"My Personal Prayer Rope"

Prayer is for me a direct link to my Creator. It is a gateway into another world. A world
where the external senses play a small part, if any at all. Through prayer, I am transformed out of this material world
and enter the spiritual where there is ceaseless joy and eternal blessedness. In this realm, I see myself for who I
really am. Naked I lay with no justifications for my sins, nor place to hide. There, my soul is seen for how it
truly is. And in this condition, I prostrate myself before my Creator and ceaselessly cry out to Him: "Lord Jesus
Christ, Son of God, Have Mercy on Me a Sinner."
On Practicing the Jesus Prayer
by
St. Ignatius (Brianchaninov)
"Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me, a sinner."
THE CORRECT PRACTICE of the Jesus Prayer proceeds naturally from correct
notions about God, about the most holy name of the Lord Jesus, and about man's relationship to God.
God is an infinitely great and all-perfect being. God is the Creator
and Renewer of men, Sovereign Master over men, angels, demons and all created things, both visible and invisible. Such a notion
of God teaches us that we ought to stand prayerfully before Him in deepest reverence and in great fear and dread, directing
toward Him all our attention, concentrating in our attention all the powers of the reason, heart, and soul, and rejecting
distractions and vain imaginings, whereby we diminish alertness and reverence, and violate the correct manner of standing
before God, as required by His majesty (John 4:23-24; Matt. 22:37; Mark 12:29-30; Luke 10:27). St. Isaac the Syrian put it
marvelously: "When you turn to God in prayer, be in your thoughts as an ant, as a serpent of the earth, like a worm, like
a stuttering child. Do not speak to Him something philosophical or high-sounding, but approach Him with a child's attitude"
(Homily 49). Those who have acquired genuine prayer experience an ineffable poverty of the spirit when they stand before the
Lord, glorify and praise Him, confess to Him, or present to Him their entreaties. They feel as if they had turned to nothing,
as if they did not exist. That is natural. For when he who is in prayer experiences the fullness of the divine presence, of
Life Itself, of Life abundant and unfathomable, then his own life strikes him as a tiny drop in comparison to the boundless
ocean. That is what the righteous and long-suffering Job felt as he attained the height of spiritual perfection. He felt himself
to be dust and ashes; he felt that he was melting and vanishing as does snow when struck by the sun's burning rays (Job 42:6).
The
name of our Lord Jesus Christ is a divine name. The power and effect of that name are divine, omnipotent and salvific, and
transcend our ability to comprehend it. With faith therefore, with confidence and sincerity, and with great piety and fear
ought we to proceed to the doing of the great work which God has entrusted to us: to train ourselves in prayer by using the
name of our Lord Jesus Christ. "The incessant invocation of God's name," says Barsanuphius the Great, "is a medicine which
mortifies not just the passions, but even their influence. Just as the physician puts medications or dressings on a wound
that it might be healed, without the patient even knowing the manner of their operation, so also the name of God, when we
invoke it, mortifies all passions, though we do not know how that happens" (421st Answer).
Our ordinary condition,
the condition of all mankind, is one of fallenness, of spiritual deception, of perdition. Apprehending—and to the degree
that we apprehend, experiencing—that condition, let us cry out from it in prayer, let us cry in spiritual humility,
let us cry with wails and sighs, let us cry for clemency! Let us turn away from all spiritual gratifications, let us renounce
all lofty states of prayer of which we are unworthy and incapable! It is impossible "to sing the Lord's song in a strange
land" (Ps. 136:5), in a heart held captive by passions. Should we hear an invitation to sing, we can know surely that it emanates
"from them that have taken us captive" (Ps. 136:3). "By the waters of Babylon" tears alone are possible and necessary (Ps.
136:1).
This is the general rule for practicing the Jesus Prayer, derived from the Sacred Scriptures and the works
of the Holy Fathers, and from certain conversations with genuine men of prayer. Of the particular rules, especially for novices,
I deem the following worthy of mention.
