—If I have understood correctly, salvation is attained mostly through asceticism, watchfulness[1] and the Jesus prayer. Allow me however a question. I make it not because I agree with it but because I hear many objections about the Jesus prayer.
They say that the “Jesus prayer” and the way it is practised is a Christian yoga and is connected with prototypes of eastern religions. What do you have to say about this?
—It seems that those who say all this have complete ignorance of the life in grace of our Church, since we obtain the divine grace through the Jesus prayer. They have not experienced it, that is why they do not know it, yet they should never accuse those who have the experience. They even blaspheme against the Holy Fathers. Many of the Fathers fought for the Jesus prayer and they spoke strongly about its value. What then? Did they fall by deceit? Did St. Gregory Palamas fall by deceit? They even have ignorance of the Holy Bible. The blind men said the words: “Son of David have mercy on us”[2], which means “Jesus have mercy on us”, and they found their sight; the lepers said it and they were cured from their leprosy[3], etc. The prayer “Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me”, consists of two basic points: The dogmatic one—acknowledgement of the Divinity of Christ—and the suppliant one—supplication for our salvation. That is, the confession of faith in Christ is connected with the confession of our inability to be saved of our own accord. This says everything, and the whole struggle of the Christian is based on these two points: Faith in Christ and awareness of our sinfulness. The “Jesus prayer”, therefore, expresses all the effort of the faithful in a few words and summurises all the dogmatic teaching of our Orthodox Church.
We acquire the double knowledge through the Jesus prayer. St. Maximos points out that the passion of pride consists of two ignorances: the ignorance of the divine power and the ignorance of human weakness. And this double ignorance creates a “confused mind”. Proud, therefore, is the man of ignorance, whereas, on the contrary, humble is the man of double knowledge. The latter knows his own weakness and the power of Christ. So, we acknowledge and confess the power of Christ (Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God) as well as our own weakness (have mercy on me) through the Jesus prayer. We acquire in this way the blessed state of humility. Where there is humility there also, is the grace of Christ, and this grace is the Kingdom of Heaven. Can you see then the worth of the Jesus prayer? Can you see that we can obtain the Kingdom of God by its power?
—I know, Gerondas, that a prerequisite of the Orthodox teaching is never to separate Christ from the other persons of the most Holy Trinity. For this reason we often invoke and glorify all the Holy Trinity in all the prayers which are said aloud by the priest as well as in the explanatory endings of the prayers during the Divine Liturgy: “For unto Thee are due all glory, honour and worship, unto the Father and unto the Son, and unto the Holy Spirit now and forever…”, “the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ and the love of God the Father and the communion of the Holy Spirit be with you all” etc. I wonder whether the “Jesus prayer”, which refers only to the second Person of the most Holy Trinity, deviates from this correct teaching.
—Definitely not, and I will explain it to you more. The “prayer” is called the “Jesus prayer” but is founded on a Trinitarian basis. Besides, Christ, “being one of the Holy Trinity”, never exists without the Father and the Holy Spirit and makes, together with the other Persons, “a Trinity of one substance and undivided”. Christology is tightly connected with Triadology. Let me come back to the matter of the “Jesus prayer”. The heavenly Father ordered Joseph through the angel to call Christ Jesus: “… and you shall call his name Jesus…”[4]. Joseph obeying the Father called the son of the Virgin Jesus. Evenmore, according to the Holy Spirit which illumined the Apostle Paul, “no one can say ‘Jesus is Lord’ except by the Holy Spirit”[5]. By saying, therefore, the prayer “Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me”, we acknowledge the Father and give obedience to Him. Moreover we feel the energy of and the communion with the Holy Spirit. The Fathers illumined by the Holy Spirit told us that the “Father through the Son in the Holy Spirit makes everything”. The entire Holy Trinity created the world and made man and again the entire Holy Trinity recreated man and the world. “The Father was well pleased, the Word became flesh”. And He “became flesh” by the Holy Spirit. That is to say, the incarnation of Christ was made “by the good will of the Father and the cooperation of the Holy Spirit”. For this reason we say that the salvation of man and the acquisition of the divine gifts is a common act of the Holy Trinity. I will mention two characteristic teachings of the Holy Fathers.
