“By the grace of God I am a Christian, by my deeds a great sinner, and by my calling a homeless wanderer of the humblest origin, roaming from place to place. My possessions consist of a knapsack with dry crusts of bread on my back and in my bosom the Holy Bible. This is all!”
These words begin ‘The Way of the Pilgrim’ the story of holy fool whose wanderings take him by foot vast distances across Russia, the Ukraine and Siberia during the 19th century, it is a story of his discovery of how to pray without ceasing. The pilgrim finds himself attending the Liturgy (Holy Communion) on the 24th Sunday after Pentecost and hearing a reading from St Paul’s letter to the Thessalonians, ‘which says in part, “Pray constantly”’. The pilgrim, for whom we have no name, is puzzled by this and as he travels he seeks an answer to his question, ‘how may one ‘pray constantly’ or put another way, how do we pray without ceasing?’
Eventually whilst staying in a monastery he is advised by an Elder to pray the Jesus Prayer:
“The Elder opened the Philokalia (a compilation of writings composed between the 4th and 15th centuries by spiritual masters of the Eastern Orthodox Church), to the account of St Symeon the New Theologian and began reading: ‘Sit alone and in silence; bow your head and close your eyes; relax your breathing and with your imagination look into your heart (i.e. the centre of your being rather than the organ that pumps blood); direct your thoughts from your head into your heart. And while inhaling say, “Lord Jesus Christ, have mercy on me,” either softly with your lips or in your mind. Endeavour to fight distraction but be patient and peaceful and repeat the process frequently.’”
The rest of the book continues to tell us about the pilgrim’s wanderings and conversations but also how he incorporates the Jesus Prayer into his life.
The fuller version of the Jesus Prayer is “Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me a sinner”. I want to say something about that final word ‘sinner’ because in our modern society it is word that many find difficult because it is associated with feelings of guilt and inadequacy. That is unfortunate because it’s not an idea we need to be weighed down by. It simply means that none of us are perfect, all of us fall short of even the values that we hold, and we all fall short of the perfection and goodness of God. But thanks be to God, all of us can be put right with God through our relationship with Jesus Christ. Not only that, although we remain people who fall short of our ideals and God’s perfection, we are redeemed sinners who in Christ are being transformed by the Holy Spirit, and our participation in the life of the Body of Christ, it’s life of prayer, worship and the receiving of Holy Communion. Remember the words of the Pilgrim at the beginning, ‘By the grace of God I am a Christian, by my deeds a great sinner.’ Redeemed, yes, but still on the way to being made perfect. So it’s not a guilt that we need to be weighed down by, just an acknowledgement of the truth, we have not got there yet.
The prayer, in both its forms is something that can be repeated over and over again. It can be practiced both formally at a dedicated time, and at any moment during the day, on a walk, queuing in a shop, it’s short, easy to remember and can therefore be prayed without the need of a book.
I have found that the prayer continues sometimes, even when I am not praying it, it prays itself in me, and so, in a sense, this is praying without ceasing.
So how is one to start? What follows is a 12 point guide given by Fr Maxym Lysack, an Orthodox priest in Canada.
- Be modest: To begin with in one’s formal time of prayer do not pray the prayer for a long time, a maximum of five minutes and two minutes is not ridiculously short.
- Don’t rush and don’t count, it’s possible to pray with a kind of woollen rosary with knots or beads as they are called, (bead comes from the old English word for prayer), this will tell you how many you have prayed. It is helpful, because it gives our fingers something to do, but not necessary. Pray the prayer slowly, pray it well, it is about quality not quantity.
- Be careful about breathing, whilst some do link the prayer to the breath, it is not necessary and can lead to hyperventilation.
- Keep in mind that you are praying to a person, we are speaking to the son of God and addressing him by name. It is not a mantra even if it superficially resembles one.
- Try beginning with the prayer time with a psalm and one or two of the liturgical prayers like the Our Father. This will prepare the mind and heart for the deeper prayer.
- Don’t imagine Christ in front of you as you pray, the mind will come up with mental images but do not actively visualise, don’t plan what you might see.
- Don’t expect instant silence, the heart is full of noise, when we enter the heart, when we still ourselves, we will hear that noise and chatter of our active minds.
- Understand that the heart is both competent to pray but also wounded. But however wounded we are, we have still been created for prayer.
- Prayer is a grace and a work, we need the Holy Spirit and through our praying we are drawing our prayer towards the prayer of the Holy Spirit that is at work praying in us.
- If you have a strange experience whilst praying, consult your spiritual advisor.
- If you practice the Jesus Prayer keep in mind that you still need to participate in confession (either with everyone else at the general confession in church, or to a priest or on your own before God), the Liturgy and the sacraments. The Jesus Prayer is not an ‘instead of’ it’s ‘along with’ the prayer of the Church.
- Allow the Holy Spirit to lead you to silence, if the prayer seems to disappear – go with it. Silence is the language of the world to come, pure prayer has neither word nor image.
If silence does not come, don’t be disappointed, we have carried out our duty of prayer and that is enough.
The 12 points above are my notes from a video which you can find Here.
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