Notes on the Prayer of the Heart

This paper derived after my initial communications with a dear friend who had just informed me that his son was diagnosed with an aggressive Liver Cancer. In my initial communications I had said: ” my dear friend, at these times I have only one thing that I can give you, and that is the Jesus Prayer, said simply, as often as needed, ‘Lord Jesus Christ, have mercy on me’. These notes were in response to requests for a little more on the prayer.

A few remarks on the Jesus Prayer, or the Prayer of the heart.

I think I should qualify my position so that you may take my remarks with the proper seasoning. I am giving you one man’s view, so called “the way of a chooch”, just an ordinary citizen, a householder, everyday layman. I am not qualified to teach or instruct as to methods. But I can give you a conversation on the subject. So, take it as if we were sitting around a table at Starbucks enjoying our coffees and someone says: “What’s this business about the Jesus Prayer? Gunlap, do you have anything to offer?”

Because C.S. Lewis did it, I feel obliged to identify my religious position before starting; in so doing I will expect you to be well warned about my particular religious bias. I identify as an Anglo-Catholic, a tradition composed of the apostolic materials from Anglican (ancient Anglican), Roman and Eastern Orthodox Catholic with a large dose of occult Christian beliefs… a real mongrel. This tradition, as also applies to the Anglo-Catholic tradition, never reached a realization as a denomination or practicing Church. One finds traces of that spirit among the Inklings, C.S. Lewis, Charles Williams and J.R.R. Tolkien.

The Inklings, Harper Collins, 

 The Oxford Inklings

In treating the materials concerning the Jesus Prayer; I have avoided the “deep dive” primarily because I am not qualified nor trained to facilitate a “deep dive”. I have tried to provide sufficient depth and adequate reference so that one can satisfy both heart and mind. Again, in the same idiom offered by C.S. Lewis, I do not think you want or can benefit by a childish explanation, nor do I think you will grasp what is being presented without something deeper than a superficial instruction.

Ok, so “the Jesus Prayer”, also named: “the Prayer of the Heart”, frequently referred to as the hesychast method of prayer, is the traditional fulfillment of the injunction of the Apostle Paul to “Pray without ceasing”.

In its simplest form: “Lord Jesus Christ, have mercy on me” said frequently, repeated. More elaborate formulas sometimes seem appropriate: “Lord Jesus Christ, Son of the Living God, have mercy on me, a sinner”, in a pinch, in a vivid crisis emergency (you arrive on the scene of a car accident) just the name: Jesus, Jesus, Jesus… say it as you run to the burning car.

The most familiar use to me is when tempted towards some obsession (you can see why this becomes part of the teaching for addicts in the program of All Addicts Anonymous, from the traditions of AA). Temptation to take a Drink, “Lord Jesus Christ, have mercy on me”, plagued by resentment, “Lord Jesus Christ, have mercy on me”; tempted by sex fantasy, “Jesus, Jesus, Jesus”; lured towards Despair, “Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me, a sinner”.

Among its virtues is that it can be said on behalf of another, even a non-believer; you can say it for the person as his/her proxy as if he/she were saying it. This vicarious substitution, well you can see it is among the lessons of Christ’s life, vicarious substitution, with the calling on The Name one invokes the power to apply the vicarious substitution… without knowing it or realizing it.

Here is the mockup of this application: I am lost in the woods, my guide, Mike, is somehow separated from me; I am frightened but mostly bewildered and witless as to what to do. I need the guide, Mike, Mike! Mike help!… no time for maps and compasses, I must have the guide, Mike, Mike! No time for scripture, or gospel or programs or schools, Mike, Mike I’m lost! When Mike comes then you can get out the maps and chart a course, plan the schooling; but first and right now I must have Mike. So, it is with the Prayer. First and foremost, I need conscious contact with Himself!

Now that is my most frequent use of this form of prayer. It is not the only use by any means, and I will give you what I know of the other uses. Let’s call this the “Fox Hole” usage. Emergency Prayer. The first tool and the first weapon in fighting for sanity.

I think at this point it is safe to introduce a source: The Way of a Pilgrim. My book is translated by R.M. French. The Russian title of this book may literally be translated “Candid Narratives of a Pilgrim to His Spiritual Father”. The events in the book appear to have happened sometime prior to 1861; the book was first published 1930.