Saint Symeon the New Theologian writes that the Son and Word of God is the door of salvation according to His declaration: “I am the door; if anyone enters by me, he will be saved, and will go in and out and find pasture”[6]. If Christ is the door, the Father is the house. “In my Father’s house are many rooms”[7]. So we enter into the Father through Christ. And in order to open the door (Christ) we need the key, which is the Holy Spirit. For we know the truth, which is Christ, through the energy of the Holy Spirit. The Father sent His Son to the world, the Son and Word of God reveals the Father, and the Holy Spirit, which proceeds from the Father and is sent through the Son, forms Christ in our hearts! We know, therefore, the Father “through the Son in the Holy Spirit”.
St. Maximos also speaks often in his works about the mystical incarnations of the Word. He writes that, as the words of the law and of the Prophets were the forerunners of the presence of the Word in flesh, in the same way the Son and Word of God, being incarnate, became the forerunner of “his spiritual presence”, “by instructing the souls through his own words so that they will be able to accept His divine presence”. In other words Christ must be incarnate within us because we shall not be able to see His glory in Heaven otherwise. The incarnation of Christ within us, however, is done by the good will of the Father and the cooperation of the Holy Spirit. Can you see how the common action of the Holy Trinity is expressed, how we acknowledge and confess the great Mystery that the Lord revealed through His incarnation? He who then denies and does not acknowledge the Jesus prayer makes a big mistake. He denies the Holy Trinity. He does not obey the Father and does not accept the illumination of the Holy Spirit, therefore, he does not have real communion with Christ. So, he must be in doubt as to whether he is a Christian or not.
—I would also, Gerondas, like you to explain to me and expand more on what I was saying earlier, on the differences between the Jesus prayer and yoga; for you to show me its superiority over the other eastern religions, since you offer great experience.
—The matter is very big, father, and one could say many things about it. Some of them are obvious in what I said before:
Firstly: In the Jesus prayer faith in God, Who created the world and Who governs it and loves it, is expressed strongly. He is an affectionate Father who cares about saving His creature. Salvation is attained “in God”. For this reason when we pray we implore Him saying: “have mercy on me”. Selfredemption and self-divinization is far from the athlete of noetic prayer[8], because this is the sin of Adam, the sin of the Fall. He wanted to become God outside God’s plan for him. Salvation is not attained “through ourselves and does not emanate from ourselves”, as the human philosophical systems claim, but is attained “in God”.
Secondly: We do not fight to meet an impersonal God through the “Jesus prayer”. We do not seek our elevation to “absolute nothingness”. Our prayer focuses on the personal God, the God-man Jesus, for this reason we say “Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God”. The divine and human nature meet in Christ, that is the entire God-Logos and the entire man, “all the perfection of divinity dwells in him in the flesh”[9]. Therefore, anthropology and soteriology (teaching about man and his salvation) in Orthodox monasticism are closely connected with Christology. We love Christ and keep His commandments. We give great importance to this matter. We insist on the keeping of the commandments of Christ. He Himself said: “If you love me, you will keep my commandments”[10]. By loving Christ and by keeping his commandments we are united with the entire Holy Trinity.
Thirdly: We do not reach a state of pride through ceaseless prayer. The philosophical systems you mentioned before are possessed by pride. We acquire the blessed state of humility through the Jesus prayer. We say “have mercy on me” and we consider ourselves the worst of all. We despise none of our brothers. The athlete of the Jesus prayer is a stranger to every sort of pride. And whoever has got pride is foolish.
Fourthly: Salvation, as we said before, is not an abstract state, but union with God the Holy Trinity in the person of our Lord Jesus Christ. This union however does not efface the human factor—we are not assimilated, since we are ourselves also persons.
