This is a very ancient prayer
'Lord Jesus Christ
Son of God
Have mercy on me, a sinner'.
In the book ‘Praying The Jesus Prayer Together’ by Brother Ramon and Bishop Simon Barrington-Ward (Bible Reading Fellowship: ISBN 1 S4101 147 9), Brother Ramon writes (p 111)
‘The cosmic nature of the prayer means that the believer lives as a human being in solidarity with all other human beings, and with the animal creation, together with the whole created order (the cosmos)’
and earlier in the same book, Bishop Simon writes (p42)
‘ At the heart of the creation, there must be a breaking and a re-making’
which is, indeed, the order and rhythm of the whole universe as we, at the beginning of the 21st century perceive it. Thus, whilst the prayer comes from antiquity, I feel, it entirely resonates with the themes of this blog or, far more correctly, the blog resonates with the prayer!
The intention, then, of this post and its accompanying video sequence is to borrow from these ideas to give a sense of the ancient and Orthodox-treasured prayer belonging to all Christians and spiritual seekers in the 21st century just as it has belonged for at least the previous millennium in the places it was nurtured.
Whilst this short post cannot possibly achieve that, there is more information in Bishop Simon’s / Brother Ramon's book. There is also an excellent short introductory article to the prayer by the late Metropolitan Anthony Bloom which is still to be found at archangelsbooks.com/articles/spirituality/JesusPrayer_Bloom.asp and in a host of articles on the web accessible just by searching for the 'Jesus Prayer'.
A point frequently made in articles about the prayer and throughout the book is that The Jesus Prayer -
Lord Jesus Christ
Son of God
Have mercy on me, a sinner
Is a prayer that supremely, above most other prayers, can help Christians to embrace St Paul’s difficult injunction to ‘Pray without ceasing’ (1 Thessalonians 5.17)
I therefore offer this introduction, or possibly re-introduction, to the prayer with the following ideas for consideration
The Words
The Jesus Prayer is, perhaps, after The Lord's Prayer, one of the most helpful prayers of the Christian faith.It is a prayer for all time and for all people the world over. The rendering of it in a multiplicity of languages in the accompanying video presentation is a reminder of this. (And I apolgise in advance if some of the texts are not perfectly rendered or accented: please Email me at the address shown below if this is the case and in due course I will amend the presentation)
The Images (which are in the main imagined)
These reflect in a very direct way the belief that Jesus Christ, the incarnate Son of God was and is at the heart of the creation of the universe, recognized by St Paul in Colossians Chapter 1 v 16, which text forms one of the basic ‘aims’ of this blogsite.
If you are minded to explore The Jesus Prayer further, my prayer for you is that you will be attracted to find out more about its origins, its nature and its purpose. This is only a very simple approach to the prayer. Its riches go far deeper and can transform and enrich the prayer lives of regularly practicing Christians, struggling Christians and seekers. May I encourage you to ‘dig deeper’
Trevor Thorn
The ten minute Jesus Prayer sequence runs from here with ten seconds for each language: (click the darker bar at the top of this image to be able to vary the screen size)
The ten minute Jesus Prayer sequence runs from here with ten seconds for each language: (click the darker bar at the top of this image to be able to vary the screen size)