The Way of a Pilgrim

From the second paragraph of the book: “On the 24^th Sunday after Pentecost I went to church to say my prayers there during the Liturgy. The 1^st Epistle of St. Paul to the Thessalonians was being read, and among other words I heard these __ “Pray without ceasing”.

The book is a story of the Pilgrim’s learning and practicing, and on occasion, teaching to others, a way of praying.

The next usage in my progressive scale and before delving into the Pilgrim’s narrative is what I call “walking around prayer”. Have you ever noticed how when the mind seemingly has little or nothing to maintain its attention it will wander and often to unpleasant thoughts, negative or useless thoughts: ‘what did that co-worker mean by that remark’, ‘why didn’t the QB make the pass to the tight end’… then there are the terrible thoughts of worry and concern, hatred and resentment and so on… but it has captured your thoughts. Rather than let the mind run free form, free associate, the idea is to focus it on the Jesus Prayer. Take a walk and say the Jesus Prayer for 20 minutes. There is sanity!

At this point, if you are attempting the practice, I would say these two forms are, in themselves, in every way complete. They are totally efficacious. The fact that the prayer can be used in more advanced forms of meditation, and more serious disciplines of prayer and more strenuous methods of prayer must not be taken to indicate that the above two practices are in any way second rate. Praying that way, you are in touch with the ruling power of the Universe, make no mistake. It is that real and that powerful.

I do not want to depart from this basic foundation too soon, but I am now anxious to send you something. I am not going into ‘deep dive’ in this paper. But I will discuss it (them) in a later paper if there is continued interest.

It bears repeating, that the prayer described above is a “perfect prayer”. If the habit can be formed to reach for this prayer first, in moments of indecision, tough situations, bewildering circumstances, or just boredom, fright, the dentist chair, the MRI machine, the bedside of the sick. Often, we are prompted by some vague feeling of need and cannot identify what the cause is. It is the yearning of the human heart toward his creator. If the habit is formed to respond with the Jesus prayer, all is won. Nothing more is required. The walking around application, the emergency respond, will begin to form this habit. It becomes part of your habitual thinking. It forms itself in your bodily rhythms, heartbeat, breath, footstep. It becomes a natural companion. You recognize its action by a sense of not being alone. Something, that Holy Thing, does hear, does listen.

A few remarks on sources and then I am out

Mentioned above “The Way of a Pilgrim” is the first and foremost source. He describes a way of achieving the habit and in fact describes a whole way of sanctity achieved through the disciplines of the prayer. I have not yet mentioned any disciplines. Ascetic and monastic discipline does not come easily to modern man. But its tools are useful to modern man; my theory is that they exist not for the monks and the ascetics, but exactly to provide the common man, the layman with the essentials on the spiritual path. The monks have to develop the praxis and it is entrusted to them; but it is then passed on to us, to the flock.

The Philokalia is referred to in the Way of a pilgrim. There are two editions that are helpful. Bear in mind if you take these up, that this is the text of ascetics. I have never been able to read the entire work. “The Philokalia” is a collection of writings of the Fathers from the earliest times after the Declaration of Constantine the Great. It shows a way to awaken attention and consciousness, and to develop them…”

“The Philokalia is a collection of texts written between the fourth and fifteenth centuries by spiritual masters of the Orthodox Christian tradition.”

__ from the introductions to the Translations of the texts.

Of the translators I would consider E. Kadloubovsky, G.E.H. Palmer, and Kallistos Ware utterly reliable.

Writings from the Philokalia on the Prayer of the Heart

 

 

Early Fathers from the Philokalia

More on texts and sources in later papers if interest continues.

Finally, I will leave you with a quotation from Martin Buber who is quoting the Baal Shem Tov (true keeper of the Holy Name) deep in the Jewish traditions:

The Busy Man’s Prayer:

The Baal Shem said:

“Imagine a man whose business hounds him through many streets and across the market-place the livelong day. He almost forgets that there is a Maker of the world. Only when the time for the Afternoon Prayer comes, does he remember: ‘I must pray.’ And then, from the bottom of his heart, he heaves a sigh of regret that he has spent his day on vain and idle matters, and he runs into a by-street and stands there, and prays: God holds him dear, very dear and his prayer pierces the firmament.”

May God so hold you dear!