Fifthly: As prayer develops we acquire the ability to discern error. We can see and distinguish the movements of the devil but at the same time the energies of Christ. We recognise the deceit of the devil who, many times, changes his form even into an angel of light. We distinguish, therefore, good from evil, the uncreated from the created.
Sixthly: The struggle for the “Jesus prayer” is connected with the cleansing of soul and body from the corrupting effect of passions. We do not aim at reaching the Stoic apathy but we aim at reaching the dynamic state of dispassion[11], which means that we do not aim at the mortification of passions but at their transformation. Without dispassion one cannot love God and be saved, but because this love has been corrupted and distorted we aim at its transformation. We fight to transform the distorted states that the devil created in us. We cannot be saved without this personal struggle which is achieved with the help of the grace of Christ. According to St. Maximos, “Spiritual Knowledge without practical life (purification of heart) is theology of the demons”.
Sevently: We do not try to guide the nous—intellect—to absolute nothingness through the “Jesus prayer”, but to turn it to the heart and bring the grace of God into the soul, from where it will spread to the body also. “The kingdom of God is within us”[12]. According to the teaching of our Church, it is our way of thinking according to the flesh which is bad and not our body. We must not try to get rid of “the garment of the soul”, as the philosophical systems claim, but we must try to save it. Besides, salvation means redemption of the whole of man (of the soul and body). We do not aim, therefore, at the destruction of the body, but we fight the worship of it. Neither do we want the destruction of life. We do not aim to reach a point where we do not desire life so that suffering ceases. We practise the Jesus prayer because we thirst for life and we want to live with God eternally.
Eighthly: We are not indifferent to the world around us. The various systems you mentioned before avoid the thinking of people’s problems, so that peace and impassibility can be maintained. We aim at the opposite: we pray ceaselessly for all. We are suppliants for the whole world. Besides, salvation is union with Christ while we are in communion with other persons. We cannot be saved just by ourselves. A joy which is only ours, without being joy for other people as well, is not true joy.
Ninthly: We do not give great importance to the psychosomatic techniques and to the various positions of the body. We consider some of them as assisting the concentration of the nous—intellect—on the heart, i.e. on its essence, and then all these are abolished. I repeat, we do not seek for impassibility as a negative state, but for the acquisition of divine grace…
—Thank you very much, Gerondas, for these illuminating thoughts. They have great importance because they come from you, who know them by experience. Allow me a question. Is purification and salvation, that is divinization, attained only through the “Jesus prayer”—Lord Jesus Christ have mercy upon me—? Are other prayers not appropriate? Do they not help?
—Every prayer has enormous power. It is a cry of the soul. Divine help comes according to faith and fervour. There is liturgical prayer, individual prayer etc. The Jesus prayer, however, has a great value, because, as St. Isaak the Syrian says, it is that small key by the help of which we can enter into the mysteries which “no eye has seen, no ear heard, nor the heart of man conceived”. That is, the Jesus prayer can hold the nous—intellect—more and makes it pray without any phantasy; the nous, then, becomes without “any colour”, “without any form”, “without any shape” and receives much grace in a very short period. The Jesus prayer brings a lot of grace, even more than psalmody does, because it is closely connected with humility and the awareness of our sin. Thus the Fathers say.
St. Gregory the Sinaite says, indeed, that psalmody is for the practical[13] ones and the beginners, whereas the Jesus prayer is for those who have tasted the divine grace—for the hesychasts.
—Usually, my father, he went on, confusion comes with psalmody but also selfishness and pride enters the heart for one’s beautiful voice, for the impressions that the others express, whereas there are no external factors for the appearance of pride when the believer says “Lord have mercy on me”, in his cell. For this reason the hesychasts practise more this sort of prayer which our Fathers taught us and do matins and vespers with the prayer-rope, saying, that is, the Jesus prayer.
—The Jesus prayer is quite limited, very short. How can the nous—intellect—be fixed on it?
