Faith in Practice

One of the things that has always appealed to me about the Jesus Prayer is its simplicity, and, for want of a better word, its modesty. It is not in any way a practice reserved for religious professionals, nor one that requires training or qualifications; it doesn't even need much remembering, being only twelve words long. All it requires is perseverance, and a place to sit.

Some writers (Cynthia Bourgeault, for instance) regard the Jesus Prayer as a mantra. I am not sure this is the way I look at it. The word maranatha, used in the practice known as Christian Mediation, is avowedly a mantra, "a word or short phrase of sacred origin and intent, used to collect the mind and invoke the divine presence" (Bourgeault, op.cit.). But the Jesus Prayer has content; it is a prayer, addressed to Jesus by name, and bringing with it its own peculiar attitude - a kind of surrender, or repentant trust, like that of the tax collector in Luke 18:9-14, "For all those who exalt themselves will be humbled, and those who humble themselves will be exalted" (Luke 18:14 NIV).

John Climacus, as quoted by John Gill, advised: "Make the effort to raise up, or rather, to enclose your mind within the words of your prayer..." That is more like my own experience. Paradoxically, so enclosed, the mind is freed from its incessant stream of thinking, and sinks into a living silence open to the bright ground of God. This, I think, is perhaps something similar to the immersion of the "mind in the heart" described by Seraphim of Sarov - a surrender of the restless intellect to that which is before all things (Colossians 1:15-17).