St. John of the Ladder counsels that the mind should be locked into the words
of the prayer and should be forced back each time it departs from it (Step XXVIII, ch. 17). Such a mechanism of prayer is
remarkably helpful and suitable. When the mind, in its own manner, acquires attentiveness, then the heart will join it with
its own offering—compunction. The heart will empathize with the mind by means of compunction, and the prayer will be
said by the mind and heart together. The words of the prayer ought to be said without the feast hurry. even lingering, so
that the mind can lock itself into each word. St. John of the Ladder consoles and instructs the coenobitic brethren who busy
themselves about monastic obediences and encourages them thus to persevere in prayerful asceticism: "From those monks who
are engaged in performing obediences," he writes, "God does not expect a pure and undistracted prayer. Despair not should
inattention come over you! Be of cheerful spirit and constantly compel your mind to return to itself! For the angels alone
are not subject to any distraction" (Step IV, ch. 93). "Being enslaved by passions, let us persevere in praying to the Lord:
for all those who have reached the state of passionlessness did so with the help of such indomitable prayer. If, therefore,
you tirelessly train your mind never to stray from the words of the prayer, it will be there even at mealtime. A great champion
of perfect prayer has said: 'I had rather speak five words with my understanding . . . than ten thousand words in an unknown
tongue' (I Cor. 14:19). Such prayer," that is, the grace-given prayer of the mind in the heart, which shuns imaginings,
"is not characteristic of children; wherefore we who are like children, being concerned with the perfection of our prayer,"
that is, the attentiveness which is acquired by locking the mind into the words of the prayer, "must pray a great deal. Quantity
is the cause of quality. The Lord gives pure prayer to him who, eschewing laziness, prays much and regularly in his own manner,
even if it is marred by inattention" (The Ladder, Step XXVI11, ch. 21).
Novices need more time in order to train themselves
in prayer. It is impossible to reach this supreme virtue shortly after entering the monastery or following the first few steps
in asceticism. Asceticism needs both time and gradual progress, so that the ascetic can mature for prayer in every respect.
In order that a flower might bloom or the fruit grow on a tree, the tree must first be planted and left to develop; thus also
does prayer grow out of the soil of other virtues and nowhere else. The monk will not quickly gain mastery of his mind, nor
will he in a short time accustom it to abide in the words of the prayer as if enclosed in a prison. Pulled hither and thither
by its acquired predilections, impressions, memories and worries, the novice's mind constantly breaks its salvific chains
and strays from the narrow to the wide path. It prefers to wander freely, to stroll in the regions of falsehood in association
with the fallen spirits, to stray aimlessly and mindlessly over great expanses, though this be damaging to him and cause him
great loss. The passions, those moral infirmities of human nature, are the principal cause of inattentiveness and absentmindedness
in prayer. The more they are weakened in a man, the less is he distracted in spirit when graying. The passions are brought
under control and mortified little by little by means of tn~e obedience, as well as by self-reproach and humility—these
are the virtues upon which successful prayer is built. Concentration, which is accessible to man, is granted by God in good
time to every struggler in piety and asceticism who by persistence and ardor proves the sincerity of his desire to acquire
prayer.
The Russian hieromonk Dorotheus, a great instructor in spiritual asceticism, who was in this respect very much
like St. Isaac the Syrian, counsels those who are learning the Jesus Prayer to recite it aloud at first. The vocal prayer,
he says, will of itself turn into the mental.
"Mental prayer," he continues, "is the result of much vocal prayer, and
mental prayer leads to the prayer of the heart. The Jesus Prayer should not be said in a loud voice but quietly, just audibly
enough that you can hear yourself.,' It is particularly beneficial to practice the Jesus Prayer aloud when assailed by distraction,
grief, spiritual despondency andlaziness. The vocal Jesus Prayer gradually awakens the soul from the deep moral slumber into
which grief and spiritual despair are wont to thrust it. It is also particularly beneficial to practice the Jesus Prayer aloud
when attacked by images, appetites of the flesh, and anger; when their influence causes the blood to boil. It should be practiced
when peace and tranquillity vanish from the heart, and the mind hesitates, becomes weak, and—so to speak—goes
into upheaval because of the multitude of unnecessary thoughts and images. The malicious princes of the air, whose presence
is hidden to physical sight but who are felt by the soul through their influences upon it, hearing as they mount their attack
the name of the Lord Jesus—which they dread—will become undecided and confused, and will take fright and withdraw
immediately from the soul. The method of prayer which the hieromonk suggests is very simple and easy. It should be combined
with the method of St. John of the Ladder: the Jesus Prayer should be recited loud enough that you can hear yourself, without
any hurry, and by locking the mind into the words of the prayer. This last, the hieromonk enjoins upon all who pray by Jesus'
name.