—The nous concentrates more on short phrases. But the Jesus prayer has an immense depth which cannot be seen externally. The nous has the property to increase love and desire for that which it is concentrated on. St. Maximos says: “the nous seeks to expand on the things it is fixed on; it, then, turns, its love and desire to those things it expands on, either being divine and noetic or of the flesh and of passions”. Besides, the same happens with knowledge. Something that, at first glance, is simple can be a subject of long study and research. How much more the sweetest name of Jesus! You can study it all your life.
—Since the Jesus prayer possesses such power, allow me, Gerondas, to ask you how it is done. How can one enjoy it? I know that I may annoy you being ignorant and … illiterate in these matters, but you will help me a lot if you tell me.
—The Jesus prayer is the greatest science, father. It cannot be described precisely nor can it be defined for fear of it being misunderstood or not being understood by those who have not got at least a small experience. It is also a real exploit. I would even say that it is the highest form through which we acquire Theology[14] or rather the vision of God. Theology is the offspring and emanation of pure prayer, its wholesome and blessed fruit. The climate in which it develops and can be experienced is the quietude of the sweet desert—in all its dynamic content—as well as purification from passions.
[1] Spiritual alertness, constant attentiveness and readiness so that the thought won’t progress from the reason and enter into the heart. It is only the nous that must be within the heart and not the thoughts-logismoi. This spiritual alertness is called nepsis.
[2] And as they departed from Jericho, a great multitude followed him. And, behold, two blind men sitting by the way side, when they heard that Jesus passed by, cried out, saying, Have mercy on us, O Lord, thou Son of David. And the multitude rebuked them, because they should hold their peace: but they cried the more, saying, Have mercy on us, O Lord, thou Son of David. And Jesus stood still, and called them, and said, What will ye that I shall do unto you? They say unto him, Lord, that our eyes may be opened. So Jesus had compassion on them, and touched their eyes: and immediately their eyes received sight, and they followed him. Matthew 20 30-34
[3] And he said unto them, Ye will surely say unto me this proverb, Physician, heal thyself: whatsoever we have heard done in Capernaum, do also here in thy country. And he said, Verily I say unto you, No prophet is accepted in his own country. But I tell you of a truth, many widows were in Israel in the days of Elias, when the heaven was shut up three years and six months, when great famine was throughout all the land; But unto none of them was Elias sent, save unto Sarepta, a city of Sidon, unto a woman that was a widow. And many lepers were in Israel in the time of Eliseus the prophet; and none of them was cleansed, saving Naaman the Syrian. And all they in the synagogue, when they heard these things, were filled with wrath, And rose up, and thrust him out of the city, and led him unto the brow of the hill whereon their city was built, that they might cast him down headlong. Luke 4 23-29
[4] But while he thought on these things, behold, the angel of the Lord appeared unto him in a dream, saying, Joseph, thou son of David, fear not to take unto thee Mary thy wife: for that which is conceived in her is of the Holy Ghost. And she shall bring forth a son, and thou shalt call his name JESUS: for he shall save his people from their sins. Now all this was done, that it might be fulfilled which was spoken of the Lord by the prophet, saying, Behold, a virgin shall be with child, and shall bring forth a son, and they shall call his name Emmanuel, which being interpreted is, God with us. Matthew 1 20-23
[5] Now concerning spiritual gifts, brethren, I would not have you ignorant. Ye know that ye were Gentiles, carried away unto these dumb idols, even as ye were led. Wherefore I give you to understand, that no man speaking by the Spirit of God calleth Jesus accursed: and that no man can say that Jesus is the Lord, but by the Holy Ghost. Now there are diversities of gifts, but the same Spirit. And there are differences of administrations, but the same Lord. 1 Corinthians 12 1-5
[6] Then said Jesus unto them again, Verily, verily, I say unto you, I am the door of the sheep. All that ever came before me are thieves and robbers: but the sheep did not hear them. I am the door: by me if any man enter in, he shall be saved, and shall go in and out, and find pasture. The thief cometh not, but for to steal, and to kill, and to destroy: I am come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly. I am the good shepherd: the good shepherd giveth his life for the sheep. But he that is an hireling, and not the shepherd, whose own the sheep are not, seeth the wolf coming, and leaveth the sheep, and fleeth: and the wolf catcheth them, and scattereth the sheep. The hireling fleeth, because he is an hireling, and careth not for the sheep. I am the good shepherd, and know my sheep, and am known of mine. As the Father knoweth me, even so know I the Father: and I lay down my life for the sheep. And other sheep I have, which are not of this fold: them also I must bring, and they shall hear my voice; and there shall be one fold, and one shepherd. John 10 7-16
[7] Let not your heart be troubled: ye believe in God, believe also in me. In my Father’s house are many mansions: if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again, and receive you unto myself; that where I am, there ye may be also. And whither I go ye know, and the way ye know. John 14 1-4
[8] The prayer which is done with the nous. When the nous is liberated from its enslavement to reason, to the passions and the surrounding world and returns from its distraction within the heart, then noetic prayer starts. Thus noetic prayer is done with the nous within the heart, whereas the prayer of the intellect is done within the reason.
