ROC -The Jesus Prayer and how to purify ourselves

12 September 2019

With God’s Grace, the mothers’ and children’s group met today again at the Monastery. The topic of discussion was “The Jesus Prayer and how to purify ourselves”. Below are some thoughts on this topic.

A mother once said: “What is our goal as parents? To raise our children to become educated, scientists, doctors, lawyers, etc? No. Our goal as parents is to raise our children to have communion with God.” This is taught primarily by example. Children tend to mimic the parents. If parents have communion with God, then that will inspire the children to strive to achieve communion with God.

How do we achieve communion with God? Through prayer. From the very early years of Christianity, the Fathers of the Church emphasised the need to pray unceasingly. Pray to our Lord Jesus Christ, pray with the Jesus Prayer: “Lord Jesus Christ have mercy on me a sinner.” (Shorter versions: “Lord Jesus Christ have mercy on me.” And “Lord have mercy”). This prayer is not only for monastics. It is for everyone. Monastics and lay people. Young and old. It is often done with a prayer rope (komboshoini).

Once we start praying the Jesus Prayer, we need a spiritual father, who will guide us on the prayer and will give us a simple prayer rule. When to do it, how often and how. Having a spiritual father to guide us on our spiritual life teaches us humility and obedience, which in turn invite God’s Grace into our lives.

The aim of the Jesus Prayer is to focus on God and communicate with Him. And as we practise it, in time, with patience, humility and obedience, it becomes an intrinsic part of us. Because our soul is inclined to pray, as we are all made in the Image and Likeness of God.

Once, a Professor visited Elder Ephraim of Katounakia in Mt Athos, telling him: “We live in the world. We don’t have time to pray as you do here.” The Elder replied: “Can you say ‘Lord Jesus Christ have mercy on me’ when you walk from your bed to the bathroom in the morning, and when you brush your teeth?” The Professor said yes I can, that’s easy. The Elder then said “Can you say the prayer when you are in the bus on your way to work?”. He replied yes I can. “Then if you put together all these times that you say the prayer during the day, it may be more than what we pray over here” said the Elder.

Another contemporary Elder of our Church, Elder Aimilianos said that if we don’t have time to pray, we should ask God for it. We shouldn’t lose the desire to pray. We shouldn’t fall into despair. But be positive and keep trying. And never think that prayer is an obligation. Rather, it’s an internal need.

The Jesus Prayer, when done properly and with the guidance of the spiritual father, can lead to our purification when it’s done together with nipsis. This is a Greek word deriving from the Greek “nifo”, which means to abstain from wine, and in the spiritual world it means to abstain from everything that takes me away from God. We must empty our mind from everything and then occupy it with something else in order to be able to attain catharsis: with the words of the Jesus prayer. When a thought comes to us, we ignore it, and we keep on praying Lord Jesus Christ have mercy on me.

The Fathers of the Church say that we should never trust our thoughts and our judgement. Because one time a thought might be good, but ten times it might be bad. For example, a thought may come to me saying “it is very hard to raise my children”. If I start a dialogue with this thought, I will be negatively affected by it. The solution is not to have an argument with the thought. Just ignore it.

Elder Aimilianos spoke about nipsis. Let us say you have a store room full of stuff. Old things you don’t need anymore. You keep putting things in there and at the end you won’t be able to get into the room because it’s full with things. That’s what happens with our minds. We fill them with so many things, many of which are not even important, and then we can’t pray. Nipsis helps us to clean this room so that God’s Grace can enter.

Prayer is also thanking God for everything, saying “Glory to God” for every thing that happens in our life. Like St John the Chrysostom who was glorifying God for everything, even for his exile. St Paisios once said that if the “Lord have mercy” is worth 10 coins, the “Glory to God” is worth 1000 coins. In spiritual terms.

Often, it is easier to concentrate on prayer when we pray for someone else. We can say the name of the person we are praying for, and then say the Jesus Prayer with the prayer rope for this person. And we should always remember that our prayers never go to waist. God always listens. Sometimes the answer comes later on or it is different to what we are asking, because God knows when and what we truly need for our salvation and for the salvation of those around us.

The Fathers of the Church say that at the very beginning praying the Jesus Prayer is not necessarily about quality, but more so about quantity. Even if thoughts are coming, keep returning to the prayer, never give up, and do not get distressed by this. The more we persist the more we can focus. And the achievement is amazing: Communion with God!

More information on the Jesus Prayer can also be found in this Orthodox prayer app:

Android:

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.orthodoxprayersandservices&hl=en

Apple:

https://apps.apple.com/us/app/orthodox-prayers/id1000262140

This link with some words from Elder Aimiliano (with English subtitles) also talks about the Jesus Prayer:

https://www.facebook.com/otElders/videos/390653778320163/

We would like to thank Anastasiya Dudar from our group who today was kind enough to bring her violin and play for us. It was truly mesmerising and we really enjoyed it!