For the past 14 years or so, I have made a practice of saying "the Jesus prayer," which -- give or take a few words -- goes like so: "Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me."
The prayer is central to a longstanding Christian tradition of "stillness" and "watchfulness" that remains widespread throughout the Eastern Church. In recent years, it has become increasingly observed in the Western Church, as well, where some have become eager to recover the fullness of our common faith -- an enriching fullness and a wholeness, which, largely due to historical circumstances, has been kept from a good many of us.
As a singular, thoughtful prayer, the words encourage the one who speaks them to attend to God's presence, here and now. As a continuing practice, they enable the one who repeats them (that is to say, one who thereby acquires "the prayer of the heart") to hold onto that sense of His unfailing presence, always. The heart is, after all, presumed to be in some sense God's "habitation," and the very locus "where His glory dwells"; through practice, we learn to apprehend this mystery, to savor its beauty, and to benefit from the calm stillness it avails.
For all our good intentions, our long-distracted crew -- the ostensible followers of Christ -- appear to have squandered many such gifts over the centuries. We have even intermittently modified our theologies -- lowering the bar of our expectations -- to accommodate our failure to become what we are called to become.
"No one is perfect," we repeat, smiling as we scribble our own doctor's excuse.
Quoting the Hebrew Bible, Saint Peter disagrees, and he reminds us of the ambitious measure we've been given for where the bar ought to be placed:
Therefore, gird up the loins of your mind, be sober, and rest your hope fully upon the grace that is to be brought to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ; as obedient children, not conforming yourselves to the former lusts, as in your ignorance; but as He who called you is holy, you also be holy in all your conduct, because it is written, Be holy; for I am holy.
In the Greek, the exhortation is all the more emphatic, "Holy you will be, because I am Holy." Gradually, through the prayer of the heart -- by the gift of this prayer -- we come to apprehend that the God is never not utterly near. We come finally to realize that on those occasions when He seems to us to be far away, that numbing circumstance inevitably has more to do with our own dim wits than it has to do with His having withheld His availability. That is to say, He never withdraws from us, but we -- through volition or neglect -- often withdraw from Him, and thereby cloud our own intuitive senses.
For many of those 14 years that I have practiced the prayer thus far, I have off and on thought to replace the me of the prayer with us, repeating "Lord Jesus Christ, have mercy on us." I had imagined that by thus changing up the ancient prayer, I was petitioning for others in a more intentional way. The obvious arrogance of presuming to improve upon a beautiful and ancient tradition aside, this modification did not seem at first to be such a bad thing. When talking about the practice some years ago, a Presbyterian friend confessed that while she, too, was drawn to the practice of the Jesus prayer, she also had a difficult time repeating have mercy on me. "It just seems a little selfish," she said.
I had often felt the same way, and my modification of the prayer was my response to uneasiness about my being overly self-concerned. More recently, however, I have had occasion to rethink the matter. I have come to the conclusion that my innovative modification of the ancient prayer was actually a subtle refusal of the facts I'm hoping now to recover. Mine was an inadvertent denial of my mystical relationship to other members of the Body -- by which I now mean all of them (and, as I learned to say in Texas, all y'all).
As you might suppose, I didn't manage to puzzle out any of this on my own but was nudged into the realization by a passage I found in Wounded by Love, a beautiful book presenting the wisdom of Elder Porphyrios of the Holy Mountain. "Pray for others more than for yourself," says the Elder. "Say, 'Lord Jesus Christ, have mercy on me,' and you will always have others in your mind. We are all children of the same Father; we are all one. And so, when we pray for others, we say 'Lord Jesus Christ, have mercy on me,' and not, 'have mercy on them.' In this way we make them one with ourselves."
There is another, more subtle and perhaps more general lesson lurking here, as well. Every time we decide unilaterally to "change up" a received tradition, we are likely to risk missing out on how that very tradition might have helped us along the way. That is to say, if we are too quick to reshape traditions to suit our immediate and individual tastes, we may never know how those traditions might have reshaped us, how they might have efficaciously availed for us a more likely understanding of what we might become.
I love how G.K Chesterton suggests the logic of this particular dynamic in his classic book, Orthodoxy. He does so with no shortage of accustomed, Chestertonian wit and humor:
I have never been able to understand where people got the idea that democracy was in some way opposed to tradition. It is obvious that tradition is only democracy extended through time. It is trusting to a consensus of common human voices rather than to some isolated or arbitrary record. The man who quotes some German historian against the tradition of the Catholic Church, for instance, is strictly appealing to aristocracy. He is appealing to the superiority of one expert against the awful authority of a mob. It is quite easy to see why a legend is treated, and ought to be treated, more respectfully that a book of history. The legend is generally made by the majority of people in the village, who are sane. The book is generally written by the one man in the village who is mad. ...Tradition may be defined as an extension of the franchise. Tradition means giving votes to the most obscure of all classes, our ancestors.
