What is the Jesus Prayer?
In order to enter more deeply into the life of prayer and to come to grips with St. Paul’s challenge to pray unceasingly, the Orthodox Tradition offers the Jesus Prayer, which is sometimes called the prayer of the heart. The Jesus Prayer is offered as a means of concentration, as a focal point for our inner life. Though there are both longer and shorter versions, the most frequently used form of the Jesus Prayer is “Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me, a sinner.” This simple, humble prayer is brief enough to be quickly memorized and thereafter said so frequently, that it may become a continuous prayer of the heart. The next time you are having “one of those days,” or just want to take some time to talk to our Lord, try the Jesus prayer. It works. The Lord will hear and bless you with a sense of peace and comfort in His love.
