Prayer · Christian practice
The Jesus Prayer
Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me, a sinner.
The prayer of the heart. In the Orthodox tradition it is repeated until it goes on by itself — the aim described in the sources is not a number reached but a prayer that continues under everything else the person is doing.
Source: Eastern Orthodox tradition; Philokalia; The Way of a Pilgrim (19th c.)
The count shown here is Japa's suggestion, not a rule of the tradition. Follow the form and number you were taught.
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Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me, a sinner.
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What the words say
Two halves. The first is confession of who is addressed — Lord, Jesus Christ, Son of God — and the second is the whole of the request: have mercy on me, a sinner. The publican's prayer in Luke 18:13 is the model, and the shortness is deliberate; the tradition warns against elaborating it.
Where it comes from
The practice grew out of Egyptian and Sinai monasticism and was developed by the hesychast fathers, above all Gregory Palamas in the fourteenth century. The texts are gathered in the Philokalia, compiled in 1782. The nineteenth-century Russian account The Way of a Pilgrim carried it to lay readers, and to the West.
How it is practised
Counted on a knotted prayer rope — a chotki or komboskini, commonly of 33, 50 or 100 knots. It is often coordinated with the breath. The tradition is emphatic that sustained practice belongs under a spiritual father's direction rather than alone.
References
- The Philokalia, vols. I–IV
- The Way of a Pilgrim, anon., 19th c.
- Luke 18:13
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