As for the specific tradition of the Jesus prayer, I am now thinking that even if one were to initially begin one's practice of the prayer by repeating "have mercy on us," the purpose at the very heart of our matter is to realize how utterly we are connected to those we love, to those for whom we pray. Their well-being and our own should be so inextricably connected that we apprehend how they are all -- every one of them -- included in our saying "have mercy on me." Thereafter (though one surely cannot rush this sort of thing) we may begin to suspect next how all of Christ's Body, all of humanity, and, ultimately, all of creation are invoked in our petition as well.
As for the current me? I'm still working on it.
It is one thing to agree with the mystery of our unity as a proposition, but something else to perform that difficult matter with one's life. To grasp and sustain an awareness of this intimate connection with others is perhaps our greatest human challenge. I know that it continues to be mine.
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BTW...Check out some of the invocations employed by the Desert Fathers sometime. Here's one: "Lord Jesus, by what you know and by what you will, have mercy. Amen."
Thank you for you thought provoking article.
When you point out that it we who move away from God and not vice versa, you are so right. Yet there are times when we haven't moved and he still seems so far away. I call these days, "training days", for I get practice in "pressing in" on days like these. By "pressing in" I mean walking by faith and not by sight, by continuing to have faith where it looks like GOD has gone away.
To me my prayer for others is specific only when I know of a need, and like prayers for myself I always end with " Your will not mine be done".
To me, praying for myself is an act in humility, I see I have needs I can not meet, but I know God can, so I ask. I seek, I ask, I knock and it's given unto me.
As a "Protest-ent" I don't really like repetitive prayers, but the heart behind the prayer has always been the why of it's answering or not.
We get real fussy with prayer, and though it should be done with the most profound respect, it is just talking with God by definition after all. So I just keep my prayers simple and real, and I try to listen twice as much as I talk, after all he did give me twice as many ears as I have mouths.
It was hot and muggy, but the conference was wonderful.
In prayer, two men came to salvation by a quiet prayer in a coffie house, a prayer that three men whom the man I was praying with did not know would come up to him and talk about Jesus within 24 hours, twenty minuets later the deal was done.
Prayer is always answered. sometimes yes, sometimes no, sometimes wait.
My favorite example of prayer given by Jesus himself is this.
.Mat 26:39 And he went a little farther, and fell on his face, and prayed, saying, O my Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me: nevertheless not as I will, but as thou wilt.
One priest-monk on the holy mountain once told me: "When you descend into your heart, you find God there, already praying within you." This is what the discipline of the Jesus prayer can avail. Let's work to honor even those beauties, those gifts, we don't yet apprehend. Granted, there are many apparent paths, but I'm compelled to think that they are all occasioned by the Way.
Great philosophy. You must be proud.
Of the 165 countries on this globe, there are evangelists in 163 of them, through the gideons, though I'm not part of them. So be of good cheer sunshine Gods will is being done.
Disregard the attacks of the Worldly, be in it not of it.
Remember you are the head and not the tail, above only and not below.
A joint heir in the kingdom of God thru the blood of Christ Jesus.
We will talk together when we go home sister sunshine my friend, keep the faith given too you by scripture.
Like one who steals, who committs murder, etc go before a judge and is sentenced. Justice is served upon the guilty-us. But Jesus served took upon himself our crimes of sin and paid the sentence for our crimes, death of damnation in eternal Hell.
Why Jesus said to the devil. Oh Death Oh Death, were art thy sting? Now? God protected his children, whom the devil won over, to cause them to sin, and earn the just sentence of our crime, which would of been, the eternal damnation in Hell.
God protects his children, for God is our Father, what Father does not protect his own child? But do not judge others by the Laws of Moses, the Laws of Moses cannot save us, the Laws of Moses condemm us all. Told do not judge, for as you judge others by the laws then also you to will be judged under the Laws of Moses also, and not by mercy, Christ-God's Grace freely given to all.
Love your enemies as I have Loved -You- were enemies.
Interestingly, precisely the tactic used by Lucifer in the garden of Eden against Eve.
Once Eve had shown that she wasn't aware of what God had said, he pounced, just like you do BTW.
Rest your hope fully upon the grace (God's gift to us, is God's Grace, God's Love, something we did not earn or could ever earn)
that is -brought- (through Christ) to you, at the revelation of Jesus Christ (who did not know, nor was sin, but Christ was Holy, Righteous)
made us us Righteous to enter the Kingdom ( Christ, greatest Wealth, Treasure was Christ, Righteousness, Christ Rest, Christ Peace, Christ, made us Righteous, gave us his Righteousness to enter the Kingdom, was given to all, paid in full our debt of sin, God served his justice upon us the sinners, but Christ paid that debt, not us.)
as obedient children (Lords Prayer taught by Christ , begins with -Our Father, children are obedient to their Fathers.)
