The Jesus Prayer, ‘Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me, a
sinner’ is one of the most ancient recorded prayers and is used today by
countless Christians, especially by members of the Orthodox (Eastern) churches,
who say the prayer over and over as a preparation for a time of personal
prayer. Some use a knotted prayer rope similarly to rosary beads, the knots
making for a discipline in the number of times the prayer is said. There is
more about the practice of using the Jesus Prayer on this blog through the link
at the bottom of this entry.
Self-evidently,
the prayer has a confessional element. For me, and I guess for some others too,
confession is, perhaps, the most difficult part of our personal prayer life:
there is a defence mechanism that switches in all too readily which tries to
persuade us we don’t have much to confess! Or, perhaps more dangerously, that
there are a lot of people who behave far more badly than us – so why should we
‘beat ourselves up’ with remorse for a comparatively ‘low-sin’ lifestyle?
A
regular practice of honest self-examination should quickly help us to see that
every one of us (YES –everyone!)
has several patterns of thought, or habits, or conscious actions that we try
hard to hide from others – and from God. But how to identify these?
I
offer here a way of using the Jesus Prayer to help with self examination. Have
a look at the pattern of the prayer below and see if that can help. It is in
alphabetical form. Not every letter will be relevant to you – but it would be
surprising if some weren’t! If you
can truly and honestly get from A to Z without any being relevant, you might
want to look hard at the stanzas and then consider whether you can write one or
more stanzas of your own to incorporate your own particular shortcomings!
More
likely, there may be three, four, five, or more that you can identify; so try
repeating these over and again as your personal confessional. OR, there may be
just one, either in the suggested paragraphs or on your heart that you want to
make into a single repeated petition -because you know that, of all things,
keeps you from a joyful and fruitful relationship with God.
The Jesus Prayer: as an A-Z of confession
Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me
an arrogant/
avaricious sinner
a blaspheming/
bullying sinner
a covetous/ cheating/ corrupting/ cruel sinner
a derisive sinner
an envious/
excluding sinner
Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me
a faithless/
forbidding sinner
a greedy/
grasping / gossiping sinner
a hypocritical/hate-filled
sinner
an insensitive/
intolerant sinner
a jealous sinner
Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me
a kill-joy
sinner
a lustful sinner
a merciless sinner
a nasty sinner
an oppressive/opportunistic
sinner
Lord Jesus
Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me
a profane/ proud/ promiscuous/ predatory
sinner
a querulous/quiescent
sinner
a revengeful
sinner
a slothful/ spiteful/ sycophantic sinner
a triumphalist
sinner
Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me
an uncompromising
sinner
a vexatious/
vicious sinner
a warring/
wasteful/ wrathful sinner
a xenophobic
sinner
a yobbish
sinner
Lord Jesus
Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me
a zeal-obsessed sinner
Cross and simple prayer rope
More information about the Jesus Prayer can be found on this blog at Jesus Prayer Illustrated
To find other poems, meditations and hymns for LENT, HOLY WEEK and EASTER, Click Here
