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The Jesus Prayer, also known as The Prayer, is a short formulaic prayer. It is most common in Eastern Christianity and Catholicism. There are multiple versions of this prayer, however the most widely used version is as follows:
with the Jesus Prayer in Romanian: Doamne Iisuse Hristoase, Fiul lui Dumnezeu, miluieşte-mă pe mine păcătosul ("Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me, a sinner")]]It is often repeated continually as a part of personal ascetic practice, its use being an integral part of the Hermitic tradition of prayer known as hesychasm. The prayer is particularly important to the spiritual fathers of this tradition, such as in the Philokalia, as a method of cleaning and opening up the mind and after this the heart (kardia), brought about first by the Prayer of the Mind, or more precisely the Noetic Prayer (Νοερά Προσευχή; Noerá Proseyxí), and after this the Prayer of the Heart (Καρδιακή Προσευχή; Kardiakí Proseyxí). The Prayer of the Heart is considered to be the "Unceasing Prayer" that the Apostle Paul advocates in the New Testament. Theophan the Recluse regarded the Jesus Prayer stronger than all other prayers by virtue of the power of the Holy Name of Jesus.
Though identified more closely with Eastern Christianity, the prayer is found in Western Christianity in the Catechism of the Catholic Church. It is also used in conjunction with the innovation of Anglican prayer beads. The prayer has been widely taught and discussed throughout the history of the Eastern Catholic Church and Eastern Orthodox Church. The ancient and original form did not include the words "a sinner", which were added later. On the Prayer of Jesus by Ignatius Brianchaninov, Kallistos Ware 2006 pages xxiii–xxiv The Eastern Orthodox theology of the Jesus Prayer as enunciated in the 14th century by Gregory Palamas was generally rejected by Latin Church theologians until the 20th century. Pope John Paul II called Gregory Palamas a saint, a great writer, and an authority on theology. He also spoke with appreciation of hesychasm as "that deep union of grace which Eastern theology likes to describe with the particularly powerful term theosis, 'divinization, and likened the meditative quality of the Jesus Prayer to that of the Catholic rosary.
A formula similar to the standard form of the Jesus Prayer is found in a letter attributed to John Chrysostom, who died in AD 407. This "Letter to an Abbot" speaks of "Lord Jesus Christ, son of God, have mercy" and "Lord Jesus Christ, son of God, have mercy on us" being used as ceaseless prayer. Epistula ad abbatem, p. 5 Ammonas of Egypt advised another monk to "always keep in your heart the words of the Publican" ( God, be merciful to me a sinner, ), while Macarius of Egypt taught Evagrius Ponticus to say with each breath "Lord Jesus, have mercy on me. I bless you, my Lord Jesus", or when he is distressed, "My Lord Jesus, help me". (2011). 9780881418958 ISBN 9780881418958
Early forms of the Jesus prayer are also mentioned in the context of Gazan monasticism; Saints Barsanuphius and John the Prophet recommended several formulae, including "Lord Jesus Christ, have mercy on me". Their chief disciple, Dorotheus of Gaza, later taught his disciple Dositheus to preserve the "remembrance of God" by saying continuously "Lord Jesus Christ, have mercy on me" and then at intervals "Son of God, help me".
What may be the earliest explicit reference to the Jesus Prayer in a form that is similar to that used today is in Discourse on Abba Philimon from the Philokalia. Philimon lived around AD 600. The version cited by Philimon is "Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy upon me", which is apparently the earliest source to cite this standard version. While the prayer itself was in use by that time, John S. Romanides writes that "We are still searching the Fathers for the term 'Jesus prayer'."
A similar idea is recommended in the Ladder of Divine Ascent of John Climacus (circa 523–606), who recommends the regular practice of a monologistos, or one-worded "Jesus Prayer". The use of the Jesus Prayer according to the tradition of the Philokalia is the subject of the 19th century anonymous Russian spiritual classic The Way of a Pilgrim, also in the original form, without the addition of the words "a sinner".
