Steve the Owl's Blog

Often, when someone comes from a certain religious background, and has been exposed to very little else, there is a fascination with religions that seem very different from that person’s own background. For me, being raised as a Baptist, with what is known as a “free church” tradition with very little pomp and circumstance, I have been fascinated with Eastern Orthodox Christianity, with its ornamentation and its focus on mystery. (For example, the actual act of preparing the communion is hidden behind a door, and many Orthodox churches speak in different languages, with Greek being one of the most well known.) One part of the Orthodox tradition that has fascinated me was the Jesus prayer. While there may be some variations on the actual phrase, the Jesus Prayer involves the repetition of the following phrase:

“Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me.”

The purpose of this prayer is to focus one’s mind and heart on God. While at the library one day, I saw a book by Frederica Mathewes-Green called The Jesus Prayer: The Ancient Desert Prayer That Tunes the Heart to God. Mathewes-Green, a reporter who experienced a conversion to the Orthodox faith in the 1990′s, writes about her experiences with the prayer.

Deceptively Simple

One of the things that one will note when examining the text of The Jesus Prayer is just how short and how basic the prayer is. Rather than a longer prayer, it is only one sentence. However, when one tries to do it, there are things that one notices. (According to the author, the prayer is usually said in units of 100.) For example, depending on one’s mood, the prayer can be done quickly or slowly, and the choice of the speed and rhythm will affect the way that one responds to the prayer.

A Word of Warning

I am not Eastern Orthodox. I am guessing that most readers who find this probably are not Eastern Orthodox, either. Mathewes-Green said that her spiritual advisers argued that the Jesus Prayer is not something to be undertaken lightly. Some believed that only Orthodox Christians with a spiritual guide should undertake this prayer. However, the author also says that she believes that it is possible for other Christians to find benefit from this prayer, but she also believes that it is not something that should be a solitary pursuit.

A Holistic Approach

One of the things that fascinates me the most about this book is the way that it ties everything to faith. There are some who argue for a type of compartmentalization, but Orthodox tradition argues that one’s faith defines everything one does. This also applies to the Jesus Prayer, which has a goal of tuning the heart to God to make it easier to, in the words of the apostle, “pray without ceasing.”

While I do not think that this prayer is meant to be used as a substitute for more individual prayers, I have found in my experience that saying it (although I must admit that when I first heard about the Jesus Prayer and tried it, I did not count the number of times I said it) that it made it much easier to focus my prayers of my own saying, and it made it easier to put the focus on heavenly things rather than have several things going on in my head at once. Considering how difficult it is to get my thoughts focused sometimes (If I am not careful, I tend to tell several stories at once in conversation.), I think that this is the best testimonial that I can give to its power.

Tags: book review, Frederica Mathewes-Green, Jesus Prayer, Orthodox Chrsitianity

This entry was posted on Thursday, July 22nd, 2010 at 4:08 pm and is filed under Steve's Book Club, Thoughts on Faith. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.