[9] And this I say, lest any man should beguile you with enticing words. For though I be absent in the flesh, yet am I with you in the spirit, joying and beholding your order, and the stedfastness of your faith in Christ. As ye have therefore received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk ye in him: Rooted and built up in him, and stablished in the faith, as ye have been taught, abounding therein with thanksgiving. Beware lest any man spoil you through philosophy and vain deceit, after the tradition of men, after the rudiments of the world, and not after Christ. For in him dwelleth all the fulness of the Godhead bodily. And ye are complete in him, which is the head of all principality and power: In whom also ye are circumcised with the circumcision made without hands, in putting off the body of the sins of the flesh by the circumcision of Christ: Buried with him in baptism, wherein also ye are risen with him through the faith of the operation of God, who hath raised him from the dead. Colossians 2 4-12
[10] Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that believeth on me, the works that I do shall he do also; and greater works than these shall he do; because I go unto my Father. And whatsoever ye shall ask in my name, that will I do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son. If ye shall ask any thing in my name, I will do it. If ye love me, keep my commandments. And I will pray the Father, and he shall give you another Comforter, that he may abide with you for ever; Even the Spirit of truth; whom the world cannot receive, because it seeth him not, neither knoweth him: but ye know him; for he dwelleth with you, and shall be in you. I will not leave you comfortless: I will come to you. John 14 12-18
[11] The soul has three powers aspects, that is: the intelligent power, the appetitive and the irascible power. The last two constitute what is called the passible aspect of the soul. Dispassion, then, is not the mortification of the passible aspect of the soul but its transfiguration. Generally, when all the powers of the soul turn to God and are directed to Him we have the state of dispassion.
[12] And when he was demanded of the Pharisees, when the kingdom of God should come, he answered them and said, The kingdom of God cometh not with observation: Neither shall they say, Lo here! or, lo there! for, behold, the kingdom of God is within you. Luke 17 20-21
[13] Praxis is the struggle to purify one’s heart and that is the first stage of spiritual life. Practical man is one who struggles to purify his heart. In patristic theology the practical man is also called a breeder because he tries to tame his passions, which are like animals.
[14] Theology is the knowledge of God. It is not a result of studying books or exercising the reason; it is on the one hand a fruit of the knowledge of God and of the personal experience of Him; on the other hand it is the way which leads to the healing of man and the knowledge of God. A theologian is one who has passed through the purification of heart to the illumination of the nous and to theosis. Thus, he has acquired the knowledge of God and speaks about Him in an authentic way. A theologian can be even called one who accepts the experience of the saints, not having himself a personal experience of God. “He whose prayer is pure is a theologian”.
By Archimandrite Hierotheos Vlachos
A night in the desert of the Holy Mountain – Discussion with a hermit on the Jesus prayer, translated by Effie Mavromichali, Birth of Theotokos Monastery, Levadia, 1991, pp. 38-46
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