For the Eastern Orthodox the knowledge or noesis]] of the uncreated energies is usually linked to apophatism. Fr. Dumitru Stăniloae, Ascetica şi mistica Biserici Ortodoxe ( Ascetics and Mystics of the Eastern Orthodox Church), Institutul Biblic şi de Misiune al BOR (Romanian Orthodox Church Publishing House), 2002, p. 268, .Palmer, G. E. H., The Philokalia, Vol. 4 ; Sherrard, Philip; Ware, Kallistos, On the Inner Nature of Things and on the Purification of the Intellect: One Hundred Texts Nikitas Stithatos
As stated at the local Council of Constantinople in 1157, Christ brought his redemptive sacrifice not to the Father alone, but to the Trinity as a whole. In the Eastern Orthodox theology redemption is not seen as ransom. It is the reconciliation of God with man, the manifestation of God's love for humanity. Thus, it is not the anger of God the Father but His love that lies behind the sacrificial death of his son on the cross.
The redemption of man is not considered to have taken place only in the past, but continues to this day through theosis. The initiative belongs to God, but presupposes man's active acceptance (not an action only, but an attitude), which is a way of perpetually receiving God.
"Because prayer is a living reality, a deeply personal encounter with the living God, it is not to be confined to any given classification or rigid analysis", says the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of America. As general guidelines for the practitioner, different number of levels (3, 7 or 9) in the practice of the prayer are distinguished by Orthodox fathers. They are to be seen as being purely informative, because the practice of the Prayer of the Heart is learned under personal spiritual guidance in Eastern Orthodoxy which emphasizes the perils of temptations when it is done on one's own. Thus, Theophan the Recluse, a 19th-century Russian spiritual writer, talks about three stages:
Once this is achieved the Jesus Prayer is said to become "self-active" (αυτενεργούμενη). It is repeated automatically and unconsciously by the mind, becoming an internal habit like a (beneficial) earworm. Body, through the uttering of the prayer, mind, through the mental repetition of the prayer, are thus unified with "the heart" (spirit) and the prayer becomes constant, ceaselessly "playing" in the background of the mind, like a background music, without hindering the normal everyday activities of the person.
Others, like Father Archimandrite Ilie Cleopa, one of the most representative spiritual fathers of contemporary Romanian Orthodox monastic spirituality, talk about nine levels. They are the same path to theosis, more slenderly differentiated: Ilie Cleopa in Dicţionarul teologilor români ( Dictionary of Romanian Theologians), electronic version, Univers Enciclopedic Ed., Bucharest, 1996.
Similarly to the flexibility of the practice of the Jesus Prayer, there is no imposed standardization of its form. The prayer can be from as short as "Lord, have mercy" (Kyrie eleison), "Have mercy on me" ("Have mercy upon us"), or even "Jesus", to its longer most common form. It can also contain a call to the Theotokos (Virgin Mary), or to the saints. The single essential and invariable element is Jesus' name. Puterea Numelui sau despre Rugăciunea lui Iisus ( The Power of the Name. The Jesus Prayer in Orthodox Spirituality) in Kallistos Ware, Rugăciune şi tăcere în spiritualitatea ortodoxă ( Prayer and silence in the Orthodox spirituality), translation from English language, Christiana Ed., Bucharest, 2003, pp. 23, 26, .
Part four of the Catechism of the Catholic Church, which is dedicated to Christian prayer, devotes paragraphs 2665 to 2669 to prayer to Jesus.
Similar methods of prayer in use in the Catholic Church are recitation, as recommended by John Cassian, of "O God, come to my assistance; O Lord, make haste to help me" or other verses of Scripture; repetition of a single monosyllabic word, as suggested by the Cloud of Unknowing; the method used in Centering Prayer; the method used by The World Community for Christian Meditation, based on the Aramaic invocation Maranatha; the use of Lectio Divina; etc. Thomas Keating, Centering Prayer and the Christian Contemplative Tradition (Monastic Interreligious Dialogue, Bulletin 40, January 1991)
The Catechism of the Catholic Church says:
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