What is “the Jesus Prayer”?

Let us conclude this survey of the names and titles of Christ by mentioning the effectiveness of the “ Jesus Prayer ” in our lives. When the believer experiences the power of the name of Jesus, he cries out with blind Bartimaeus, “Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me!” (Mark 10:47, Luke 18:38). This prayer is found in the biography of Abba Philemon (6[th] to 7[th] century). It is also found in the letters of Saints Barsanuphius and John of Gaza (beginning of the 6[th] century), Dorotheus of Gaza, and St. John Climacus. The Church employs it as a spiritual practice for her children, with the addition of part of the prayer of the tax collector who beat his chest saying, “God be merciful to me a sinner!” (Luke 18:13).

St. Anthony the Great says, “Do not cease from reciting the name of the Lord Jesus, but hold onto to His name with your mind, repeat it with your tongue, and say in your heart: ‘My Lord Jesus Christ, have mercy on me; My Lord Jesus Christ help me.’ Also say: ‘I praise You, my Lord Jesus Christ.’”

It was also known to St. Macarius the Great and St. Evagrius.⁷⁹⁰

St. Macarius the Great says, “Be attentive to the name of our Lord Jesus Christ with a remorseful heart and let it pour forth from your lips. Let the name reflect back upon you. Do not bury it in your thoughts only for display, but be alert whenever you cry it out, saying, “O my Lord Jesus Christ, have mercy on me!” Then, in serenity you shall see His divinity resting in you; He will bring to naught the darkness of pain that is in you; and He shall purify your inner man to be like the purity of Adam dwelling in paradise. This is the blessed name that St. John the Evangelist called, “the light of the world” (John 8:12); the sweetness of which no one can ever have enough and the true “bread of life” (John 6:35).”

790 See Michael O’Carroll, Verbum Caro: An Encyclopedia on Jesus, the Christ (The Liturgical Press, 1992) “Jesus Prayer, the”: p. 82; and Gordon S. Wakefield ed., The Westminster Dictionary of Christian Spirituality (Westminster Press, 1983) “Jesus, Prayer To”: pp. 223–224.

Abba Evagrius says, “Tormented by the thoughts and passions of the body, I went to find the Abbot Macarius. I said to him: ‘My father, give me a word that I may live by it.’ Then Macarius said to me: ‘Attach the rope of the anchor to the rock and, by God’s grace, the ship will cross the diabolic waves of the deceptive sea and the tempest of the darkness of this vain world.’ I said to him: ‘What is the ship, what is the rope, what is the rock?’ The Abbot Macarius said to me: ‘The boat is your heart: guard it. The rope is your spirit: attach it to our Lord Jesus Christ who is the rock that has power over all the diabolic waves and surges that the saints are contending with; for is it not easy to say with each breath: Our Lord Jesus, the Christ, have mercy on me; I bless You, my Lord Jesus, help me? And as the fish struggling against the current can be caught unawares, we also, if we patiently persist in faithfully reciting the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, He will snare the devil by his nose (“one pierces his nose with a snare” Job 40:24) because of what he has done to us, and we who are weak shall know that help comes to us from the Lord Jesus Christ.”⁷⁹¹

And Abba Jacob says, “I once went to Abba Isidore and I found him writing, so I sat by him and noticed that from time to time he raised his eyes to heaven and his lips would move without me hearing any sound; so I said to him, ‘What are you doing, Abba?’ He said to me, ‘Do you not do the same?’ I said to him, ‘No, Abba.’ He then told me, ‘If you do not do that, Abba Jacob, then you have not yet become a monk, not even for a single day.’ And this is what he used to say: ‘My Lord Jesus Christ, help me. My Lord Jesus Christ have mercy on me. I praise You, My Lord Jesus Christ.’ ”

791 See Louis Bouyer, Hist ory of Christian Spirituality, Volume 1: The Spirituality of the New Testament and the Fathers , trans., Mary P. Ryan (London: Burns and Oates, 1968): p. 377.