On Practicing the Jesus Prayer
by St. Ignaty 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 praying. 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 and
laziness. 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. Reprinted
with permission.
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