54. Vol. 1. Moscow: Publishing House of the Holy Transfiguration Valaam Monastery, 1994 (reprint). P. 260.

Lecture by Isaac Sirin, Word 83. On repentance. Moscow: Rule of Faith, 1993 (reprint). P. 62.

St. Gregory Palamas. Triads in Defense of Sacred Speech, 1, III, 21. P. 83.

Candid Stories of a Traveler. Moscow: Soviet Russia, 1992. pp. 32, 39.

Archpriest Sergiy Bulgakov. Orthodoxy. Moscow: Terra. 1991. P. 314.

Candid Stories of a Traveler. Moscow: Soviet Russia, 1992. pp. 20, 22.

St. Hesychius of Jerusalem. On Sobriety and Prayer, 7, 41, 169. Charity. Vol. 2

The Prayer of Jesus/Blackfriars, XXIII (1942). P. 76.

Tito’s coriander. The narrow path. P. 28.

In the Greek and Russian traditions, when the monk is put on the monastic robe, he is also given a rosary. In Russian monasteries, at this moment the abbot says: “Take, brother, the spiritual sword, which is the Word of God, for unceasing prayer to Jesus; for you must at all times have the name of the Lord Jesus in your mind, heart and on your lips, always repeating: Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me, a sinner.” See Robinson NF Monasticism in the Orthodox Churches. London-Milwaukee, 1916. P. 159-160. It is worth paying attention to the commonly used distinction between the levels of prayer – with the mouth, with the mind and with the heart.

Tetragrammaton – a four-letter name revealed by God Himself to Moses “God said to Moses: I am who I am (Yahweh)” (Ex. 3:14). Literally, this name means “I am Who I am”. The Jews stopped pronouncing it after the end of the Babylonian captivity. It was pronounced only once a year from the lips of the high priest, when he entered the Holy of Holies. In the Greek translation, the name of God was replaced by the word “kyrios”, in Russian – Lord. – Translator’s note.