Not conforming your selves to former lust ( sin no more) as in your ignorance (all have heard of Christ, we all have no excuse, once we hear)
But as He who called you ( all are called to enter into, but few will enter, because they will continue to sin) is Holy-made us also Holy, now all are Righteous to enter the Kingdom) you also be Holy (telling us were all Holy now, Christ made us all Righteous) in all your conduct (now also)
Because its is written. Be Holy for I am Holy. (If we believe and accept Christ, then be Holy also)
I believe that the unbiased Love of the Almighty is for all of mankind who are seeking relief through a higher power. I believe that God is raising up a people, who have put on the armor of the Holy Spirit, to restore the true teachings of Christ as each is inspired by the wisdom of God's messenger. Hate the evil, but love the person. I also think it wise to listen to and understand the reasoning of some atheists. God is Love.
Sins consequence is death. Would you prefer to have not known this?
You do have a choice, choose Jesus and live, refuse Jesus and perish.
His gift to you was and is free, all you need do is to let go of you own perfection, and admit your faults "sins" before him and ask him into your heart. It's so easy a caveman could do it.
We all seek to justify our wrongs, but they did it too and worse! Only there is no worse in Gods eyes all "sin" has the same price, death. Man has put an artificial higherarchy on "sin", a result of lucifers workings. Other workings of lucifer are "God isn't real", "the devil isn't real", and quite a few more.
Really, why do you hate God so?
Left up the poor, while creating more poor working people of their own, in their own nation? Profits? greed? Cannot get any more money from working people right? Will companies not flood to those nations if they conquer them? I ask make more profits right? More materialism, idols to buy right? God said Beware of idols right? The disciples could not stress it enough, beware of idols. Christ spoke of material riches, as idols. worship of idols as their god? Not worship of God who created all. There are nations far older then us, who have existed for over 2,000 years, with no need for daily oil, idols, materialism, right?
Love of God, food, clothing, shelter is all we need to exist and live in harmony peace right? Be happy? What causes and creates more poverty, innocent sufferings, pain sorrow, get into massive worries of debt, etc? Greed? Greed does it not destroy more Nations, then all wars put together since the beginning of time? Greed start more wars? Why all great empires fell. Written, God said: All great empires, fell because of their greed, wars, jealousy, need for power, right?.
Coincidence?
Hint: no.
There are many wolves in sheeps clothing, perhaps you speak towards men attempting to misuse the name Christian to pursue their own ends?
Our party, the democratic party has it's odd coincidences as well. for instance Tony Heyward the ex-CEO of BP, Dick Cheney of Halliburton, and our own George Soros all belong to the Council on Foreign Relations, as do most of the democrats in congress. Considering what the gulf just went through one should be scratching their head, if they had any integrity that is.
Peace the world does not understand. One does not inherit any ones -Will- till after they die, so it is with Christ, our inheritance comes from what a mans works on earth has produced also. Jesus said. Peace I give you -(peace was Christ greatest treasure, Christ greatest wealth, Christ was all Holy, sinless, was his righteousness, into the Kingdom, lived in peace, rest, from all labors, suffering, pain, sorrow etc) Prosperity. Christ greatest wealth was Christ Righteousness, his peace, was all Holy, sinless) sinners cannot save sinners.
Christ- Willed us his peace, Righteousness, Christ greatest wealth of prosperity. Christ made us all Righteous, paid the debt of all our sins.Christ gave us the Kingdom, through the grace of God who choose to do so. God gave us his gift of Grace, a merit we can never earn.
Peace I give you, my peace -I Will- to you, not has the world gives peace (inheritance money) do I give it. Peace the world does not understand. Democracy, illusion,deception to to accept as good. God said. Do not accept.
With few exceptions, some who are responding here, atheists are more clumsey in their wording than the progressive Christians. But we can't just ignore their points by trying to concentrate on a more inclusive and less judgmental Christianity. That Christianity has always been with us, and it did nothing to try to prevent our slide into conservative horror. It may be distasteful, but the solution might come only when progressive Christianity starts to listen to the atheists and address their concerns. The atheists are not the enemy. Conservative Christianity is.
The devil knows what is your richest treasure is, your soul. The devil does not need your money, he is out to steal your greatest valuable treasure, your righteousness Christ gave all freely, your soul, your peace of eternal rest in the Kingdom of God.
if I ask does God care less, if one is a dem o repub or conservative? Rather how much have you loved me? Government, a house that is divided will fall, why all great empires fell. Mans greed set in to all Governments, their wars, jealousy, need for power over others, and nations.
Just look at the millions of dollars reported and given in each election campaign, to get one man or woman in congress, to do a $175,000 dollar a year job? Greed feeds power then power feeds back greed billions, trillions in 10 years and results more working poor then ever. Holy? I ask men, woman, placed by God, in seats of power will have much to answer for?