Meditations on the Jesus Prayer

Just as a quick review, the Jesus prayer is a simple prayer that arose out of the study of the Philokalia, several volumes of Eastern Orthodox writings on prayer and meditation. There are several variations but the most common is "Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me a sinner."

Some of the Greek mystics warn against thinking that the words of the Jesus prayer have a power in themselves like a mantra. They are very specific that praying the Jesus prayer is only useful in so far as we are actually focusing our spiritual gaze upon Jesus. They suggest that beginners should focus their mind on scene from the Gospel as they say the Jesus prayer so as to keep their mind on Christ. I've incorporated this into my own prayer times.

While praying the Jesus prayer last week I was thinking about the Baptism of Christ Jesus by John the Baptist. I have always loved this scene in the Gospel because it is one of the two times the Father speaks over the Son, "this is my beloved son in whom I am well pleased." As I focused on that moment I felt that those who are "in" Christ as also receiving those words of the Father. "This is my beloved son, this is my beloved daughter, in Christ, in whom I am well pleased."

I felt a unity with Christ and a love of the Father that was completely new to me.

Later that week I was meditating on Jesus reading of Isaiah 61 when he announces his ministry. As I prayed the words "Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me a sinner" I imagined myself in that synagogue. I know the Gospel tells us that the reaction of the crowed was not good. But I felt like perhaps there were one or two people who were there who had needed to hear someone bring that anouncement. Maybe their hearts leapt with excitement for a moment as Jesus began reading that scroll. I think they may have felt their spirits crushed when the crowed roared against Jesus. And then, when things had settled down, they packed up their things later that night to follow this strange teacher out of town. I don't know if that historically happend, but I felt like it spiritually happend while I was meditating on that moment. We pray, "have mercy" and he replies "The Spirit of the soveriegn Lord is upon me, because he has annointed me to preach good news."