The method of prayer propounded by St. John of the Ladder should be adhered to even when one is practicing the
method which was explained by the divine St. Nilus of Sora, in the second homily of his monastic constitution. The divine
Nilus borrowed his method from the Greek Fathers, Symeon the New Theologian and Gregory of Sinai, and simplified it somewhat.
Here is what St. Nilus says: "Experience will soon confirm as correct and very beneficial for mental concentration the recommendation
of these holy fathers regarding restraint in breathing, i.e. that one should not breathe with great frequency." Some, without
understanding this method, exaggerate its importance and restrain their breath beyond reasonable measure, thereby injuring
their lungs and at the same time inflicting harm upon their souls by assenting to such a mistake. All impulsive and extreme
actions are but obstacles to success in prayer, which develops only when nurtured by the tranquil, quiet and pious disposition
of both soul and body. "Whatever is immoderate comes from the demons," says St. Pimen the Great.
The novice who is
studying the Jesus Prayer will advance greatly by observing a daily rule comprising a certain number of full prostrations
and bows from the waist, depending upon the strength of each individual. These are all to be performed without any hurry,
with a repentant feeling in the soul and with the Jesus Prayer on the lips during each prostration. An example of such prayer
may be seen in the "Homily on Faith" by St. Symeon the New Theologian. Describing the daily evening prayers of the blessed
youth George, St. Symeon says: "He imagined that he was standing before the Lord Himself and prostrating himself before His
holy feet, and he tearfully implored the Lord to have mercy upon him. While praying, he stood motionless like a pillar and
bade his feet and the other parts of his body to stay still, especially the eyes, which were restrained from moving curiously
in all directions. He stood with great fear and trepidation and denied himself sleep, despondency and laziness." Twelve prostrations
suffice in the beginning. Depending upon one's strength, ability and circumstances, that number can be constantly increased.
But when the number of prostrations increases, one should be careful to preserve the quality of one's prayer, so that one
not be carried away by a preoccupation with the physical into fruitless, and even harmful, quantity. The bows warm up the
body and somewhat exhaust it, and this condition facilitates attention and compunction. But let us be watchful, very watchful,
lest the state pass into a bodily preoccupation which is foreign to spiritual sentiments and recalls our fallen nature! Quantity,
useful as it is when accompanied by the proper frame of mind and the proper objective, can be just as harmful when it leads
to a preoccupation with the physical. The latter is recognized by its fruits which also distinguish it from spiritual ardor.
The fruits of physical preoccupation are conceit, self-assurance, intellectual arrogance: in a word, pride in its various
forms, all of which are easy prey to spiritual deception. The fruits of spiritual ardor are repentance, humility, weeping
and tears. The rule of prostrations is best observed before going to sleep: then, after the cares of the day have passed,
it can be practiced longer and with greater concentration. But in the morning and during the day it is also useful, especially
for the young' to practice prostrations moderately—from twelve to twenty bows. Prostrations stimulate a prayerful state
of the mind and mortify the body as well as support and strengthen fervor in prayer.
These suggestions are, I believe,
sufficient for the beginner who is eager to acquire the Jesus Prayer. "Prayer," said the divine St. Meletius the Confessor,
"needs no teacher. It requires diligence, effort and personal ardor, and then God will be its teacher." The Holy Fathers,
who have written many works on prayer in order to impart correct notions and faithful guidance to those desiring to practice
it, propose and decree that one must engage in it actively in order to gain experiential knowledge, without which verbal instruction,
though derived from experience, is dead, opaque, incomprehensible and totally inadequate. Conversely, he who is carefully
practicing prayer and who is already advanced in it, should refer often to the writings of the Holy Fathers about prayer in
order to check and properly direct himself, remembering that even the great Paul, though possessing the highest of all testimonies
for his Gospel—that of the Holy Spirit—nevertheless went to Jerusalem where he communicated to the apostles who
had gathered there the Gospel that he preached to the gentiles, "lest by any means," as he said, "I should run, or had run,
in vain " (Gal. 2:2).
Translated by Stephen Karganovic from The Alphabet of
Orthodox Life, Belgrade, 1974. This appeared in Orthodox Life, vol. 28, no. 5, Sept.-Oct. 1978,
pp. 9-14. Republished from Orthodox Information Center
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