My beloved spiritual children in Christ Our Only True God and Our Only True Savior,CHRIST IS IN OUR MIDST! HE WAS, IS, AND EVER SHALL BE.

THE JESUS PRAYER
By Saint Ignatius Brianchaninov

In the beginning, to speak of the prayer of Jesus, I invoke the aid of the All-Good and Almighty Jesus that He may assist my dullness. At the beginning to speak of the prayer of Jesus, I recall the righteous Symeon's utterance concerning the Lord: "Behold, this Child is set for the fall and rising again of many in Israel; and for a sign which shall be spoken against" (St. Luke 2:34).

Just as the Lord was and is a true sign, a sign that is spoken against, an object of dispute and disagreement between those who know Him and those who do not, so too prayer in His All-Holy Name, which in the fullest sense is a great and wonderful sign, has become a subject of dispute and disagreement between those who practice it and those who do not. A certain father justly remarks that this way of prayer is rejected only by those who do not know it; they reject it through prejudice and through false ideas that they have formed of it.

The prayer of Jesus is said like this: Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me, a sinner." Originally it was said without the addition of the word "sinner." This word was added to the other words of the prayer later. This word, remarks Saint Nil Sorsky, which implies consciousness and confession of the fall, is fitting for us and pleasing to God Who has commanded to offer prayers in acknowledgment and confession of our sinfulness. The Holy Fathers of the Church allow beginners, in deference to their weakness, to divide the prayer into two halves, and sometimes to say, Lord Jesus Chrisst, have mercy on me, a sinner, and sometimes, Son of God, have mercy on me, a sinner. But this is only a concession or indulgence, and not at all an order or rule requiring unfailing compliance. It is much better to constantly say the same, whole prayer, without distracting and bothering the mind with changes or with concern about changes. Even he who finds a change necessary for his weakness should not allow it often. For example, the first of the prayer can be prayed till dinner and the other after dinner. Saint Gregory the Sinaite forbids a frequent change, saying: trees that are often transplanted do not take root.

Praying by the prayer of Jesus is a divine institution. It was instituted not by means of an Apostle or by means of an Angel; it was instituted by the Son of God and God Himself. After the Mystical ("Last") Supper, among other sublime, final commandments and orders, the Lord Jesus Christ instituted prayer by His Name. He gave this way of prayer as a new, extraordinary gift, a gift of infinite value. The Holy Apostles partly knew the power of the name of Jesus; they healed incurable diseases by it, they reduced devils to obedience, conquered, bound and expelled them by it. This most mighty, wonderful Name the Lord orders us to use in prayer. He promised that such prayer will be particularly effectual. "Whatsoever ye shall ask," He said to the Holy Apostles, "the Father in My name, that will I do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son. If ye shall ask "anything in My name, I will do it" (St. John 14:13-14). "Verily, verily, I say unto you, Whatsoever ye shall ask the Father in My Name, He will give it to you. Hitherto have ye asked nothing in my name: ask, and ye shall receive, that your joy may be full" (St. John 16:23-24).

What a wonderful gift! It is a guarantee of unending, infinite blessings! It came from the lips of the unlimited God, clothed in limited humanity and called by the human name of the Savior. The name by its exterior form is limited, but it represents an unlimited object, God, from Whom it borrows infinite, divine value or worth, the power and properties of God.

In the life of Saint Ignatius the God-bearer, Bishop of Antioch, who was crowned in Rome with a martyr's death under the emperor Trajan, we read the following:

"When they were taking him to be devoured by wild beasts, and he had the name of Jesus constantly on his lips, the pagans asked him why he unceasingly remembered that name. The Saint replied that he had the name of Jesus Christ written in his heart and that he confessed with his mouth Him Whom he always carried in his heart. After the Saint had been eaten by the wild beasts, by the will of God among his bones his heart was preserved intact. The infidels found it, and then remembered what Saint Ignatius had said. So they cut that heart into two halves, wishing to know whether what they had been told was true. Inside, on the two halves of the heart that had been cut open, they found an inscription in gold letters; Jesus Christ. Thus Saint Ignatius was in name and in fact a God-bearer, always carrying Christ our God in his heart, written by the reflection (or meditation) of his mind as with a reed."

Saint Ignatius was a disciple of the holy Apostle and Evangelist John the Divine and was privileged in his childhood to see the Lord Jesus Christ personally. He was that blessed child of whom it is said in the Gospel that the Lord placed him among the Apostles who had been arguing about priority, took him in His arms and said: "Verily, I say unto you, Except ye be converted, and become as little children, ye shall not enter into the kingdom of heaven. Whosoever, therefore, shall humble himself as this little child, the same is greatest in the kingdom of heaven" (St. Matthew 19:3-4; cf. St. Mark 9:16).

Certainly, Saint Ignatius was taught the prayer of Jesus by the Holy Evangelist and practiced it in that flourishing period of Christians like all other Christians. At that time all Christians learned the prayer of Jesus, firstly on account of the great importance of the prayer itself, and then on account of the scarcity and costliness of the handwritten holy books, on account of the rarity of literacy (most of the Apostles were illiterate), and on account of the convenience, satisfaction and very special action and power of the prayer of Jesus. (Source: Orthodox Heritage)

(To be continued)

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"Glory Be To GOD For All Things!" - Saint John Chrysostomos

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With sincere agape in His Holy Diakonia (Ministry),The sinner and unworthy servant of God

+ Father George